One of the biggest challenges my clients share is that they don’t “have time” to get it all done.  My response is usually “How much time do you spend just thinking about what needs to be done…or doing unproductive busy work?”  Often I have them track their time spent on various activities for a week and they soon find out the shocking truth about how they spend their valuable workday.

Here’s the quickest solution to get things moving, become productive, and get organized at the same time.  Simply schedule it!  That’s right.  If you take 15 minutes to create recurring appointments in your calendar for those tasks you know you should be doing (but don’t) it will help hold yourself accountable and you are far more likely to move through your procrastination.  Plus, if you do it properly and consistently, you will form new productive habits.

Some business building areas you should schedule now instead of pushing aside until “later” are:

  • Social media posts
  • Blogging
  • Follow Up
  • Prospecting
  • Anything else that is critical to your business success

You might be thinking “But Karen, I’ve tried this before and it just didn’t work for me.” Or “What if I have a client who wants to meet during those times?”.  This latter objection is the absolute worst excuse for not getting things done.   After all, if you already had a client scheduled for a specific time, that time would be blocked in our calendar already and you would have to find and alternative time.

Think of it like this – you are running a business.  If you are doing it all yourself, which many small businesses do, then you must put time in your schedule for the operations aspects of your business.  When you work for someone else (employee) there are expectations and deadlines and you find a way to fit it all into your schedule or you might not have that job going forward.  The same is true for the self-employed.  If you don’t make the time to market, follow up, and properly manage the business side of your business, you may not have a business for long.

What about when a client calls and wants to meet during a time you have something else scheduled?  There are two simple solutions for this:

  1. Tell your client you are already committed during that time. Then, offer 2-3 alternative days and times.
  2. If it is the absolute ONLY time that client can meet, then reschedule your task for a different time. However, it must be rescheduled for the soonest available opening you have (same day if possible).  If not, you will run the risk of falling into those old habits and it may never get done at all.

For a business to be successful, profitable, and have a steady flow of income, we must operate our business like a real business.   Trust me on this one…it will absolutely pay off!

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