Do you ever have those dreams where you need to get somewhere important or finish something on time, but you just can't seem to arrive or ever get it done? Sometimes that's the way it feels to run a business, like you are trying to run a race with feet that weigh a thousand pounds. Everyday there are endless interruptions that keep you from your projects. And when you get to your projects they take four times longer than you planned.

This sense of stagnation can sap your energy and discourage you. And if you really don't make progress, your business will fail. Fortunately, you aren't alone and there are some simple things you can do to make your business more productive.

Priorities

You can only do so much in a day. You must make peace with the fact that not everything is going to get done. Things will fall through the cracks. Opportunities will be missed. The question is, which things will get done? You must explicitly understand what your goals are and create priorities that advance those goals. Be zealous about protecting your priorities, and be unapologetic about ignoring things that aren't priorities. You can't do it all, so don't feel emotionally responsible for things you can't control.

Track Your Time

Use a free software like toggl.com to track your time throughout the day. Look at where you and your team spend your time and evaluate whether you are advancing your priorities. If not, figure out what is causing the distraction. Fix the problems that consistently sideline you, and recommit yourselves to your priorities.

Go to the Root

If you spend a large chunk of your time always responding to the same problems, find ways to automate those solutions. Also ask yourself if those problems are caused by another factor and figure out how to address the root of the problem, rather than just dealing with the symptoms. It may take longer to deal with the root, but in the long run it’s better for everyone.

Budget & Batch

Budget your time so you can pace yourself on each project and batch your activities so that you do similar things all at once, rather than fielding constant unrelated interruptions. Switching tasks is stressful and inefficient. Multi-tasking is the enemy of happiness and will burn out both you and your team. Maybe email demands several hours of your day. You obviously need to communicate with your team and your customers, but determine how much time is reasonable, and set a strict time budget for email. Pay attention to the approximate number of emails you respond to in a day and allot yourself a budget for each email, e.g. 2 minutes. Then batch all your email into one or two slots in the day, maybe first thing in the morning and then once in the afternoon. Urgent issues can be dealt with by phone.

80/20

Pareto's Rule, also called the 80/20 rule, is a simple principle that describes the ratio of all sorts of situations. For example:

• 80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers.
• 20% of your customers do 80% of the complaining
• With 20% of the effort you can achieve 80% quality product, but it requires another 80% more effort for to go the last 20% that transforms a good product into a great product.

Understanding Pareto's Rule can help you optimize your business. Getting projects to a good spot, 80% finished and then continuing to work the last 20% over time, will encourage your team and create momentum. If it takes 2 minutes to write a “good enough” response to an email, don’t spend 10 minutes writing a longer email. Pareto’s Rule shouldn’t be a way to excuse poor quality. You should still have high standards, but just understand the return on investment. Sometimes you need to go 100%, but often times you don’t.

Take some time to evaluate your business priorities right now. Track where you are spending your time and then figure out where you get the highest return on your investment of time and resources based on the 80/20 rule. Budget your work to stay on track with your priorities and have other people hold you accountable to your priorities. Then batch your activities so you can grow and make more progress. Let us know how it goes!