Time Management: The To Do List

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To understand the importance of To Do Lists we need to look at ways that poor

An Absolute MUST
An Absolute MUST

time management affects our day to day lives.  When we’re lamenting that we don’t have enough time, what do we really mean?  Let’s take a look at the complaints we have and then see how a properly organized list will help alleviate these problems.

“There is no way I will ever be able to get all this work done!”  This is a huge problem for entrepreneurs as well as for people with a lot of career responsibilities.  When our goals feel unachievable we tend to check out.  How many times have you sat at your desk, a huge deadline looming, staring at the wall with your mind completely blank, or distracted yourself with Facebook, doodles, desk-naps, trips to the lunchroom, or the all-important task of fixing that stapler that’s been broken for three months?  These are things you will succeed at, and are much more appealing than tackling a job in which you feel destined to fail.  When the mountain seems too high, take a step back and get some perspective.  Make a list.  Break your huge workload down into smaller parts and then get the satisfaction of crossing those parts off the list as you make your way toward your goal.

“I forgot something important & now I’m in trouble.”  In my business, forgetting an important deadline can lead to fines for my clients.  This is the best way to either (a) lose clients or (b) lose money paying my clients’ fines in an effort to avoid (a)!   Don’t let the fear of missing deadlines keep you up at night.  Keep a To Do List so that all your tasks are listed in one place.  Use your desktop calendar, or Excel, or scheduling software.  Then, as the deadlines come and go, you can “complete” them or cross them off the calendar and move on.

“I don’t know where to start.”  No two tasks are created equal.  There are some things that you absolutely have to do right away, and other things that really aren’t that important.  You need to structure your time intelligently and prioritize.  It’s disheartening to spend the day toiling away at “semi-important” jobs and then realize an hour before quitting time that you forgot about the one thing that absolutely has to get done before you can go home.  You can avoid this very common problem by making a To Do List using the “ABC METHOD.”  Take the first five minutes of every day to make a To Do List and class it as follows:

  • Items classed as “A” are urgent and need to be completed the same day.
  • Items classed as “B” are important, but not urgent, and need to be completed by the end of the week.
  • Items classed as “C” are neither urgent nor important, and needed to be completed within the month.

Using this method, you will be able to systematically organize each day.  This will give you the confidence of knowing that you have completed the most important items on his list and that no important deadlines are being missed.

 

Part Three:  Time Management:  Learning to Delegate and “Just Say No”

Time Management: An Entrepreneur’s Perspective

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Overwhelmed?  Scattered?  Frustrated?  Feeling unable to keep up?   Feeling pulled in all directions?  These are all signs that you may not be using your time

Friend or Enemy?
Friend or Enemy?

efficiently.

Life is hard.  Sometimes it seems the more you try, the harder it gets.

There are so many demands placed on us by our jobs, our co-workers, our spouses and our children, that sometimes we can feel like a circus juggler constantly at risk of dropping a ball.  In trying to be everything to everyone, we are setting ourselves up for failure.  Add to that the well known fact that stress can take years off your life, and the problem becomes very clear.  There is never enough time, and we need to do something about it.

As a controller for a manufacturing business, I faced this problem daily.  You could describe me as a “pleaser.”  I admit that I can occasionally be unaware of my own limitations and reluctant to say no.  The harder I worked, and the more I excelled at my career, the more responsibility I was given.  I started as the office manager, and within in five years I was the controller, inventory manager, and in charge of customer service.  I just kept taking on more and more, and although I was able to keep up, it took its toll.  Stress, frustration and self-doubt followed, as I struggled to keep up with the demands and eventually had to admit that I had taken on too much.  I was trying to be “everything to everybody” and was wearing myself down.

As I look back on that experience, I am determined not to make the same mistakes.  In my current capacity as a business owner, I am faced with the same challenges, but with even more responsibility.  I have employees with families and children who are dependent on my business for a paycheque.  The buck really does stop with me.  When I first started my business, I thought, “Great, now I will finally be my own boss.”  Ha!  It wasn’t until a year later that I realized that this was an illusion.  I have fifty clients, so I have fifty bosses, and I’m responsible for keeping every one of them happy.  As my business continues to grow, it demands more and more of my time.  Staffs need to be hired, trained, supervised, encouraged, paid. Clients need to be identified, communicated with, provided with excellent customer service.  Marketing needs to be reviewed and addressed.  Administrative tasks seem never-ending, from e-mails to paying bills to trying to stay on top of changes in my industry.  There is so much pressure, and so few hours in the day.  The snowball effect often finds me begging for a Star Trek transporter to zap me to a deserted island.  “Beam me up, Scotty…?”

At this point I should clarify something:    I love owning my own business.  I truly love what I do can’t imagine doing anything else.  I don’t want to come off as whiny or complaining.  What I really need, what I have been working on every day, is a better system to manage my time.  I’ve given up on my true fantasy – finding a mad scientist willing to clone me so I could have an extra “me” to do all the unpleasant stuff, so it’s up to me to find that perfect combination of to-do lists, delegation and yoga, and I’m going to find it.

Wikipedia defines time management as:  “The act or process of planning and exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency or productivity.”  What a mouthful!  Here’s my definition:  “Finding a way to complete all the necessary tasks while maintaining health and sanity.”  That’s what we all want, right?   In my quest for knowledge, I have entered the internet rabbit hole, searching for blogs, medical reports, and any other information that would help me.  I have now emerged, disheveled, over-caffeinated, and ready to tackle this beast called time.

Part 2:  Time Management:  The To Do List

Hello Business Owners!

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Welcome to my first blog.

Water loving labbe
Gratuitous doggie picture

A friend shamed me into starting this blog.  He pointed out to me that I expended a lot of time, energy and money pursuing a University degree and that I don’t use this knowledge for anything practical.

I majored in Creative Writing.   Real life had not yet jaded me.  I enjoyed writing.  My teenaged self was convinced that the only way to lead a happy life was to pursue your passion.  I hadn’t yet learned the value of practicality.  I was going to write the great Canadian novel by the time I was 25 and make tons of money.  Everyone would love it and I would buy a cabin in the woods and write fiction on my porch while squirrels squirreled around at my feet.  Romantic?  Yes.  Likely?  Not really.  After thousands (emphasis on the “S”) of dollars in student loans and three years I will never get back, I came to my senses.

Why accounting?  Why did a teenager who hated trigonometry so much she dropped the class decide on a career with so much MATH?   Accounting, to me, is like a big puzzle with money.  I like puzzles.  I started working in accounting because I was at the right place at the right time, and I pursued it as a career because I really loved it.  It satisfies my need to always keep things in order.  The left side of my brain is content.

This blog will consist of a lot of general small business tips.   I will try to provide you with useful knowledge of a wide range of business topics without boring the socks off of you.  Occasionally there will be pictures, and possible a guest writer here and there.  Thank you for reading.