A common frustration among entrepreneurs is how to get ALL your tasks and projects done. For many this is an extreme juggling act that takes some planning to get good at. The question is, how DO you get good at it? Well, you need to have the proper business systems and processes in place! Seems like common sense and it should be, however, implementing a structure and following your business systems and processes is where the difficulty comes in.
You want to take as many of your daily activities as you can and break them down into steps that fit your business systems and processes, whether that be through a flow chart, bullet lists, etc. Putting these business systems and processes into place trains your brain to store less and start relying on your organized data for the information. Now you’re not wasting time or energy thinking through the same things over and over again and putting your systems and processes to work!
How Do I Manage Tasks Through My Business Systems and Processes?
First things first, you need to create systems and processes on how you are documenting your tasks. Write them down into categories and divide them between your work days. As an example, if you sell a product, your days might include daily categories for customer care, preparing for upcoming sales events, writing or tweaking sales copy, social media and connecting with your fans, and so forth. Once you have all your tasks documented you can separate them into categories. Breakdown exactly what it is you actually DO until it is in step-by-step format. If you can’t break it down that far, create subcategories until you get a task that can be broken down into a checklist that helps you execute on your systems and processes.
Checklists Are Great For Business Systems and Processes
Let’s say you need business systems and processes for managing your Facebook activities. Your step-by-step list might read:
Check messages
Check notifications and respond to comments only
Check group activities for comments that need replies
Prepare your posts for the day
Schedule your posts
Review notifications for comments or activities needing attention before moving onto the next category of tasks.
My tip for you – use what works best for you when it comes to how you prefer to lay out your business systems and processes. Personally, I am fond of checklists but others might prefer a flow chart while others may choose to create index cards for each step, hole punch them, slap them on a ring and flip thru their rings daily. You can use your smart phone, an index card “flip book”, the possibilities are endless. The point is to put business systems and processes in place that work for YOU, then commit to doing it, without exception.
Put Your Business Systems and Processes Into Place
What you will find is that, as time goes on, you won’t refer to that visual cue for your business systems and processes anymore. The day will come when you rock your list in winning fashion, and then realize you didn’t even refer to it! That is what it is all about; Creating natural, effective habits.
Try it. Just sit down at the start of your day, think it through very thoroughly, record all of your steps… and then MOVE ON to thinking about things that will improve your bottom line. Free up that precious brain space for more of what you do best, running your business.
Need help creating an actionable task list for your business? Reach out, it’s what we do!
Recent Comments