Do you feel like your day is spent in “firefighter” mode – putting out one emergency blaze after another?
You can easily spend eight hours or more at the beck and call of the urgent activities on your list: The phone call that comes right when you’re sitting down to do some much-needed strategic planning, the unexpected invitation to contribute to a blog round-up, the desperate plea for a last-minute speaker on an industry teleconference. While these all might be worthy tasks, they’re not necessarily related to your high-level goals. And as a result, the time you’ve set aside for your important activities can be usurped by the tyranny of the urgent.
Yes, it’s hard to ignore a ringing phone or a full email inbox. But if you want to move your business to the next level, you need to have a system for focusing on the important tasks instead of the urgent ones.
Here are five tips for keeping your attention in the right spot:
- Know what “important” is.
- Create zones with no distractions.
- Set expectations.
- Create systems to support your new habits.
- Remind yourself you can’t do everything.
Urgent vs. Important: be aware of what group your tasks fit in, assign the time to do (or not) the work. This will help you manage your day and your tasks with a lot less stress.
Stop Struggling and Start Thriving! My passion is helping to guide people just like you, private practice and service-based business owners, who are often frustrated with all their wasted time spent on marketing that gets you nowhere. You can learn strategies to attract a steady flow of clients and build a thriving and profitable practice. Get started with some of the free resources on my Pepper It Marketing website, especially this Guide to Streamline your Marketing. I also offer several self-study training programs to help you attract more clients so you can Build a rewarding and profitable private practice and still have time to LIVE your LIFE!