Running a business is not for the fainthearted. No two days are ever the same and what might work for one person and a particular business, won’t work for another. However, you do have to learn to wear many hats and juggle multiple things at a time. You always have to be in control and know what’s going on with your business and managing your workload. So here are our top tips to help you manage your workload.
Use a task list Whether you’re a traditional person and prefer pen and paper, or a digital fan, your task list is often the lifeline to running your business. They act as a time saver, giving you control to know what needs to happen and when, but also reduce the stress of having a million and one things going around your head at any one time. Electronic task lists can even help out when you’re on the go to ensure your list is always with you! Some of our favourites here at VASS are Wunderlist, Asana, Todoist and Trello. These are also great if you have a team to share your ideas and delegate tasks out!
Set deadlines Deadlines are vital when looking at your workload. They allow us to quickly assess what needs doing when and helps to prioritise what work needs to be completed. Don’t think you need one? Tasks that don’t end up with deadlines are often the ones that we procrastinate over, get pushed back or even forgotten.
Don’t get carried away ticking things off… It’s very easy to look for the ‘quick wins’ to get more items off your task list quickly. However, it means other items get pushed back or forgotten. The bigger and more challenging ones may take longer, but these are normally the important tasks that will help in developing our businesses. You will also get a much greater sense of satisfaction crossing one challenging project off the list versus a handful of easy quick jobs.
Prioritise Once you’ve set your deadlines, you can then start to prioritise what needs to be completed when. But it can be difficult to decide if everything is due at the same time, so next we need to look at what is urgent vs what is important.
Urgent vs Important Do you have any tasks on the list that need immediate attention? The kind of work that if it’s not completed by the end of the day, or within the next few hours, there will be serious repercussions. These are the tasks to focus on first, followed by anything that is not urgent, but important. Anything that isn’t important or isn’t urgent gets pushed towards the bottom of the list until it’s approaching urgent and important.
Assessing the value After we’ve reviewed deadlines, looked for anything urgent, we must look at what carries the highest value or has the biggest impact. For example, here at VASS our client work is always completed before any internal work. We ensure that our client’s work is completed and back with them for when they need it. This ensures we are adding value to our clients, helping them to meet their own deadlines, keeping them happy and ultimately is what keeps our business ticking over.
Not urgent, not important? If, at the end of reviewing your task list you find there are items on there that have no urgency or aren’t important, it’s time to decide whether they should actually still be on your list. Maybe your priorities have changed, or they are no longer need to be completed. Whatever the reason, if they’re on the list and have no importance, delete them!
Focus your time It’s very easy to become distracted and pick up other things while in the middle of working on something else. But focussing your attention to one task at a time is much more productive. Better yet, work out when you’re going to complete tasks in advance and group things together – why not have a creative afternoon writing your blogs and social media content one after the other while you’re ‘in the zone’?
Outsource If you have a heavy workload then it’s worth considering outsourcing some of the things off your task list. Whether it’s one off projects or ongoing support, look at what’s on your list, whether its something that ‘has’ to be done by you or if it’s something you could pass onto someone else to complete on your behalf and freeing up your time!
If you are looking for help in managing your workload, then call us now on 020 3370 4075 to arrange a free no obligation consultation and find out how we can help.