As passionate and dedicated entrepreneurs, we spend so much of our time doing the client work, that often the marketing and administration of our own business gets pushed off to the side.
No Doubt About It – It’s Gotta Get Done. But When?
- Are there strategies we can put into play to ensure that we accomplish it on a consistent basis?
- Is there a day of the week (or weekend) where it’s quiet enough in our lives to get it done?
- Is there a time of day when our energy levels are at an optimum?
For some, a quiet Saturday morning; for others, working after family has gone to bed; and others feel that Sunday late afternoon is a natural time to prepare for the week ahead.
Do you set aside one block of time each week to get it “all” done – email, social media, invoicing, filing, call-backs, sending appointment reminders…. Or designate one day of the week for one type of task?
I originally committed to updating invoices every Friday. But I since learned that if I jumped into QBO immediately after a session to update the invoice, it ensured I never missed details.
Some have discovered that if we’re “in the groove and in the mood”, we take advantage of the energy level to crank out several articles to use for the next few weeks or months in our blog, email, and LinkedIn. I’ll typically work on 3 to 4 months’ worth of marketing content at a time, because I don’t want to lose momentum.
Tackling the Big Kahunas
And what about large project that take several hours to complete? Those are the ones we keep pushing off, because who the heck has 5 hours to spare in 1 day?? I call those my snowstorm/summertime projects. When I’m snowed in or in a summer slowdown, that’s when I take a deep breath and face the dragon that is my outdated website or dusty LinkedIn profile or blank presentation.
How Do We Battle Those Evil Distractions While We’re In The Groove?
- Control technology: Put your phone on airplane mode, stop email notifications on the computer.
- Get out: go to a park or library to work in peace and quiet; make call-backs from the deck; bonus points if you find a location without internet.
- Hide: Use a laptop in a different part of the house, one not associated with work and away from noisy family members. I’m looking at you, dog!
- Go back in time: write content in a notebook; plan your week on a giant wall calendar.
What new tactic will YOU try to get your work done consistently?