#3 Understand The Enemy—What Things Throw You Out Of Whack?
April 30, 2008
If someone asks me what disrupts the balance between my business and my life I can easily list the culprits:
- Overcommitting my time (I can’t say no and I get excited by interesting new projects).
- Aspects of running my company that I am no good at (websitekeeping, operational procedures, etc.).
- Day-to-day distractions that stop me getting my work done (I get hundreds of emails, countless telephone calls, letters, visitors, etc. every day).
- The internet-I love it and get distracted by it, and have to find the time to finish projects that I didn’t get done because I was distracted (as you can tell I have a very short attention span).
- Poor time management.
That is me being perfectly honest about myself. I get lots done, I work long hours and I have very high expectations of myself, but the above issues bring me undone faster than any others. Fortunately for me I have a great team of people to work with; they are very aware of each of these issues and do their utmost to prevent them from impacting on me.
I suggest that you write your own list. What causes you the greatest frustration in your business? Is it worrying about money? Having to manage your staff? Is it caused by your suppliers? Or your customers? Again, try to be specific if you can. Often we haven’t actually taken the time to think through the causes of our day-to-day angst. You can then start to do something about it and, even more importantly, you can enlist the help of those around you, who can generally see you slowly destroying yourself as you battle the panicky feeling of being overwhelmed by your business.
What can I do today?
Make a list of the issues that seem to cause you the greatest amount of grief on a daily basis. Once you have written it, put it in a prominent place and be committed to addressing these issues once and for all. Enlist the aid of others to help you.
[tags]Balance Life, out of balance, time management[/tags]
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