How To Effectively Tackle Your To-Do List
This specific topic is so timely right now because I'm currently in a season of life where this is more important than ever. And we need to talk about it! If you are in a busy season of life, too or you feel like you just have a lot of stuff on your plate that's not getting done –rather than beat yourself up over it or feel the need to dump it and create a completely new plate, I encourage you to just grab a pen and paper and take notes.
Today, we’re talking about how to tackle your to-do list. I know that sounds simple but it's something I talk about in a lot of different ways. I even had a recent workshop on this exact topic. So this is not only a great reminder for my clients, but honestly, this is something I need to be reminded of as well. And I know this will help you! At the very least, you're going to want to come up with a game plan for how to execute this in your business. So first things first, let's talk about that to-do list.
What’s On Your 24-Hour To-Do List Plate?
As important as it is to talk about business, and leadership and sales and marketing and finance, in profit and loss and all of those different parts of business, it's equally as important to talk about you, as a wife, as a mom, as a partner, as a business partner, as a sister, as a daughter, and all the different hats we wear and all of those different responsibilities we have that take up space on the plate.
In different seasons, we have different priorities in life and business and also different parameters. One big glaring, obvious one was parenting. I don't have kids. I don't pretend to understand what that is like. But I know it's a massive adjustment to your life, but also to your business.
I do know what it's like to have a loss in my family, I do know what it's like to plan a big freakin wedding and have other stuff take higher priority. Time becomes more condensed, and your focus is challenged. Right now, in this busy wedding planning chapter of my life, I have taken a lot of substance off my plate. There are a lot of things that exist on my to-do list that don't need to be on there.
I like to picture the 24 hours that we live life as a literal plate, and we can only physically fit so much on there. So how can you adjust that serving size on your plate? Because maybe, like me, you're in a chapter where things are just busy. This is a great time to recalibrate.
When you work for yourself, no one is there saying hey, you know what? I need you to clock off for lunch. You know what? It's five o'clock. Go ahead, clock off. We don't need you for overtime. Or hey, it's Friday, take the day off and just go have some fun. We don't have anyone doing that for us when we're a business owner. For us, we blink and we're working 24/7. I don't know about you, but when I asked people why they got into business, no one ever said it’s because they want to work all the time. Because we don't. So let's check ourselves.
How To Tackle Your To-Do List
Let’s stay on track with a to-do list that works with and for us! Here are 4 steps to tackling your to do list.
Write Out All The Activities You Do
So one of the things I encourage people to do if they are struggling with their to-do list is start by writing out all the activities that they do. I’m talking about everything from reading emails to responding to emails to client meetings, to lunch breaks, hot girl walks, exercising, lifting, posting on Instagram, responding on Instagram, direct messaging people, all those different activities that we do, as a business. I encourage people to write it down.
2. Group Tasks Into Piles
Group together tasks into relevant piles. The piles can be “most important” and “high priority,” meaning if this task does not get done, we don't make money. An example from the hair world is if I did not physically cut and color people's hair, I was not making money. However, if I had a team of people who were full-time under me, and my job was to lead those people, then my role of cutting and coloring hair would be less relevant. In that situation, I have a team of employees who can provide the money-making service, so technically, I don't need to be cutting and coloring hair because I have people who can do that.
3. Figure Out What Your Number One Money-Making Activities Are
So it's important to differentiate the tasks on your to-do list. What activities actually move the needle in your business? When we talk about moving the needle, what we’re really saying is, what activities make you money? If this activity does not happen, you will not make money. What are those activities?
If you're a product-based business, it's selling your product. You can make the product, but if you don't actually go and sell it, you don't make money. I think people often get confused and get so absorbed into this world of, I have to make the perfect product. Or my service has to be built out perfectly. My course has to be user-friendly. Sure, those things are higher on that list, but they're not number one. Number one typically is sales of some kind.
4. Protect Your Number One Activity So It Gets Done
So if that's your most important activity in business, the next question I’ll ask is, how do you protect that? How do you protect that number one business activity that moves the needle, aka makes you money? How do you make sure that happens? And that can look like a couple of different things.
Maybe you really prioritize self care or really want to but don't have a system or process to do it. First, we have to get specific on what that means. Does that mean scrolling Instagram and taking a bubble bath? Probably not. I would argue that’s not as productive as some other things, like reading a personal development book, going to a chiropractor regularly, taking supplements, drinking your reds and greens . Whatever you class as self care in your book.
But if self care is important, we need to get specific on what that looks like for you because I think everyone is unique. We also need to know why.
The Importance of Self-Care
In my workshop, these financial advisors valued self-care because their number one business activity was trading in the finance world. So literally taking the money their clients give them and making it work for them. But very close number two was client meetings.
And I get that. Because I know I am a better coach, I am a better podcaster, I am a better hype woman, spokesperson, whatever, if I take care of myself. If I'm tired, if I'm hungover, if I'm lethargic, if I'm hungry, I'm not my best self. I know that.
