Proceeding Priorities

Once you have your life priorities identified, you can now start working out your daily priorities.  When running your own business, time management and prioritizing s essential because of all the demands and choices you have. 

 Probably the most important thing you can do to keep your when starting or running a business is to set your boundaries.  Exactly, how many hours are you willing to work each week or on a given day?  Exactly, what hours do you prefer to work? Because you are in business for yourself is best to have a range within to work.  You could say, “Ideally I will work 8 hours a day Tuesday - Friday, but 11 hours is my absolute maximum on those days.  My hours to work will be 9 AM to Noon, I will take a until 1 PM for lunch, and I will leave work at 6 PM.  On heavy work days, I will work until 9 PM at the latest. ”

 Once you set parameters, do everything in your power to stick to them, putting great effort toward keeping the lower number of hours you have chosen.   “Forcing” the parameters will help you to notice when you are not using your time as efficiently as you could and cause you to work harder during your assigned time, thus freeing up more time for your personal life.

 To prioritize tasks – as you may guess – make a list of everything you have to do. As you write, section your paper and group similar tasks together by categories that make sense to you.  Certain projects will jump out at you as urgent, others as dreaded, important, or “it can wait”. 

 Of course the urgent projects need to be done first, but look for ways to either reduce the number of urgent projects in the future or reduce the urgency of the project.  To reduce how many urgent projects you have, make a practice of getting projects done as soon as possible after they are received.  Often, a project gets more cumbersome over time for various reasons – information is lost, can’t reach necessary parties, an important component is not available, and so forth.  It is particularly important to “grab the bull by the horns” when the project is something that you really do not want to do, because usually dreaded projects are the ones that have the most problems.    Taking care of responsibilities or at least getting the ball rolling quickly can prevent a lot of last minute problems and loss of time, as well as keep YOU happy because you feel more on top of things. 

 To reduce the urgency of the problem, ask some questions, starting with, “Exactly how urgent is it?”  If you can visualize the consequences if the task is not done or done later, it will help you to determine if it is indeed urgent.  Oftentimes urgency is created, but not necessary.  Perhaps a tactful, considerate phone call is all that is really needed to alleviate the sense of urgency.  

 Setting priorities starts with defining time parameters and ripens with a good “to do” list.  Whether you are running a fasted paced business or enjoying nursing jobs from home, keep a running list of things to do at all times.  Before you stop working for the day, compile a list of unfinished projects or things that Scratching out items you completed can give you a sense of accomplishment, and help you to see how much you accomplished each day.