How do you decide what to work on each day?

[mksavage]

Alright, fellow small business owners -- this is something that I've struggled with ever since I opened my own business...

How do you decide what to work on each day?

Don't get me wrong, I have a million things I could and should do. But, when I sit down to work, I don't know where to start. I find myself just scrolling my to do list, constantly torn between the urgent, black-and-white things (payroll, social media planning, updating the website, running reports) and the important, long-term things (building & maintaining systems, my own learning, empowering/equipping team members, strategic planning). 

How do you organize their time and task list, so you know what to work on and when?

I'm already excited to read your replies! 🙂 

[maxpete]

Ohhh this is such a great question @mksavage!! 

Interested to hear from @Lovewell, @Sheli, @MrWellFed, @BrianaJo, and @AnnaBYLY 

[BrianaJo]

Well I'm fortunate to be in an industry where there aren't too many 'urgent' level tasks that pop-up, but when they do I pretty much drop everything and deal with it right then and there. Other than that I oscillate between the other two you listed out. It all depends on how I wake that day, what is going through my mind. I follow the vibes. If I'm in a creative headspace then I work on things that play well with that. If I'm in an analytical headspace that's what I do. It changes throughout the day as each task gets a little more 'done'. It can easily feel like I'm working on everything all the time all at once which can give a lackluster sense of accomplishment, but it works well for me to move with the flow state rather than against it since I get so much more done in a short amount of time. 

[CareyJo]

Michelle,

You know that scene in You've Got Mail where Tom Hanks is so excited to start writing to Meg Ryan that he blows on his fingers and acts as if he's going to pound on the keys?  That's how I felt to start this reply!  😁

1.  Deadlines come first.  If you have ANYTHING that has a deadline on it - payroll, taxes, bills, etc.  Anything that demands attention before a certain time or it becomes a problem, gets addressed first.  Always.

2.  You're like me - you have lists.  My husband doesn't understand this concept and says I make lists of lists of lists... here are several things that are important about lists.

       1.  The list cannot be ten miles long or you will be overwhelmed, which you currently are.

       2.  Make multiple lists if needed, by category.  For example: One for bookkeeping tasks, one for educational tasks, one for manual labor that must get done, etc.

       3.  Once you've created the list(s) prioritize them.  Create a level system for yourself.  Does 1-10 work for you or is 1-5 better?  Give each of the items on the list a rating.  One should always be most important, like payroll for example.  Begin at one and work your way to the end of the list.

       4.  NEVER expect yourself to complete the list in a single day.  You have too much going on!  If you only have one hour a day to devote to completing these tasks and you do three of them, that's a big win.  If you've got eight hours and only complete two of them, that's not so much a big win unless they were huge projects.  Regardless of how much you accomplish in a day, you cannot eat an elephant all in one bite and you need to give yourself credit for what you've gotten done.

       5.  To be really successful with lists, you need two things - time blocks to work in and to know how long a task will/should take you.  Once you've created your list(s), create a schedule for yourself of when you can work to get things done.  I actually learned this decades ago when I was a young mom and self-employed.  I understood it better once I read the E-Myth and made sense of what I had learned, how to enhance it and make it better.  This is part of the system that you need in place as the Entrepreneur.  You need to be doing the work that only you can do because of the importance of the work and delegating what you don't HAVE TO have your hands on.  I know you have a business partner, so look at these lists together and decide, is there something on here that we can share?  Is there something on here that she's better at that I can hand over or vice-versa?  Your starting point needs to be the schedule.  You have to know how much time you have, each day, to dedicate to anything that needs to get done.  If you've got the store covered for two hours and that time is uninterrupted for you, can you knock one or two top priority things off the list?  Or, are they too time consuming and you need to do something smaller?  Look at your list and decide, based on priority and time available, what you can work on.  Once it's done, go to the next thing.  Within your schedule, you may want to say Monday is for ordering inventory for the week, Tuesday is for education, Wednesday is for cleaning one section of the store, Thursday is for bookkeeping and Friday is for payroll.... etc.  Whatever works for you and your business' needs.  When you begin to create a plan of how to work and you work the plan, you will not only get things done but you will create habits that help you be successful week after week.  It takes 21 days of doing the same thing every day to create a new habit.  If you want to be intentional about creating new habits within your business, the place to start is with the systems you need to create, around the lists of tasks that will always need to be done, things that are not a one and done and will go away.  Payroll, bookkeeping, cleaning, inventory, etc. will never go away.  Depending on what works for your way of 'working', you could use a whiteboard, a day planner or a calendar on the computer.  There are infinite ways to get yourself organized.  Start with some sort of calendar and color code tasks if you like.  I have certain tasks that I do on certain days each week and it took several months of getting used to checking them off the list for my brain to go "hey... it's Monday, you need to pay bills."  When your workflow is organized and prioritized and you have a list to follow, getting the work done is literally one bite at a time at that point.

