Simply Business Coaching

Do You Find Daily To-Do Lists Good or Bad?

Most people I know keep lists of one sort or another.  I find if I go food shopping without a list I spend far more than usual and still manage to come home without the most important meal ingredients.  This usually means I have to go back to the shop!  So, in my opinion, a shopping list is a good list to make.

Another list I keep are reminders - birthday cards to buy & send; insurance renewal dates; doctor & dentist appointments to make - all the routine but vital stuff that can easily be forgotten when you’re busy.  I keep a list in the kitchen where I look at it every morning, cross out what I’ve done and add any new items on the bottom.  My reminder list is a good list to make.

The lists I really struggle with are Daily To-Do Lists.  You see, I always write down more, many more to-dos than I can possibly get through in one normal length day.  Optimism gets the better of me when I write the list.  And then, at the end of the day, I beat myself up over how little I’ve achieved.

What I find is, because all the ‘to-dos’ are hanging over me throughout the day, I don’t allow myself the luxury to just sit and daydream - there isn't enough time left free for doing that.  Which is crazy, because when I switch off from the busyness, I get some of my best ideas.

What I’m experimenting with as an alternative to the shackles of a daily to-do list is a weekly to-do list.  While some tasks are date sensitive, others just need to be completed before the end of the week.  The weekly to-do list is just as long as the previous 5 days worth of lists, but somehow it doesn’t seem as rigid.  There might even be time for a bit of daydreaming ;)

Do you find daily To-Do Lists good or bad for creativity?  Please let me know by commenting below - and if you enjoyed this post, I'd appreciate if you'd share it :)

Have You Planned Any Spontaneity Lately?

I know that question sounds a bit silly, but I’m being very serious in asking it.  With many business owners working harder than ever just to keep afloat, being spontaneous is possibly the last thing on your mind.  And yet it could provide valuable answers to growing your business.

Are you Too busy?
There never seem to be enough hours in the day when you own a business, especially if you do everything yourself.  And there are certainly a lot of different jobs to do, in addition to actually servicing clients.  But have you ever noticed that, when faced with an immovable deadline like a holiday, it’s possible to get through an amazing amount of work.  Yet at the other end of the scale, if you have all day to, say, write a newsletter article, it will take all day.  It’s almost as if your brain send a message:  No panic, take your time - so you do.

Have you made too many plans?
It’s obviously important to have a plan (I’ve blogged about it often enough!) but when every hour of each working day accounted for, often weeks in advance, it can be downright depressing to look at your diary and see all those to-do lists.  And it only takes a few appointment changes to send the whole house of cards tumbling - launching your stress levels into orbit and taking time you can ill afford, to get everything rearranged.

Why you need some spontaneity planning
Have you noticed how your best ideas usually come to you when you’re not working (like in the shower, while walking the dog, or even in the supermarket queue)?  Of course you can make a note of them but, be honest, when will you have the time to explore them?  When your day is choc-a-bloc, you probably resist the temptation to pick up the phone and ring the person whose name just popped into your head.  So you don’t have that conversation which might have resulted in a new joint venture and extra income stream. 

And what about all the other spontaneous opportunities you don’t have time to explore?  I guess you’ll never know what they could have led to.

Do you ‘plan’ for a bit of spontaneity?  Please let me know any instances of what’s worked (or what hasn’t) for you.  And if you enjoyed this post, feel free to share :)

What would you write about?

I was looking through some of the business books in my over-crowded bookcase, wondering whether to post a few reviews here.  Then I got to thinking - if I were writing a book about how I got to where I am now in my own business, what would I write?

Would I write about my early background - family, childhood, education, relationships?

Would I write about when I inhabited that grey corporate cubicle?

What about the story of starting up my first business?  The fast and furious learning curve could make for an interesting read!

Or would I be better to write about where I am now with my business, and the lessons from this trying economy?

Hmm .......

You know, I really don't think any of it is interesting enough to write a book about!  I'll just keep writing for this blog ..... for now :)

But .... if YOU were writing a business book, what would you write about?

New Ideas need New Thinking

As Einstein famously said, you can't solve a problem with the same thinking that caused it in the first place!

So why do we think we can come up with new ideas for our business when we keep doing the same things or mixing with the same people.

