Do you feel like your to-do list and the clock are engaged in constant battle? Kevin Kowalke, a mortgage broker and business strategist, believes you need to examine what’s working and what isn’t — and then strategize how to be more productive.
“You have to make the choice to want more control of your business and your life,” he advises. “Start with a new thought process and it will lead to the desire to implement new actions, which is the only thing that creates new outcomes.”
Of course, shifting your behavior won’t necessarily be easy. “In order to achieve a different outcome from years past,” Kowalke says, “it requires you, the business owner, to make uncomfortable changes that will result in more effective and productive efforts.”
Here’s his five-step plan for getting more done:
1. Eliminate tasks. “Take a quiet moment to reflect on your life. Admit to yourself what needs to be eliminated in order to remove significant resistance that is holding you back from being more effective in all aspects of your personal and professional performance,” Kowalke says.
Make a list of things to let go. “Your get-rid-of list should include tasks and distractions that hold you back from doing what will produce more meaningful results,” he says. “Business professionals fill their days with busywork because it makes them feel like they accomplished something after the 5 o’clock whistle blows when in reality all they did was make their tomorrow even more difficult.”
Read more from Intuit Small Business