        6.  Give yourself grace!  Every day may not go super well.  You will have to put out fires.  You will have unexpected things that come up that need your immediate attention.  Do not focus on what you didn't get done because of those fires.  There's always tomorrow - except when it comes to payroll taxes.  Celebrate your wins each day, pat yourself on the back for the things you got done and review what you're doing tomorrow before you go home for the day.  And if tomorrow is designated for a specific task and that's all you have time for, don't do first what you missed today.  Do that task first and THEN do what you missed today.

        7.  Lastly, when you're working on your time blocking, really look at your work schedule and any adjustments that may be necessary for you to function better as a business owner and fulfill each of your roles within your business.  If you work better at 5:00 am when the store is empty and you're only going in an hour earlier to do that, it might be a huge win.  Figure out what time of day is the best time for you to be undisturbed to get things done and share this information with your staff so they understand.

Hope this helps!!  My keys are good and clean now 😏

[mksavage]

Wow @CareyJo! There are SO many helpful ideas in here! From color coding, to honestly evaluating how much time a task takes vs. the time I have, to the practice of creating new habits around how I work -- this gave me a ton to think about, and some really great concrete ideas. Thank you!

[Lovewell]

YUP. So this is such a good question & also something we seem to be sort of struggling with again now that we’ve added a second location 😅 Which overall has been good and challenging but still… it manages to make the list longer. 

Honesty Bubble: the amount of time we’ve put “content” on our To Do and it hasn’t happened is actually comical. So most of our social media is pretty organic unless we have a menu drop coming up then we are pretty set by our deadline! 

Roughly every quarter (and at the beginning of the year) we set out bigger goals that usually revolve around new systems or tweaking the systems we have. 

Weekly we have those MUST DO’s and we literally schedule our office hours times for those specific things. 

we are still very much in our shops on a daily/weekly basis being the workforce so this can be difficult to swing. Tired for working then having to do all the things. 

agendas- planners- lists. All the things. Doing the musts and then have some grace in the areas that are more flexible. 

Andrea (the older more organized half of Lovewell 😅😂) has actually been making her own planners because she has felt like everything that you can buy just doesn’t apply to our situation or being a small business owner! 

will share some photos and tools she uses. 

OVERALL, short answer: we’re in the same boat. Can’t wait to read all the answers! 

[mksavage]

Ooooh, @Lovewell! A planner designed specifically for running a bustling local cafe...? Tell me more! Where can I buy?!

[Lovewell]

Haha! I'll keep telling Andrea to work on it. Each week she is tweaking it to better work for us so stay tuned! I think it really could be something. 

[mksavage]

I'm serious, keep me updated, haha! I need this planner! @Lovewell 

[DinaLRosenberg]

GREAT question.

We have a running list of all the responsibilities and what we want to get done that needs immediacy. What gets priority are IPAs (income producing activities). For us handling inventory always takes the lead; if we are spending money on it, it has to be out on the floor and restocked.

