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Four Easy Steps to Better Managing Your Daily Tasks

Written by: Anna Weber

Article Overview: What if you were to have a conversation with owners of small to mid-size businesses - who would each regale you with stories of “wearing too many hats”, “engaging in crazy juggling acts”, or “filling their time putting out fires?” You would pass through moments of being interested in those stories … then feeling a bit overwhelmed as you resonated with having had many of the exact same experiences. Then, you would finally find yourself wanting a way to process all those tasks and finding their common denominator, so to speak, so that you might better manage both the tasks and your time!

Four Easy Steps to Better Managing Your Daily Tasks

Ah, the joy of being a Solo-preneur and getting to engage our time in doing a wide variety of tasks every day!

Today’s key message is that there is always room for improvement!


What if you were to have a conversation with owners of small to mid-size businesses - who would each regale you with stories of “wearing too many hats”, “engaging in crazy juggling acts”, or “filling their time putting out fires?” You would pass through moments of being interested in those stories … then feeling a bit overwhelmed as you resonated with having had many of the exact same experiences. Then, you would finally find yourself wanting a way to process all those tasks and finding their common denominator, so to speak, so that you might better manage both the tasks and your time!

My mind seems to work best in sets of four, in whatever I do, so I would like to offer you a process of separating your daily activities into four categories, and increasing your productivity based on how you then approach how you process each of them.

1. It’s automatic. There are certain things you are so skilled at doing that you can practically do them with your eyes closed. You know, the things that need to be completed but don’t require much concentration. They are also probably the kind of activities that don’t propel your company into the future.

2. It’s methodical. Other tasks require a larger degree of effort or concentration, but they involve a mechanical, methodical process that hasn’t changed in years. When you are involved in these tasks you feel you are robotically following a routine.

3. It’s transactional. A certain number of tasks require high levels of accuracy or relational interface, such as selling, marketing, or customer service. It is critical that you engage in these activities when you can be accurate, pleasant and engaged with those around you.

4. It’s transformational. If you want your company to evolve or you want to run it with peak efficiency, you will sometimes engage in tasks that require you to design and create products and/or processes to modify something from a “what is state” to one of “what it will become.”

It is obvious that you want to complete every task in which you engage in doing your business with the highest of standards, but you can achieve this level easier if you first analyze - how you do – what you do – and determine whether or not you can “transform” the process or increase the efficiency at which you complete it.

Position a piece of paper horizontally and divide it into four columns, labeling them as follows:
Automatic Routine Transactional Transformational

Then complete the following four step process:

1. List every task you do, see being done, or know needs to be completed in order for your business to operate at maximum efficiency. In the process of listing each task, decide the appropriate column in which to place it.

2. Once you have the list completed, take a closer look at each activity and ask yourself what you can do to “transform” that task into something better, easier, more efficient, more customer-pleasing, less expensive, etc.

3. Document your “transformational” ideas on a separate piece of paper so you don’t lose the moment of inspiration and creativity.

4. Finally, review the “transformational” ideas and prioritize them – making an executive decision about which one (task by task) would have the greatest impact on transforming your business by increasing the degree of excellence, efficiency, competitiveness. Once you have chosen one - commit your "nest step" to making it happen!

Although this process appears simple on the surface, and because you probably believe that all of the tasks done in your business require that they be done to high standards, and free of errors, you may have difficulty thinking about how to, or even whether to, make modifications to how they are performed. Keep in mind however, that the more you engage in thinking “transformation” the more quickly you can change your company from "what it is" to "what it can become."

One of the primary reasons many companies stalemate, or even fail, is that the owners don’t embrace the importance of transformation, and thus, this kind of future-forward thinking is where they spend the least time and effort. If you are not maximizing your business through transformation, ask yourself why. Is it because you either don't want to, or don't know how to - get out of the day-to-day tasks and work at propelling your business forward? If you don’t want to, I would encourage you to get inspired by the “possibilities” of what one small change could make in your company. If you don’t know how to, I would encourage you to find a mentor, a coach, a mastermind partner, or a best friend and engage in possibly the most exciting, future-forward thinking you could imagine as an entrepreneurial spirit!

Anna Weber

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Article Tags: common denominator, experiences, midsize business, putting out fires



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