So if you're in a job, especially service people, that requires a lot of you to be at your best, then yes, self-care is pretty darn important. When you're thinking of that to do list, instead of putting off the personal stuff, maybe you need to rework your prioritization to recognize Hey, although it’s tempting to doom scroll Instagram, that's not helping me be my best self. I really need to find a way to recharge and that's not helping me recharge.
This is a trap I fall into constantly. Phones are designed for us to stay on them as long as possible. And even scrolling for 5-10 minutes can turn into just a negative spiral. Your mindset changes, it doesn't feel productive, and it doesn't recharge you or relax you. So then why is that something that we constantly do? Why are we drawn to it? Because it’s designed that way.
So what can you replace that with? Maybe it's reading a book, going on a walk, yoga, stretching all those things. Maybe it's listening to a story being read to you instead of scrolling Instagram. There are lots of things you can do there.
How To Identify Your Core Business Activity & Leverage It To Grow Your Business
So when you’re tackling that to-do list, identify that core business activity that moves the needle forward and makes you money. And then figure out how you can protect it to make sure that core business activity happens?
Let’s pretend we're hairstylists for a second, because I think this is the easiest example to talk through. If I were to walk a hair stylist through this exercise, I would say what core business activity do you have to do to make money? The answer would be cut and color. Providing that service allows you to collect the money. The more clients I see, the more money I make. So how can I see more clients?
Number one is figuring out if you’re at capacity as a physical service provider. Do you have room to take on more clients? A lot of the people I speak with would say yes, there's some room. Okay, great.
Back to that self care question. How can I take great care of myself so that I can maximize my schedule, take awesome care of people, and continue to grow my books? Well, you get to a point where you've done all those things. Now what? You're one person and can only fit so many clients into your schedule. If you want to continue to grow your business, you're going to have to start to do different activities because, at a certain point, you can't be the only one doing that core business activity. You probably want to grow and hire a team.
But if your schedule is totally maximized, it doesn't make sense to hire a front desk worker. Odds are, if your schedule is completely full, the bottleneck is not getting enough clients, you have enough clients. The bottleneck is actually finding a place for those clients, someone to service them. So actually, your next hire in this scenario would probably be another stylist of some sort.
You can see how, once you identify that core business activity, you know how you can continue to optimize that business activity. If you've maxed out with your current situation, then you know how to make the right decisions to grow your business. That's where you take this to-do list, and you make it more of a leverage point, versus just checking off things on a list every day.
At the end of the day, we're here to get shit done. We want to grow, we want to evolve our business. And that takes clarity on where to put your energy because again, so many hours in a day, so many ways you can support people and you have a limit in how you're doing things. If it's not optimized, step one is always figuring that out. But once you get there, there are things that you will have to adjust moving forward.
For example, my friend owns a salon team. She has grown a really great team that has the same quality of service. People really know, like, and appreciate and trust her stylists. She’s transitioning out of that behind the chair role and into more of a leadership role. So if you do this exercise on her business, you can see that core business activity is haircuts and color. But she's not the one doing it. Her stylists are.
So then that number two question is how does she protect her core business activity? She, as the business owner, has to change her priority from taking care of clients to taking care of her team. How can she inspire them, motivate them, correct them if things go wrong, empower them, make sure they're happy, make sure they're healthy. How can she do that? That becomes her priority.
You can see how this exercise gets you to be more intentional with those things you're putting on your list.
How To Determine The 5 Most Important Tasks On Your To-Do List
On those days where you're like, gosh, I need to do 10 things, but I really only have time for five. Okay, what five are most important? Once you know what that core business activity is, odds are, there are still other things on your list.
If your core business activity is meeting with clients, you have to get those client meetings somehow. Maybe that’s networking groups, maybe it's connecting with people through the podcast world, or through Facebook groups. The point is that you’re actually being proactive and reaching out to people to get those client meetings scheduled.
So those activities of reaching out and networking have to be pretty high on your list. How do we make it happen? I'm a huge fan of time-blocking. I believe everyone has their own flavor of how to do this and how that actually looks. You know what works best with how you work. The best schedule is the schedule that works best for you.
Maybe that lives on a paper planner, maybe that is on your computer. Maybe if you're like me, you have certain days of the week where you wear a specific hat. I try to do all my client meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I can just be in meeting mode all day long. I try to leave Wednesdays for podcast stuff and Fridays for content creation. That's what works best for me. There are some weeks where it doesn't exactly follow that way. But in general, I have found I'm more productive when I do that versus recording a podcast episode, then going to my inbox then having a client meeting, then having a networking event and wearing all those different hats in one day. It’s exhausting for me personally.
But someone else may actually like variety in their day. So know what works best for you, and then set up your schedule to protect that core business activity.
