When you’re a business owner, your to-do list is long and constantly growing, and it can feel like everything is urgent. Here are some ways to determine the most productive order to complete your tasks.
1. Know all of your tasks
Write your tasks out so you can see them at a glance, breaking large tasks into smaller steps. List the week’s activities on Monday morning with how urgent they are, how long they’ll take and their deadlines.
2. Determine what tasks are vital
Use the Eisenhower Decision Matrix – classifying each task by whether it’s important, urgent, both or neither, and doing the important-and-urgent ones first. Or use the ABCDE method, assigning each task a letter from A (most important) to E (least), rescheduling or delegating anything from C down.
3. Schedule your tasks
Write a daily list with the most important tasks at the start of the day, but don’t over-schedule – leave room for the new important-and-urgent task that inevitably arises. Give yourself realistic deadlines, chunk focused work with breaks, and turn off distractions.
By determining which tasks matter most and scheduling around them, you ease the pressure of a long list. Want to chat about your business? Get in touch with our advisers.