Sometimes I feel like all I do all day long is make decisions.
I try to minimize the number of decisions I have to make as part of my daily routine - I have the same thing for breakfast everyday (my green smoothie), and the same thing for lunch. I've realized that over the years, whenever I buy new clothes, I inevitably stop wearing some of the old ones. It's like I can only deal with a fixed-sized wardrobe. Any larger and there are just too many options - making the decision of what to wear each day paralyzing. It's not that I'm indecisive. I'm actually a pretty decisive person. It's just that there are SO many decisions to be made, I like to make life easier on myself by having a few less to make each day.
Owning a business must at least quadruple the number of decisions you make daily. Emails are nothing but a series of decisions. What makes it on the to-do list for the day is a decision. How much time to allocate to each task, who to say yes or no to, which appointments and opportunities to prioritize - all decisions. And you are responsible for ALL of them. It's overwhelming.
How do you decide what goes on your to-do list each day? As business owners, we're bombarded by demands. Clients need things now, our email inboxes are full of requests, and interacting on social media is increasingly filling our days. It's easy to take a reactionary stance and simply occupy each day with reacting to whatever demands scream the loudest. But are we sacrificing what's really important to making our businesses and LIVES successful when we take a purely reactionary stance? I would say most definitely, yes.
What is important? That's the crucial question that should guide our decisions. Now if only I could tell you what the most important thing you need to do for your business IS, that would wrap up this post quite nice and tidy. Unfortunately, that's another decision you need to make. Some people write business plans. I myself have never had a business plan. And no, I don't know what my business is going to look like in 5 or 10 years. I understand how tools like these can be helpful, but part of me thinks they are just illusions of control. The process of discovering what is important has always been for me a combination of writing down my goals and just taking the next step God reveals to me as I seek Him. I never know what the 10th step is, but I do know the next step and that's enough to occupy today.
What is important for my business and to me personally will likely be different than what is important for you. But by way of example, here's where I'm at in life:
Daily:
- Spend time resting in and seeking God
- Exercise
- Reaching out to friends
Foundational to business:
- Blogging
- Networking
Goals:
- Develop a better system for submitting to wedding publications
- Get a Duo sample album done through Queensberry & start offering them to clients
- Develop sponsorship packet for MJ 2 Day and recruit sponsors
I want my daily to-do list to be a reflection of these things that are important to me.
If you haven't done so already, I encourage you to write down your goals. Prioritize them. Decide what is important. Spend part of each day reacting to opportunities and requests. But don't be purely reactionary. Make sure to schedule part of your day in an intentional manner around what is important.
I try to minimize the number of decisions I have to make as part of my daily routine - I have the same thing for breakfast everyday (my green smoothie), and the same thing for lunch. I've realized that over the years, whenever I buy new clothes, I inevitably stop wearing some of the old ones. It's like I can only deal with a fixed-sized wardrobe. Any larger and there are just too many options - making the decision of what to wear each day paralyzing. It's not that I'm indecisive. I'm actually a pretty decisive person. It's just that there are SO many decisions to be made, I like to make life easier on myself by having a few less to make each day.
Owning a business must at least quadruple the number of decisions you make daily. Emails are nothing but a series of decisions. What makes it on the to-do list for the day is a decision. How much time to allocate to each task, who to say yes or no to, which appointments and opportunities to prioritize - all decisions. And you are responsible for ALL of them. It's overwhelming.
How do you decide what goes on your to-do list each day? As business owners, we're bombarded by demands. Clients need things now, our email inboxes are full of requests, and interacting on social media is increasingly filling our days. It's easy to take a reactionary stance and simply occupy each day with reacting to whatever demands scream the loudest. But are we sacrificing what's really important to making our businesses and LIVES successful when we take a purely reactionary stance? I would say most definitely, yes.
What is important? That's the crucial question that should guide our decisions. Now if only I could tell you what the most important thing you need to do for your business IS, that would wrap up this post quite nice and tidy. Unfortunately, that's another decision you need to make. Some people write business plans. I myself have never had a business plan. And no, I don't know what my business is going to look like in 5 or 10 years. I understand how tools like these can be helpful, but part of me thinks they are just illusions of control. The process of discovering what is important has always been for me a combination of writing down my goals and just taking the next step God reveals to me as I seek Him. I never know what the 10th step is, but I do know the next step and that's enough to occupy today.
What is important for my business and to me personally will likely be different than what is important for you. But by way of example, here's where I'm at in life:
Daily:
- Spend time resting in and seeking God
- Exercise
- Reaching out to friends
Foundational to business:
- Blogging
- Networking
Goals:
- Develop a better system for submitting to wedding publications
- Get a Duo sample album done through Queensberry & start offering them to clients
- Develop sponsorship packet for MJ 2 Day and recruit sponsors
I want my daily to-do list to be a reflection of these things that are important to me.
If you haven't done so already, I encourage you to write down your goals. Prioritize them. Decide what is important. Spend part of each day reacting to opportunities and requests. But don't be purely reactionary. Make sure to schedule part of your day in an intentional manner around what is important.
Comments
