5 ways to narrow your daily focus as an entrepreneur to be productive af.
When I started my first blog, transitioned into MomfidentAF and launched my first book the Self-Love Journal ,I didn’t have a huge team behind me. I had to figure out most of the hard stuff on my own.
To say it can feel overwhelming to try and navigate day-to-day life as an entrepreneur and reach all of our goals is an understatement. Even as your business grows and gets some help you can still be left thinking WTF am I supposed to be doing today?!
How does everyone else get so much stuff done?
Am I actually being productive or just feeling busy?
I’ve been there before, friend. One thing that I have found to be the most helpful when it comes to ditching the feeling of overwhelm and actually getting sh*t done is to narrow down my focus for the day. That’s right, I’m talking about taking things off your list instead of adding to it. Crazy concept, I know! Here are 5 easy ways you can start making your to-do list work for you:
1. Set goals and work backwards to create steps towards them daily
Want to know wtf you’re supposed to be doing? Start with where you want to end up. Identifying your short & long-term goals, and breaking them ALL the way down into actionable steps can help you start scheduling the things that really matter instead of time-wasters.
For example - want to write a book? Great. But that’s a big goal. How are you supposed to focus or even know what the heck you’re doing when your schedule just says “write a book”?? Instead, we need to break down how to make that happen and start working backwards until you have small daily steps. That means, outline what you want to write about and make sure you’re prioritizing writing XX amount per day in accordance with your outline.
2. Physically write out a to-do list to help clarify and prioritize tasks.
It’s easy to get confused and feel overwhelmed when your whole to-do list lives inside your head. Instead, brain dump everything you need to do by writing it all out. Once you can see everything in front of you, it will help you determine what actually needs your attention and what can be put off for another time. Eliminating the unnecessary helps us focus on the things we need to do RIGHT NOW that will drive us forward. Check out the WTF Am I Even Doing Today planner for an easy, guided (and cute!) way to do this!
3. Determine what tasks are most important either by deadline or income-generating. Outsource what you can that isn’t “important”.
Along the same line, once you have a visual breakdown of what tasks need to be completed you can start to prioritize them based on their deadline, income-generating potential or other systems you’ve put in place. Figuring out what tasks are most important and focusing on those isn’t *groundbreaking* advice, but it’s the most logical and yet somehow we always seem to let this one slide???
Whatever you don’t deem to be important or urgent, outsource it (if you can!). That could mean hiring a virtual assistant a few hours a week to manage your inbox or a housekeeper to help you maintain your chores at home, or even something as simple as ordering groceries so you don’t have to spend hours in a store. Unimportant tasks drain us of our energy and take away focus from what we truly need to accomplish, so take everything off your plate that you can.
4. Tackle big things first
Once you’ve determined the tasks you need to accomplish during the week/day, try to get through your biggest task first. It’s easy to get burnt out from dealing with a bunch of smaller things first and it almost always guarantees that time will get away from you. It can be intimidating to tackle a time-heavy or difficult task first but there is lots of evidence to suggest that this is the best way to actually get the most done in a day. If you typically structure your day the other way, starting with smaller or easier tasks first give this a try and let me know what you think!
5. Don’t get distracted by your inbox.
Finally, the golden rule of productivity - don’t get distracted. Schedule time to check your inbox & respond to messages so you don’t feel like you constantly have to manage your notifications. Once you have set out your focus for the day, you need to *actually* focus on those tasks. Easier said than done, I know but distraction is the killer of productivity so do what you have to do to manage it. Work on airplane mode. Keep your phone in another room. Work where you feel the most creative, like a Starbucks if you have to.
Bonus tip - Get the WTF Am I Even Doing Today planner to help you brain dump, prioritize, plan and accomplish 5 of your most important tasks per day. This beautiful planner will help you accomplish more by trying to do less, so just like mentioned above you can focus on the tasks that really matter. It’s available from Amazon starting on October 30th (which happens to be National Checklist Day), but you can pre-order ahead of time and get it as soon as it comes out.
