Priorities Are Out!

January is filled with possibility and opportunity. Networking organizations are kicking into high gear with their new boards, and so are you. You're ready to take on the planet! Entrepreneur, beware. Your fabulous intentions could soon be derailed if you are not diligent about what you agree to do.

Meet Ms. Entrepreneur. She has 8 projects she could spend time on each and every week, but she only has time for 5. The phone rings and someone else has a request for service. It pains her to say no. To make matters worse…

1. She loves her clients and the work she does.
2. She believes that if she were only more efficient she could do them all.
3. She feels anxiety at the thought of dropping any of them.

However, if she tries to keep all 8 up in the air she ends up dropping a ball here and there, forgetting one or another at times, and feeling like a failure. Nothing ever seems to get her fully undivided attention because she's just remembered something she forgot, or is worried about a deadline. Projects 1 through 5 are client projects, 6-8 her projects. Guess which balls keep dropping.

By definition, entrepreneurs are creative people with a lot of energy and a never-ending stream of ideas. In addition many are in business for themselves with very little support. This means they have to juggle a wide range of tasks each and every week, including some they don't love. To make matters worse, some of the time management guidelines and standards developed twenty-something years ago have caused many people to pack far more in their day than truly possible.

This One Truth Can Set You Free

You really do only have 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week, totaling 168 hours per week. You might say, "Tell me something I don't know," but most of the people I know act as if this number is a variable rather than an absolute.

Let's take a look at how that may break out. A well-rested woman spends 49-56 hours a week sleeping. She spends 40-60 of them working in and on her business. That leaves 69 hours (based on working 50 hours and sleeping 49) for all other her activities like play, exercise, reading, learning, networking, dinner, romance, self-care, time out, hobbies, family and friends. It seems like it could be enough, right? It never seems to be though.

Prioritization Is Out

Twenty something years ago we learned all about prioritizing using A, B and C. Nonetheless, our to-do list went on and on, strangling us day after day. Now, we might know better but priorities still reign in the time-management kingdom. We've got one other trick up our sleeve to help. We've learned that we need to prioritize, then schedule, delegate or dump. Problem is, most of us don't delegate or dump as much as we should. Even if Ms. Entrepreneur prioritizes those 8 projects, as long as she can only handle 5 she still has too many balls up in the air.

Mark Forster, author of Get Everything Done and Still Have Time for Play, says it's not so much a matter of priorities; it's about the choices you make each and every day. Through this filter, you don't simply prioritize the projects and activities in your life. You determine which are most relevant to your values and goals and take on only those you can effectively give 100% of your attention to. That's 100% of your attention across the board. Nothing gets short-changed.

What does this mean to Ms. Entrepreneur? She must choose. She must determine which 3 of the 8 she will let go. Once she's chosen her 5, if she's offered a 6th she must trade it for one of her 5, not add it to her pile.

Not for the Faint of Heart

I know how difficult this is. I know it because of the conversations I have every day with the people I work with who are yearning to carve out just a few hours a week for those 2 or 3 projects they never seem to get to. I know it because I have to make choices too. It doesn't matter how much I want to do it all now, either.

The ability to say "no" in the face of someone else's request, or the next dollar, or one's own desire is excruciating. The following 3 reasons seem to get top billing:

1. You fear that saying no will deplete the well of opportunity rather than fill it with new ones is universal.
2. You've not developed a network of other professionals to refer people to if you can't help them.
3. You're terrified that if you refer them out, you might lose a client!! There you go, right back to fear number one.

As often is the case, fear not faith rules your choices.

Will you Join Me?

Do you have the courage to make the hard choices so that you can breath easier, give better attention to the people and projects you say yes to, and have plenty of time for what matters most? If so, then send me an email to tell me how you have already begun to do so or one thing you'll do to make this so.