Create a Do-Not-Do List

Do you find yourself struggling to get everything on your to-do list completed every day? Do you have a difficult time maintaining focus on one issue at a time until it is completed? Do you consistently carry several of your to-do’s over to the next day? Don’t fill badly, you are not alone. Many individuals find themselves struggling to get everything done each day. It’s almost become accepted that you can’t get it all done in a day. And for some reason that you do, you feel guilty because you are all caught up.

The problem isn’t what’s on your to-do list; the problem is everything else around you going on at the same time. It’s the e-mails, phone calls, voice mails, drop in questions, meetings, etc. It’s all the distractions that are keeping you from completing your tasks. It is those not planned for issues that keep you distracted enough to keep you from getting your items done.

So, how do you fix this issue? It’s simple. You need to start looking at each and everything that you do in a day and recognize those things that little or no value for you and your business. You should ask yourself three questions: (1) As a business owner, should I be doing this task? (2) Can I delegate this task to someone else? (3) Should this task be done at all? Once you have determined that you shouldn’t be doing these certain tasks, write them down on your do-not-do list. Make sure you remind yourself that as a business owner, this isn’t something that I should be doing

Just as you have created a to-do list, you must also create a do-not-do list. This list should contain all of the tasks and situations that are distracting you from your projects at hand. Every time you complete a to-do list also complete a similar not-to-do list. If you just add one new item to your to-do list, then add one new item to your not-to-do list that could keep you from completing the task in a timely manner. Keep these lists side by side. Keep them visible to you. Every time you look at one list, look at the other. They should become parallel with each other.

I’m not saying you should never read your e-mail, take phone calls, listen to voicemail or return calls to clients. I’m just stating that while you are on a mission to get this particular task at hand completed, focus on the task, not the million other things going on around you. It’s just as important to unlearn bad habits as it is to acquire new ones. It will be difficult at first but as you begin to see you are actually completing your tasks much quicker, you will gain momentum. It is amazing to me what we can actually accomplish when we really want to. Keeping all the distractions at a distance, or better yet, handing them off to someone else, is the key to completion.

So, go ahead and give it a try. Start your do-not-do list today and let’s see how successful you become with completing your tasks.