Do you find you just don’t get stuff done…you feel frustrated as you just aren’t cutting through the work!!!! Well, I’ve got news for you….you aren’t on your own!
Do you find yourself putting off important tasks over and over again?
Most people procrastinate….and it stops people from living the life they want, they deserve and from feeling fulfilled. For people in businesses it’s not a good thing!! Apparently, around 20% don’t reach their potential due to it!
In business, it’s a killer, if you want a super successful business that enables you to live the life you want!! To have the money you want in retirement and spend time with your family and loved ones making memories…..
So how do you overcome it?
Well, like me you have probably heard the gurus say “Eat that Frog”
- Acknowledge you are doing it…
- Work out why you don’t cut through stuff
- Get organised
- Just do it
It’s not always that easy though is it….
It’s true that planning and getting organised helps.
Breaking it down into bite sized chunks is a good idea too, as is focusing on the biggest single thing that will move your business on that day. Then doing it first and getting it out of the way….before you get on with the day to day grind….
Who should do it?
The experts say that in order to overcome procrastination you need to first recognise that you’re doing it, then work out why you’re doing it (usually it’s because we don’t enjoy doing that thing and we try to avoid it, sometimes it just boils down to being disorganised… and sometimes we procrastinate because we just don’t feel we have the skills and we put it off because we’re overwhelmed) and then you need to put strategies in place to break the habit of procrastination.
My take is slightly different though…
There are a number of things as the MD, CEO, Founder…whatever you call yourself …you have to do, but I would always argue that you should focus on what you are ideally good at and on stuff that you and only you can do……and that’s usually being the face of the business and sales and marketing….
To most people, marketing doesn’t come easy and because of that, this can be the ‘thing’ that doesn’t get done! Usually because people wrongly assume they can’t afford to market (A Financial plan will help to prove that this isn’t the case!).
If this is happening in your business it’s a disaster, as without marketing your business will die….. because marketing is the single most important thing you need to do every day.
If you are procrastinating, here is one good reason why you should change that habit NOW! TODAY!
Without you selling your business nobody else will (unless of course you employ a sales team) and in order to grow your business you may have to work at it…work at you…so where do you find the time…
Quite simply put outsource………
No excuses!
You need to free up time, so analyse where you are spending your time….I bet you it’s on low value stuff you shouldn’t be doing in your business, but you do it because you have no one else….
If you work out what you want to “earn” from the business divided by the number of hours you are prepared to work each year (divide those hours by 2 as I bet you aren’t always super productive….)
Then you will have your hourly rate….SPOILER ALERT for most business owners that is more than £50 an hour…..
So the way you free up time…is to outsource everything where you spend time earning less than £50 an hour….
So if this is you and you want to earn more, grow your business or take more holidays then I recommend you turn off the phone, your email and all other distractions, close the door and focus for 90 minutes when you’re at your best and pull together a list of what you do now and what you could and should outsource?
I bet the main ones will be….
· Dealing with emails
· Answering the phone
· Doing your own bookkeeping
Then there’s the rest of the ‘stuff’ you might be putting off!
Here’s a word of advice – if there are things that you are ‘trying’ to do yourself (or that you’re just putting off), that you’re not good at, you don’t enjoy OR if they are taking up time you could be spending getting and keeping customers – get them outsourced ASAP!
Smart business owners have structured things so they spend their time GROWING the business
They focus ONLY on what matters the most – and they get help with the rest!
So if you need help with bookkeeping or planning (A financial plan to show you how to do this), so you get to take out of the business what you need then ping us an email to [email protected] and we’ll be in touch.