Even those of us with notebooks full of ideas need to revisit them to see if they really are 'new'.

Now that it's so much easier to find out what the latest trends are, what the thought-leaders are thinking it can be easy to be swept along the same path as everyone else.  To become a 'me-too'.

Original thoughts and ideas are much harder to come by, and all the more precious for that very reason.  And if it's true that there is nothing really new in this world, then coming up with a new twist to apply to an existing idea is maybe a better place to start.

Let's take a common problem facing small businesses - that of charging what their product or service is worth - and not discounting!

Rather than only listening to what fellow business owners within your networking circle might say, how about getting a different opinion from, perhaps a

Dentist
Musician
Farmer
Barrister

These people may not know anything about your business, but they will be able to tell you about charging for your product or service - from their viewpoint.

How do you come up with new ideas for your business? 

Do you have the attention span of a butterfly?

Just as butterflies in nature flit from flower to flower, landing briefly and then moving on, butterfly business owners can’t seem to stay focused on any one topic long enough to make significant changes.

Yes, it’s the sign of a true entrepreneur to have lots of new ideas and want to pursue them. But, if those new ideas are stopping you from actually making progress – and more importantly - money in your business, because you aren’t seeing projects through to completion (or moving quickly enough), then something needs to change.

Let’s take a look at some ways you can be more focused:

Use a timer and work in short bursts of 15 or 20 minutes. During that time focus on just one task and get as much done as you can. When the buzzer goes, take a short break. Repeat as often as necessary. You’ll amaze yourself at how much you get done.

Keep a little notebook handy at all times. Use it to jot down ideas as they occur to you and capture them before they escape! One reason for a butterfly attention span is carrying too many ideas around in your head. Writing them down will free you up to concentrate on the job in hand.

If your project hasn’t got a deadline, set one anyway. Without deadlines, you’ll find yourself starting lots of projects and then letting them drift as something more urgent comes along.

Break big projects down into small action steps. It can be hard to stay focused when the overall project is too big. Work out a timeline for each step that needs to be done.

Only work on 3 projects at a time. Spreading your attention too thinly between a myriad of projects will mean that none get finished quickly. Focus on just 3 at any one time and you’ll build up an unstoppable head of steam! And, as soon as one project is complete, you can take another from your list to replace it.

The beauty of staying focused is that you will get more done in your business and make progress faster. So work with full concentration on the projects that count - and leave the butterflies to nature.

Happy 2010 (and a welcome return)!

And so we welcome a new year and indeed a new decade ... have you noticed that somehow everyone seems filled with the hope that 2010 is going to be better than 2009 - I suppose in many ways it has to be!

Towards the end of last year you may remember me blogging that my Mojo had gone missing, and wondering out loud the possible reasons why.  In the 10+ years of being in business, this was the first time I'd experienced such a dip in motivation.  There seemed to be no clear direction, plan or even purpose to all my efforts.  I felt exhausted and reluctant to write (which was most worrying as it's one activity I love to do!).  Has this ever happened to you?

When trying to 'work through it' only made me feel worse, I stopped pushing and decided to do only what felt right instead.  It was rather scary easing back on my blogging and social networking schedule - which included tweeting less!  But I was prepared to do whatever it took to get my mojo back :)

I've always taken pride that my business is built around two of my core values - of authenticity and integrity and so I trusted them to help me decide what to do next.  It turned out I hadn't taken much notice of my inner voice for a while - no wonder I was in such a pickle!

Fortunately it only took a few days before the first glimmers of interest began to resurface; a few more days of enforced rest (over Christmas) while ideas were mpatiently marinating; followed by some excited plotting & planning - which brings us nearly up to date.

I'm delighted to welcome back my mojo, to feel enthusiastic about this year - and to wish you a very happy and successful 2010!

Look at it another way .....

As Albert Einstein said - ‘You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created.’

One of the challenges of being the only person in your business is that it can be difficult to find a different ‘level’ or way of looking at a problem in order to solve it!  Then again, even larger companies with the attitude ‘that’s how things have always been done around here’ will struggle to break away.

I’ve been reading a lot about differentiation lately and the need to stand out, or at least slightly apart, from our competitors.