I have a few days a week where I roll out marketing like emails - so I know on Thursdays and Sundays I'll be putting out marketing.

Social Media I don't have scheduled we just roll with it daily.

Payroll is weekly every Wednesday morning.

Bills usually end of the month for the following month but most of them are on auto pay through the bank.

thankfully I have an amazing business partner that's really good about having long-term strategy sessions are building out systems once we chat about them (I'm more the fire starter of the duo).

[DinaLRosenberg]

Also... I do want to add I think it's incredibly important to hire when you can afford it and get some duties off you as the owner. When we were able to retain an accountant that does all bank recs, P&L's, etc. We also hired someone that makes marketing graphics for us which is also a help.

[mksavage]

I love the idea of building a team @DinaLRosenberg. I am definitely the more administrative/business minded of my partnership, and am thankful for the complimenting skill set that my partner has (super creative, definitely the "fire starter"). But even beyond that, building a team of other professionals that can support what you do -- bookkeeper, graphic designer, etc. We've been SOOO scrappy since startup and done everything ourselves. But, while that was helpful in the beginning, it may actually be holding us back now. 

[rtfulk]

Usually the first thing I do everyday is tag clothes, seems like tagging clothes is a never ending battle. Then work on social media and answer emails, The afternoon/evening I usually put up items on the website. It's a vicious cycle.

[TheRealChipA]

So, my answer to this now is SOOO different than what my answer would have been, even as recently as a year ago.  These days, as I near retirement, I’m working in the ice cream shop much less than I used to.  If everything goes according to plan, I only put in three rather easy opening shifts a week, leaving me lots of time to tackle other things that I used to stay up late after “work” to get done.  Yup, I’m fortunate.  Still, there’s plenty to do since I still own a bustling business.  My tasks are broken up into three categories — 1) required regular (daily) tasks, 2) priority tasks that need to be completed ASAP, and 3) stuff I want to do eventually.

I’m a list maker.  In this miracle age of smartphones/tablets I have all the tools I need to maintain my to-do lists, which I can prioritize as needed.

Each morning, I spend an hour or so on the required tasks in list one.  These are things like reviewing my revenue accounting entries for the previous day, reviewing my 7-day cash flow projections to be sure I can “pay the bills,” reviewing the current week payroll progress, and reviewing the items that my automated ordering system tells me might be needed and placing the required orders.  Thankfully, I have automated tools that do the bulk of the work for these things, so all I have to do is review, adjust and complete what they indicate needs to be done.  These tools took what used to be a 2-3 hour process and reduced that to less than an hour — worth every penny I spend in software subscriptions, trust me.  Also in this list are weekly or non-daily tasks — payroll, for example.  A Facebook post/ad.  Bank/change runs.  Tax returns once a year.  Etc.  My daily task list pops these up when I specify, and I get them done and off that list.

For my second-tier items, I try to do something to bring those closer to fruition.  Maybe that is an email, or an order, or mapping production line changes.  Right now, for example, my big projects are a) working on a new awning and weather-proof enclosure for our first winter of ice cream sales, and b) streamlining our ice cream production lines to maximize space and productivity.  These have taken a lot of my available time for the past few weeks but they are almost done.  After they are completed, there are others on my list and I’ll review those and pick one or two to get my undivided attention.

Lastly, the stuff I want to do, eventually.  These are usually ideas for improvements and such.  Things on that list right now?  Setting up a PTO policy, management handbook and a 401K for my managers.  I’m just putting managers in place and these will be important to have done before I promote them next year.  Right now, work on these is something I do when I’m finding myself with a little free time.  I do what I can to get a little closer to my goals and then put them away until I have more time later.  That way, I’m not behind the eight ball when the time comes I actually need them.

I use the heck out of my phone/tablet’s list functionality, as well as its calendar and notepad.  They are my brain in a very real sense.  Once I put something there, I don’t worry about forgetting it.  That’s how I get it all done, even at my age! Ha.

