Tip 7) ​What is the number one thing you MUST do if you want a successful business?

What is the number one thing you MUST do if you want a successful business?
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Learn how to plan and prioritise.

If you want to own a successful business, you must get great at planning your time and prioritising your tasks. Don’t use scraps of paper or Post-It notes for your to-do lists.

What do you think is the top excuse that I hear from business clients who haven’t yet achieved their weekly, monthly or quarterly goals?

• I haven’t got the time/I didn’t have the time/I was too busy

Otherwise translated as:

• I didn’t think I could do it, I didn't know how to do it, or I didn’t think it was important enough to find the time.

My stock answer to this is always the same. If I said “I would give you £10,000 to do ‘that’ by next week” – would you do it?

What do you think their answer would be? It’s always “Yes, of course I would”. It’s funny how our priorities can change, and time can appear from nowhere when the motivation is big enough.
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If you don’t know how to do it – then go learn how to do it! Google knows absolutely everything! And what Google doesn’t know, YouTube does. And what YouTube doesn’t know, then Audible (audiobooks) or Amazon books will know.
 
One of the key differences between a successful person and an unsuccessful person is that when a successful person doesn’t know how to do something, they go and find out how to do it – the unsuccessful one will have a pity party and say “But I didn’t know how. Nobody told me how to do it!”

Planning, organisation and prioritising is not everyone’s strong point, but it is crucial for success. I am going to introduce you to the simplest time management system ever – one that has worked for hundreds of clients, even those who were undeniably terrible at time management!

Step One: Buy an A4 ring-bound pad
This is important, as you will be tearing a page out each day.

Step Two: Mind dump!
First you are going to write EVERYTHING you need to do. Not just your business stuff, but everything that’s on your mind (your kids, home, health, relationships, etc.). Just dump it all onto paper. From writing a marketing plan to picking up the dry cleaning! All of it gets written down. This will stop you waking up at 3am with an “Oh ****, I forgot...” – tasks tend to loop around your brain until they have a home! 

Include your Worry List!
Include a list of everything you are worried about. This is a great exercise to do. Just getting everything out of your head and onto paper is very therapeutic. Seeing your fears and worries on paper can give you an entirely different perspective on them.

Next, go through your list and cross out the things that you have no influence over. Get rid of the things that you can do nothing about. Worrying about these things will be a complete and utter waste of time and energy. 

Then create a Wait to Worry List and move anything that could be a problem in the future to this list. Commit to only worrying about these things if and when they actually become a real problem.

Most people find that most of the things on their Worry List can be either crossed off their list entirely or moved to their Wait to Worry List.

You may be left with a small list of worries and fears that you CAN influence. Decide to do something to improve the situation and take a small step to overcome the fear or solve the problem. These steps can be added to your main Action List. Taking control and being proactive is hugely empowering.
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Step Three: Create your Projects Page
On the first left-hand page of your spiral-bound notebook, write headings for the key areas of your life, including any projects you are working on. For example:

• Work projects
• Marketing
• Home stuff

Under each heading, write down everything you need to do. Break large projects down into bullet points for now; you don’t need to go into loads of detail.​

Projects Page

​Marketing
Write marketing plan.
​​Social media plan for next 4 weeks.
​Contact Client B.

​Business
Business plan.
​Update cashflow.
Call accountant.
Invoicing.
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Online Course ​
​Write content.
Decide pricing.
Research platforms.
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​Home
Dentist.
Fix light.   
Kids shoes.

Book Holiday
Research flights.
Book time off.

Ideas
Write a book!

Step Four: Create your Action Page
On the right-hand side of the page, split the page into the following four quadrants. Do this at the END of the day – ready for the next day. Write any appointments at the top.

Urgent
In here, write everything that MUST be done the next day. Break the bigger tasks into bite-sized chunks.​​

General
Use this space for things that come up during the day.


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Important
Here you put the things that it would be nice to get done the next day or within a week.​

Waiting for/Remember
Use this space to remind you of things that you are waiting for from others, that you need to be able to move forward. If this list gets too big, move it to the Projects Page.

Key tips

• Keep your Planning Book somewhere where you can see it every day. Start straight on your urgent tasks. Don’t look at your important list until your urgent list is complete.
• As you achieve each task, either tick it off, cross it off or highlight it. This will release a shot of dopamine, the feel-good chemical, into your bloodstream, helping you to feel more motivated to achieve.
• Then at the end of each day, tear out your Action Page, check your Projects Page and re-prioritise your urgent and important tasks. This is the crucial bit. You must do this AT THE END OF EACH DAY!

It is a really simple process, and I promise that within a few weeks of using this system you will feel in control and proactive, rather than overwhelmed and reactive. 

​If you prefer online solutions, Trello is a brilliantly simple way of tracking projects in exactly the same way.  
 
To your success
Jo Richings x