⭐THE HOT MESS TEAM BLOG⭐
This month: Deliverables Manager Stephanie zones in PRIORITIZING
Hey hey hey! Stephanie here; the Deliverables Manager over at Hot Mess Consulting.
As entrepreneurs, we juggle multiple roles every day and believe me when I say, I know just how overwhelming it can be. When you have too many tasks and too little time to get everything done - well, it’s enough to make anyone just throw their hands up in the air. (You feeling me?)
You need to start somewhere. And that somewhere is not on the couch binging Netflix. No. Your number one step is to figure out what is most important (even when it feels like everything is on fire!).
Okay, so now you’ve got a zillion things to do, and I just gave you another task. But trust me, this one is Golden because it’s your first step to create order in the crazy and prioritize all the things!
Today, I’m sharing my favorite ways to get unstuck and start prioritizing like a queen.
#1 Braindump, baby!
A good ol’ braindump is my favorite way to make sense of all of the chaos, to-do lists, and future thoughts. You can do this weekly to prioritize tasks or even on a bigger picture level to get a good grasp on those goals you’re going to crush this quarter.
Grab a notebook and a pen and just start listing everything out. Don’t worry about anything else right now; just get it all out of your head and onto paper.
Once it’s all down, it’s time to shift towards order of importance. What items are truly urgent, going to move the needle towards those bigger picture goals, and ultimately drive more revenue?
#2 Time to timeblock
Once you’re done with the brain dump, then you have to time block.
Group small items together. Have a bunch of 5-10 minute tasks? Put them together in a one hour block. You’re going to feel so freaking accomplished once that hour is over!
Schedule the items that take the most brainpower during the time of day that you’re most productive. Mine is in the morning.
On tasks that require your complete focus, shut off from everything else! Even if you can only commit 30 minutes or one hour, turn notifications off and tell everyone not to disturb you. If you’re on a tight schedule, set a timer.
#3 Set time boundaries
Repeat after me: I don’t have to be available to everyone all the time.
You must set boundaries when it comes to your time. You don’t need to be available to everyone every moment of the day! Ask the question: does this need my attention now, or can we book a time to discuss this at my next earliest availability?
Using a scheduling tool, like Calendly or even as simple as your Google calendar (I like Calendly because it allows you to set your availability and share a link with your team so they can book a time whenever they need, but based on your schedule).
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#4 Track big goals with an app
Need to keep track of all of your tasks/bigger picture items? Here are a few apps that integrate with Shopify:
#5 Delegate, delegate, delegate
I know what you’re thinking. “It’ll be faster if I just do it myself.” Yes, sometimes that IS the case. But there are many times that it’s not.
If you have a team, get good at delegating - what’s on your plate that doesn’t truly have to be there?
And if you don’t have a team yet - could you maybe consider outsourcing one or two tasks?
Have a bigger project? Break it down into smaller items/tasks and assign them to someone else!
#6 Automation
What can you automate and/or create a process around?
What tasks are you doing every day that are taking up the majority of your time? Is there a way that you can automate it? Block out a few hours to get your social media or emails done for the entire month and schedule them out.
Is there something that you have on your plate that you can write a process for and ask someone else to take over?
#7 Give yourself a break
Sometimes you’ve just got to give yourself some grace. You are only human, after all. One of the hardest lessons that I learned was that time to reset and recharge is a necessity, not a luxury - so for your own mental health - you need to stop feeling guilty about your downtime.
Have time where you shut off for your own personal time. It doesn’t have to be a full day or week, just take an hour-long lunch and treat yourself and do nothing for your biz that hour.
Stop being so damn hard on yourself if something falls through the cracks or doesn’t go as planned. Learn from it; make sure it doesn’t happen again and keep moving forward.
Final Thoughts
The goal is to be proactive vs. reactive. This will help you be more efficient and calm some of your chaos. You won’t be able to control everything all of the time, but what is within your control is how you manage your time and juggle all of the things on your plate.
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I hope these tips will help you stop the panic and start the prioritizing. I know you can!
Thanks,
Steph
