December, already! We’re all counting the days until we can kick back, pour a rum and eggnog and relax into the holidays. (As if! I for one have my head down, working on something I’m so excited to share soon!)
As I develop fantastic 2015 surprises for you, I’m looking back over this past year to take stock of what I’ve successfully done. Or, more accurately, what I have successfully not done. Cutesy semantics? Nuh-uh. My fundamental approach to strategic prioritization.
“Not-To-Do” is my reframe technique that flips the default focus of business time management. Instead of thinking There’s a lot to be done – how can my time cover it? you’re posing the thought My time is valuable – what’s worthy of it, and what isn’t? And over time, more and more should be migrating from your To-Do list to your Not-To-Do list.
This does not mean you get to add accounting or inbox management to the Not-To-Do list now and just carry on. It means you focus on the value of your time, energy and skills first and foremost. Based on a comprehensive understanding of what your business needs to survive and to thrive, you sync your time with the activities most worthy of it – the things you’re best at, you love doing, or for the time being only you can do. And to maintain these priorities, you also identify those things you most need to not do, because they drain your resources, pull you off track, or give you a perma-frown.
Picture something like this:
To-Do:
Develop killer content for new online programs
Contact inspiring entrepreneurs for mini interviews
Connect with developer to rebrand website
Take Fridays off, always and forever
Not-To-Do:
Logistics (My VA can book travel + accomm. for those conferences!)
Research rebranding through other VA’s sites (that comparison feels terrible, fast!)
Coordinate calendars for my team & client teams (That’s what proj management tools are for!)
Bookkeeping for personal business expenses (Bookkeepers pay for themselves!)
Early on in your business, you may not be able to hand off your Not-To-Do list to a competent virtual assistant and get on with the great work. But the uncheck list can go on a vision board above your desk as part of your one to two year plan, something to strategize around. You can start sooner and more easily than you think: as you review this past year, evaluate your activities based on the real return they gave you. Find some with no discernable return? Time to start the Not-To-Do list.
Is your business growing? Are you already using activity tracking and effective project management to i.d. what’s on your Not-To-Do list — and to pinpoint the necessary Do’s that are best done by someone else? Give me a shout! Getting you to your To-Do list and away from everything else is what we do around here!