How much time do you spend working on your Top 5%?

Where do you spend your time?

There is one thing that certainly holds true when you are an entrepreneur or work for yourself. Expect the unexpected. I am sure you know what I mean, you wake up in the morning feeling excited to take the day head on. Maybe you have a bootcamp in the morning and a few clients to teach in the afternoon and a couple of errands to do. No big deal, pretty relaxing day, it’s nice outside and just when you are thinking you might have a good chunk of your afternoon free to enjoy the phone rings…

A vendor, a supplier, the insurance agency, your accountant, a new potential customer, an upset customer, whatever but suddenly you have 15 different things you didn’t expect to add to your list, so much for enjoying the afternoon.

Does this sound like you? This is common for many self-employed people, particularly when they are just getting started. You are likely an amazing technician when it comes to servicing your customers and handling all things scheduling when it comes to them, sadly you have just realized you are terrible at time management.

If this carries on it soon get’s even more difficult, because now when you get up in the morning you begin to procrastinate. All those crazy things that came up yesterday that you didn’t get done, well you don’t want to do them today either. So now checking email, heading to facebook and painting your toenails are all far more appealing then what you should be doing.

Here’s how to ensure you get more done each day…

Get yourself a bulletin board to hang in your office. You could also do this in a spreadsheet electronically but I highly recommend the billboard for a visible simple tool in the area where you most commonly work. At the top of the billboard add these categories in big letters:

 “To-Do” – “My Top 5%” – “Doing” – “Done”

The truth is out of all those items in your growing to-do novel; it’s that small 5% of key items that is going to produce the biggest results. I can’t take credit for that labelling, this comes from my coach but I have learned well in these last three years just how true that title is. All of the things that need to get done should be posted in the to-do column. Each morning scan the to-do column for the key things, your top 5% and move them to the My Top 5% column and begin with the hardest one first. Always it’s these items that must garner your attention through to completion first. If it can’t be completed in a single day move it to the doing column and the next day begin in the doing column before going back to the next item in the top 5%.

As you complete items move them to the done column until the end of the week. Every Sunday night remove all the items from the done column, this is the setup and affirmation of how successful and productive last week was. (Or in some cases reminder that this week has to be better.)

It’s a constant visual transition that will help you maintain focus, set priorities and give you a virtual pat on the back when you do a good job!