But it’s no wonder we find it so hard to do.  As small children, we are expected to behave in a certain way and to conform to the rules in order to fit in.  By the time we reach our teens, we go to extreme lengths to be just like our peers in how we dress, what music we listen to, what causes we support.  Adulthood sees us conforming again, building the corporate career path & the marriage, mortgage and children personal path. 

But rebellion can strike at any time & thank goodness it does!

College drop outs and non-conformists often go on to become successful entrepreneurs.  Think of Sir Richard Branson or Steve Jobs.  Not only did they found their global corporations on innovative thinking, they know that they need to keep being different to stay ahead of the game.

What problems are you facing in your business?  How do you think Richard Branson or Steve Jobs would tackle them?

(I recently interviewed Paul Sloane, author of several books on creative and lateral thinking.  You can listen to the recording here)

Get Ready for Success

 A lot of the business owners I work with are destined to always be the owners of small businesses.  They’re so focused on just getting by that they don’t allow themselves to imagine what it would be like to be the owner of a successful business.

I want you to try an experiment with me.  Tomorrow (or the next full day you have in the office), act as if you already have a successful business that brings you what you want from it.  You may want more clients, higher turnover, more forward orders. (What would Donald Trump do?)  Or perhaps your successful business is about being able to work less hours and have more time to spend with family or on hobbies. (What would Richard Branson do?)

If you were already successful, think about what you would be doing during your business day.  What would be on your To-Do List?  Who would be working with you?  Who would be advising you? 

If you find it difficult to act as if you are already successful, ask yourself what your business hero would do if they were in your shoes right now, then do that thing!

If you always think and act like the owner of a small business, that’s what you’ll always be.

I dare you to think and act bigger – and get ready for success!

How can you redecorate your business?

Coming up with new ideas isn’t a problem for most entrepreneurs, in fact the problem is usually the opposite: having too many ideas to follow up can drive us mad!  And deciding which to tackle first can lead to much internal debate and the dreaded procrastination.

However sometimes it isn’t a case of thinking up new products or services, but looking at what you already have and working out how you could make them better than they are.

When you move into a new home, you want to stamp your own personality on it by redecorating to your taste as soon as time and funds allow.  And unless you’re one of these people who then sells up and moves on to pastures new, the chances are that you’ll want to change the decor again after a year or so.  But you don’t usually throw everything out and start all over again do you?

It’s more likely you’ll change just a few things here and there, perhaps the wall colour or the curtains, and freshen up the whole look with some new accessories, rugs and cushions. 

Just as doing a full refurbishment in your home can be very expensive and wasteful, so can constantly discarding products and services in your business. 

So, today’s suggestion is for you to take a look at what you already have and think about how you could freshen up your offering quickly and inexpensively.  A bit of redecorating can work wonders!

This is one of the first questions I put to new business coaching clients, just before I ask them to write down everything they do in a typical working day.  Often the two don’t match up – to the surprise of the client.

If you are the only person in your business it’s natural to try to do everything yourself, especially in the early days when cash may be tight.  Before long you have a to-do list full of tasks that a true entrepreneur wouldn’t dream of doing.  Because while you’re busy updating your database, running to the stationery supplier or engaged in other time-consuming admin work, what you’re actually doing is being an employee of your business.  You’re creating a job for yourself.

What would an Entrepreneur do?  They would make sure the only tasks on their to-do lists fell into one of the following categories: working with clients; looking for new clients; or growing the business.

What’s on your to-do list today?

Which are You - Entrepreneur or Employee?

This is one of the first questions I put to new business coaching clients, just before I ask them to write down everything they do in a typical working day.  Often the two don’t match up – to the surprise of the client.

If you are the only person in your business it’s natural to try to do everything yourself, especially in the early days when cash may be tight.  Before long you have a to-do list full of tasks that a true entrepreneur wouldn’t dream of doing.  Because while you’re busy updating your database, running to the stationery supplier or engaged in other time-consuming admin work, what you’re actually doing is being an employee of your business.  You’re creating a job for yourself.

What would an Entrepreneur do?  They would make sure the only tasks on their to-do lists fell into one of the following categories: working with clients; looking for new clients; or growing the business.

What’s on your to-do list today?