Anyone who knows me knows how much I love tea - it's my favorite way to spend a leisurely afternoon with a good friend. Leisurely afternoons seem harder to come by at the moment, and for a very good reason - the proverbial cup is running over, meaning that there's so much work coming in after spending the past few months in business development mode that the effort is finally paying off! It's one thing to say you want to do something. It is quite another to take action towards the pursuit of your dreams. And it's all very exciting when you begin to see your dreams becoming a reality!
So what is one to do when we find ourselves in the situation of having our cups running over? The key is to define what is most important and what will make the most positive impact. It's also helpful to ensure we are managing our time as realistically and effectively as possible. It may even be a good idea to have back-up scenarios or plans in place to delegate some of those tasks to others who are equally capable of accomplishing the work by our side. Finally, it's a matter of timing - is it possible to delay some of the work a bit or space things out more conservatively to allow for the completion of all projects with the level of skill and expertise that's needed and expected of us.
According to the article, 8 time management tips to grow your small business, by Erin Osterhaus, we want to ensure we do the following:
Set goals. Goal setting is crucial to any good time management strategy.
Prioritize wisely. Following Steven Covey's First Things First advice, we need to look at the relative importance and urgency of the tasks.
Just say no. This may be hard to do, but we must accept that we can't do everything or we may not do anything well.
Plan ahead, especially the night before and the first thing every morning.
Eliminate distractions. Our mobile devices are incredibly useful, but also highly addictive.
Delegate more often. Leverage all of those relationships you've been developing.
Track your time. Make sure you understand how long things take to accomplish well.
Take time for yourself, and for the people and things that you love.
In the end, we must ensure that we meet our commitments and provide the quality of services that others are expecting from us, or we'll soon find ourselves swimming upstream again to chase new business. I prefer to enjoy this incredible journey...along with a good cup of tea.
"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly, you are doing the impossible." - St. Francis of Assisi
