This is every solopreneur\u2019s nightmare organizational chart and how it recently looked\u00a0inside my SEO agency<\/a>. You know what needs to be done but you are stuck doing it all. I became a photographer years ago because I loved taking photos but the actual taking of pictures was less than 5% of running a photo studio. Have you felt the same? You love cooking so you opened a restaurant or you loved gardening so you became a landscaper? Our passions are why we start the business.<\/p>\n Now, you\u2019re also the sales representative and the receptionist. You are the office manager and the custodial services. Need something from the office supply store or the post office? Get in the car because you\u2019re driving.<\/p>\n With so many things to do, what should you do next? Regardless of whether you use Trello for time management<\/a>, Asana or a pen and paper you will need to prioritize your tasks each day.<\/p>\n But there are so many tasks that need to be done, especially when you first start. Do you work on your website design or call back a potential lead? Should you write a guest blog post or setup your Mailchimp automation?<\/p>\n You may even create a list the night before and think you\u2019re getting a jump on the next day. Then the phone rings at 8:45 am and all your plans for the day go away in one extended phone conversation with a client.<\/p>\n Multitasking does not work.<\/p>\n You know this yet you can\u2019t stop, right? It\u2019s been proven over & over that multitasking during important or difficult work slows you down, makes you less productive and you produce inferior work. Yet you can\u2019t stop.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the endless tasks and the responsibility for everything, right? All of these problems tie into each other.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a random Tuesday so today you plan to launch your website, write 3 blog articles, call back two leads, follow up on a meeting you had last week, do a bit of clerical work, buy new ink from the store and come back to print off your completed tax forms.<\/p>\n No, you\u2019re not. Sure, your to do list looks like 300 hours of work and it all needs to be done by Friday. This is a crushing list of problems. Let\u2019s get to work on solving them so you can get back to work.<\/p>\n Growing your business means you will eventually hire others to help you do some pieces of the business. Many of us envision this as \u201cmaking enough to hire someone\u201d but that\u2019s rarely the first step. I suggest three steps: freelancers, contractors, full timers.<\/p>\n Freelancers:<\/em> find freelancers who want infrequent and occasional work. Plenty of people want to fill in their spare time now and then by helping your business. You may not need a full time writer but having a professional edit your sales copy will make you much more money.<\/p>\n Contractors:<\/em> people who want a significant amount more money but not the commitment of a full-time job will be open to contracting. Set a limited number of hours or tasks and you won\u2019t feel limited by the jobs you dislike. You can take on more work and gain valuable clients and experience by having a part-time member of your team do big chunks of work.<\/p>\n Full time:<\/em> when you can afford it and the work requires it, you will bring on a full time employee. This saves you a huge amount of time as it means someone you can give top-tier training, understand your whole business and grow with you. You start to create a culture and understand who you are as a business.<\/p>\n When sports teams get badly beaten early in a game they tend to try and come back by overplaying. They \u201ctry too hard\u201d and make the situation worse. We see our colossal task list and do the same. You want everything done at once so you\u2019ve make it worse.<\/p>\n First, set clear boundaries. Don\u2019t check email every 5 minutes. Don\u2019t answer the phone every single time it rings. If you work from home and can set aside a space, time and no interruptions you will get more done and get back to your family that much faster.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Break your projects down into manageable tasks. \u201cDesign, build and launch website\u201d requires a mammoth effort and days of time. \u201cSketch out website layout\u201d doesn't take as long and you\u2019ll feel better for getting things done.<\/p>\n Small business owners have a tendency to treat automation in one of two ways: never automate anything because you don\u2019t understand it or automate everything because you understand the power of it.<\/p>\n Neither of these approaches addresses the strategic question: why should you automate?<\/p>\n Automate those tasks that you repeat over and over not \u201conce in a while\u201d tasks simply because you can. Some things should not be automated like social media replies and interaction. Don\u2019t auto-spam your new followers. Tools like Zapier<\/a> & IFTTT<\/a> will guide you into your first few automations.<\/p>\n If some tasks require human intervention you can still semi-automate those tasks. Canned responses in Gmail let you save a chunk of text to quickly copy into new emails. If you get a lot of pricing requests you can type the response once and add it to emails within a second, saving plenty of time and creating a professional template that requires little to no input.<\/p>\n Study this chart:<\/p>\n![\"running](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/teamprojectmayhem.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/departments.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nProblem 2: Endless tasks pull your attention\u00a0and time<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nProblem 3: Multitasking slows you down<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n
Problem 4: You set unrealistic expectations for your day<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Solution to Problem 1: Outsource what you dislike doing<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Solution to Problem 2: Set boundaries and break big tasks down<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Solution to Problem 3: Automate what you often repeat<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Solution to Problem 4: Prioritize Your Time via Urgent\/Important Quadrants<\/strong><\/h2>\n