Tired? Overworked? Try these suggestions
IF you can't delegate or plan you will be in trouble. Entreprneurs who fill up thier days with busy work will soon be reading the help wanted pages.
(PRWEB) October 20, 2002
Column 114
October 21, 2002
Entrepreneurship
Do You Feel Overworked, Tired, and Short on Time?
"If you don't know where you are going you could wind up someplace else." Yogi Berra
Dr Paul E Adams
Are needless details and crappy little jobs wearing your out? If you are grinding yourself down with a never ending stream of tasks “only you can do,” watch out-because if you get exhausted, your thinking will get fuzzy and you will make dumb decisions. If you stretch yourself to your outer limits, count on your drive and enthusiasm to wane. And before long your emotions will dictate your behavior. You may even get to dread tomorrow morning and look for a “mood changer” for relief.
If I have hit home and you want the feelings of fun and pride of owning your own business back, here are some basics you need to master. Otherwise welcome to your world, it will not change!
To start with, don’t waste your time on non-essential tasks - what I call busy work. If you do, you will have difficulty in accomplishing the activities vital to your survival. With every new demand on your time, ask yourself, “Is this important and do I have to do it?”
Eyeballing your goals is critical to your survival and success. Stay focused. You can’t waste your time on petty jobs and nonsense that will side track you from what is really important. As you learn to delete “busy work” from your to do list, you will get more done, plus the bonus of feeling enthusiastic and re-charged up for bigger challenges.
When you lack direction, you accomplish little. Establish what is "really" important and demands your immediate attention. With practice you will learn that a successful leader is skillful at allocating time and establishing priorities. Planning will be your biggest time saver. Plan what is important for you to do and plan what your employees are to do. As the experts say: " Plan your work, and work your plan. Simple management!
Stop when you feel the pressure of too much to do, take a few deep breaths, slow down and approach your problems one at a time. Watch out for too many uncompleted projects. The nagging feeling of loose ends can overwhelm you. Fatigue can defeat you. It leads to poor thinking, irrationality, impatience, and problem paranoia - even self - destructive behavior. It is an insidious enemy. One you can ill-afford. Your physical and mental health are important, but when you place yourself in a daily pressure cooker environment; it's critical.
Working smart helps. It is the ability to size up a job as to what is important, and how most efficiently to do it. As an entrepreneur, you are an economic resource with absolute limitations on your time. In fact, time is the only resource in your venture you canÂ’t change. Because of the limits on your time, and the unlimited demand for it, you spend the day making choices. For every task you do, there is one you are unable to look after. As you can imagine, frustration and anxiety may easily develop from such a situation.
How do you get more time? You learn how to manage. You learn the basic principle of defining a task and delegating it. You learn the first principle of all good leaders, “ I can not do everything myself, even though I know I can do it better in less time and exactly the way I want it done..” Copy that statement and paste it on your bathroom mirror-with practice you will be amazed at how much more you will accomplish. You will have mastered the principle of multiplication - you will have extended your talents and your skills through the efforts of others.
Train your employees to replace you. Sharpen your delegation skills by remaining aware of your wanting to dominate every situation. Sit on your ego. Ask and accept help from others. Develop a team approach by sharing obligations and responsibilities. Working smart is basic management; accomplishing tasks through others. Do you think Bill Gates balances Microsoft's checkbook?
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Dr Paul E Adams, Professor Emeritus Business, Ramapo College of New Jersey & Retired Entrepreneur. Host of the TV program "Movers and Shakers," Author of “Fail-Proof Your Business,” Available @ Amazon Dot Com. Comments, questions, or suggestions to: xpaul@pikeonline. net
