As a business owner, you have to focus on so many things that it becomes difficult to know what you should be spending your days on. Here’s a formula that works incredibly well—I want to share it in case it could be helpful for you.
The Two Core Principles
Before getting into the details, the two biggest themes are: focus on the highest leverage task and be brutally honest with yourself. It only works if you do those two things.
Focus on the highest leverage task. There is usually one thing that, if you did it, would have an outsized impact on everything else. If you cut all the other stuff and just focus on that one thing, you would have so much more momentum.
For example, if your highest leverage task is growing on TikTok, then posting every single day might be that one thing. You have to figure out what your highest leverage tasks are and be brutally honest about what’s actually moving the needle.
Plan Your Week on Sunday
I like to plan my whole week out on Sunday. Then on Monday, I can hit the ground running with a roadmap—no wasted time.
Step 1: Reflect and journal. Write down what worked and what didn’t work from the week before.
Step 2: Map out your top three priorities. I don’t do ten—that’s too many. I don’t do one because I can never really do just one. Three is the sweet spot. For example, one of my priorities this week might be to find a space to host an event for my community.
Step 3: Schedule it into your calendar. Block off time during the week for each priority. If your goal is to grow on TikTok, schedule time every day to post. If you need to find a venue, schedule time for researching, emailing, and following up. Before the week has even started, you already have a skeleton of what your week should look like.
Treat Your Calendar Like a To-Do List
I really like to treat my calendar like a to-do list. By doing this, my to-do list never gets too long, and everything gets done because it’s literally scheduled into a slot. If something doesn’t get done on that day, I move it over and slot it into the next day before I go to bed.
Use the Quadrants to Filter Tasks
Another big thing I do is look at my work through the urgent/important quadrants. I really only touch tasks that are both urgent and important.
For example, posting on our brand’s Instagram is urgent, but me personally posting it is not important—it’s not my highest leverage task. So I delegate that. Something that is not urgent and not important—like posting on a low-engagement channel—is not a good use of anyone’s time. When you start to look at your workload through these quadrants and only optimize for what’s urgent and important, you’ll be good to go.
The Biggest Takeaway
Focus on the highest leverage task and be brutally honest with yourself. If you’re not honest with yourself, the only person you’re hurting is yourself. Make the changes you need to make, and then get to where you want to go.
