If you are like many small business owners you do not put together a plan when starting your day. Instead you just react to whatever comes your way throughout the day. And even if you do plan your day in the morning; you start reacting to the requests and tasks that come your way throughout the day – things like customers calling to complain, employees calling in sick, store emergencies and many other operational issues.
In the previous blog post we mentioned that the ”to-do list” is a very powerful tool to plan your day and accomplish more in less time. However, when emergencies mentioned above start coming your way the to-do list gets thrown out the window and people start reacting to those emergencies. This is what we call the “Busy Trap” – you always seem busy; but don’t seem to accomplish much of whatever you had set out to do at the beginning of the day. At the end of the day you look back and think – “what the heck did I really accomplish today?”
How can you avoid falling into the “Busy Trap”? To begin with make sure you don’t react to whatever task that pops up right away unless it’s an absolute emergency. Instead, take a step back and weigh it against everything else you have on your plate and re-prioritize. If it is not really urgent put it in the list and address it later at an appropriate time. The important thing to remember is to decide before doing it. THINK before you ACT!! That’s why we make it a practice to review and update the to-do list throughout the day.
In some cases it is important to turn off all devices that can distract you when working on an important task requiring your full attention. Turn off your phones; stop email notifications. Ask your employees and those around you not to interrupt unless the world is coming to an end. Just remember – it takes at least 5-10 minutes to regroup after you put something off and resume it. This is extra time that you could use to accomplish something else. That’s why we suggested that avoiding multi-task can actually let you accomplish more in less time in this post. When I am writing these blog posts I usually sequester myself in a room that is devoid of all distractions. This lets me focus on one thing and one thing only – blog post.
There will always be interruptions and tasks thrown at you throughout the day. The key is to not let that derail you from the plan and not fall into the “Busy Trap”.
How do you guys deal with the “Busy Trap”? Any suggestions for us and other readers?
well written blog. Im glad that I could find more info on this. thanks