[mksavage]

I love these categories @TheRealChipA, and always appreciate your concrete examples. I also really appreciate how you just try to move the big projects forward a little bit -- breaking them down and making progress slowly over time. I think that's an area where I could improve my process, instead of "write PTO policy," break that down in to the 12+ steps that it will actually take to get me there. Hmmm... lots to think about there. Thanks so much for your insight!

[TheRealChipA]

@mksavage It’s what works for me.  Ha.  Charles, my husband, is always amused when I am working on a project that isn’t due for months.  “But you don’t need that until March, do you?”  My reply — which he already should be able to provide himself after 30 years — is “True.  But if I do a little bit when I can, then come March I’m not burning the midnight oil and stressing.”  That’s something I wish I had learned when I was in college.  I might have been a better student! LOL

[CM-Art]

I'm basically rebuilding the online store part of my business as starting to dig in more to building my freelance art/illustration business. Basically it's still a baby. To help me with the long-term planning part of things I'm currently using Trello. I'm liking it so far. I've set it up with different categories of things to do and it helps me capture my ideas for long term planning. So far. I'm still learning. And I too have that mile long to-do list, but I can compartmentalize it with Trello and select only a few to-dos to focus on one time. I can look at the "whole elephant".

Thank you everyone for sharing how you prioritize! Those criteria make a lot of sense.

[mksavage]

@CM-Art You know, I haven't really considered using a formalized Project Management system. But I like what you said about it helping you see the "whole elephant." I heard a podcast recently about how if you spent a few hours setting up a good system (like a PM system) and it saves you time every single day, it's worth that initial investment of time. Just hard to get there. But that's definitely an interesting idea, and a great way to visualize all of the many "projects" that are constantly involved in running a business. Thanks for that suggestion!

[Fairy1 · Accepted solution]

It sounds like you're dealing with the classic dilemma of balancing urgent tasks with important but less immediate ones. Here are a few strategies that might help you decide what to work on each day:

1. **Prioritize Using the Eisenhower Matrix**:
- **Quadrant 1**: Urgent and Important (Do these first)
- **Quadrant 2**: Not Urgent but Important (Schedule these)
- **Quadrant 3**: Urgent but Not Important (Delegate if possible)
- **Quadrant 4**: Not Urgent and Not Important (Eliminate or reduce time spent here)

This method helps you focus on tasks that align with long-term goals while still managing daily urgencies.

2. **Set Daily and Weekly Goals**:
- Break down your larger goals into smaller, manageable tasks.
- Each day, focus on 2-3 key tasks that align with your weekly goals. This keeps you moving forward without feeling overwhelmed.

3. **Time Blocking**:
- Allocate specific times for different types of tasks. For example, set aside mornings for strategic planning and afternoons for administrative work.
- This method ensures that you’re dedicating time to both urgent and important tasks without neglecting either.

4. **Eat That Frog**:
- Start your day with the most challenging or important task. Once that’s done, everything else feels easier, and you’ve already made progress on something meaningful.

5. **Reflect and Adjust**:
- Spend a few minutes at the end of each day reflecting on what you accomplished and what still needs attention. This helps you plan the next day more effectively.

6. **Automate and Delegate**:
- Look for opportunities to automate repetitive tasks or delegate responsibilities. This frees up your time for high-impact activities.

By combining these strategies, you can create a daily plan that balances urgent tasks with long-term growth, ensuring you’re not just reacting to what’s urgent but also proactively building your business. Check out more on my site Car Parking Multiplayer

[mksavage]

I feel like I should print this list and hang it at my desk @Fairy1! Every tip was like, "ooh, that's a good idea! ooh, that one too!" Haha. I really love the idea of the Eisenhower matrix -- I've never heard of that! Super helpful for clarifying, and knowing how to move each kind of task forward. I also like the idea of eating the frog (love the idea, hate the phrase, haha). And of reflecting at the end of the day. Actually, I love them all. Definitely going to be working these into my life/work!