How To Productively Delegate
The other thing that we don't talk about very often is productive delegating. Most of the time, delegating is like playing hot potato. Meaning you have something on your plate, you're overwhelmed so you give Instagram to your assistant or your VA or your social media manager, and then they do it. Then you're like, oh, wait. I don't really like that. So then you take it back. So then you're adjusting what they're doing. 9 times out of 10, when you're doing that, you're not your most effective self. You're not doing their best work. No one wins in that scenario.
I'm a big fan of going through this exercise with your team and saying, Hey, let's go over all of the different activities in business. Let's prioritize this list together and get clear on what that core business task is. And how can we make sure, between us, that we're all protecting that and making sure that whoever is focusing on that core activity? How do we make sure that continues to happen as effortlessly and efficiently as possible?
I'm gonna give you an example. So in my business early on, I used to have a Pinterest strategist. God bless her. She's amazing at what she does. I still, to this day, get notifications about new followers from pins I haven't touched in months. But I was convinced I needed more eyeballs on my Pinterest. I think I even ran Facebook ads to who knows what. But there were so many things I was doing and quote unquote, delegating.
I hate social media. And I was hoping someone would just manage it. What I wasn't doing was getting clear on what was that core business activity and recognizing that, yes, social media is important. Yes, marketing is important. But a higher priority is taking great care of people. Eventually I realized that people find me and hire me through relationships. So instead of putting all of my effort energy into hashtags and algorithms and trending audio, I shifted it to relationships. The more I started to focus on just serving people, connecting with people, and genuinely helping people, that is when my business took off, and my opportunities continued to open up. So when you are delegating, let your team help you.
If you need to focus on client meetings, if that's the main thing you do, what can your team do to help support that? Maybe that looks like them handling your inbox, maybe that looks like them handling your schedule, maybe there are things they could do for you that you aren't even aware of that can help you focus on the area that you need to focus on.
Again, depending on the size of your team, sometimes the core business activity is not on the CEO. As you grow, that actually should happen. But it doesn't mean your responsibility goes away. It just means your personal priority as the CEO changes and evolves with your company.
I have a company of over 40 people that I'm helping with this right now. We had to have this aha realization that the best use of time for the CEO is truly bringing joy and vision and culture to her team. That's it. And that's enough. It doesn't mean she needs to be hiding in spreadsheets. It doesn't mean she needs to be on very technical apps. She needs to stay in her zone of genius, which is serving her team and making sure that they are taking great care of their people. That's the best use of her time.
Build Your Schedule Around Non-Negotiables
So you’re clear on the core business activity. You want to do more self care stuff because you know it makes you a better financial advisor, service provider, enter your title here. But I have kids or I have a busy life (or both!).
I'm a big believer of building our schedule around the non-negotiables. It's important to start with the personal ones, the soccer games, the holidays, the time off, the birthdays that you're going to prioritize. Put those in your calendar first. Then plan your week or your day around those activities. Then hold yourself to it. Maybe that looks like your lunch is a working lunch. But at least you're eating your lunch.
We often get overwhelmed and it puts us into paralysis because we don't know where to focus our energy. The reason we're talking about this to-do list in this specific way is because so many business owners know exactly how to do the thing. They know how to cut the hair, they know how to take the photos, they know how to do the financial planning sessions for their clients, the trades. They have confidence in that part of their business.
But on the days where they don't have those activities to do, they feel like they just need to fill it with random stuff to give us this false sense of productivity. So often we're focusing on the wrong things. I encourage you to pause and stop and really assess where your time should be best spent.
Some seasons will require you to release your personal expectations with yourself and parts of your business. I’m at the tail end of planning a wedding right now. But you know what? I'm not releasing myself from taking great care of my clients, in continuing to show up when I can.
The Importance of Consistency
There is this concept of consistency I want to end on. On social media, everything writes about being consistent in content creation, writing content, scheduling, engagement, looking at the algorithm, and looking at statistics. People really prioritize social media and this whole idea of consistency is king. To a point, I do think that's important. It's important to show up. It's important for your people to see you and your brand.
But I want to remind you that this is still consistency. What I really mean is maybe consistency looks different in different seasons. This season may be consistent for you as you did an audit. An example is if your core business activity is photographing weddings. You’re in the thick of wedding season and you don't even have the capacity to respond to emails as consistently as you would like to. So you’re going to set up an automation. Hey, it's a busy season, I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
Maybe you release the expectation of posting five days a week and go down to two. Awesome, you're still consistent. So I encourage you, as you go through your business, and you write down all those tasks out is to get clear on that core business activity, protect it, and really give yourself some grace. If the rest is just not on the plate right now. That's okay.
Stay positive, stay focused on the things that matter most. Give yourself grace. Maybe that's not going ham on the business, and that's okay.
If your business is not where you want it to be, and you're struggling, and you've done all of these things, I invite you to the virtual Get Shit Done Club on Facebook. It's an extension of this, we take these topics and do a deep dive. I go live once a week in there, and I would love to help support you as you're navigating this chapter of entrepreneurship and getting shit done.