Chapter Twenty Four - Making Your To Do List More Doable - Rachel Rasmussen

"We Wish We Had Known - Everyday Tips from Consultants to Grow Your Business"

#Virtual Assistant
#Delegation

Making Your To Do List More Doable

RACHEL RASMUSSEN

Rescue Desk Virtual Assistant Services
Founder/CEO
rescuedeskva.com / Rachel@RescueDeskVA.com

It is both the lifeblood of your business as well as the bane of your existence. It can make you excited or cranky. It either motivates you or defeats you. And we all have one (if not two...or three...or four...)

      A to-do list.

      The trick to making your list more doable is to find a system that strikes the right balance between how you work and what you want to achieve. It requires some discipline and involves some trial and error. But eventually you find a groove that inspires you to get through that list every day.

Outsource and delegate: We all have fires that need putting out, and tackling some day-to-day operations is unavoidable. But, when more than 50% of your to-do list is operational or supportive or repeatable work, that’s too much. By delegating or outsourcing some of that work, you’ve freed up time and energy to focus on things that only you can do. If you don’t, it’ll start costing you money to do it yourself. (Nobody will ever pay you to keep your own website updated, or balance your books, or create those templates...)

Segment and categorize: The longer your list, the less likely you’ll get it done. The goal is to be doing things that A) move you closer to your goals, and B) are broken into manageable – and doable – pieces. The key is to categorize and develop a decision-making matrix:

• ·  Urgent and important: Do this immediately. This is house-is-on-fire kind of stuff.
• ·  Not urgent, but important: This is the critical, high-level stuff. Give it lots of love on your list.
• ·  Urgent, but not important: Delegate this to someone else or reschedule it.
• ·  Not urgent, not important: Why is this even on your list? (I’m looking at you, social media.)
  

Build a default calendar: A default calendar can be a powerful addition to your to-do toolbox. If you have tasks you know produce results, literally block off time to do them.

      If you need to update your CRM every week, block off an hour every Friday to tackle it. If calls are part of your sales strategy, mark off three blocks a week to make those calls. If you want more professional development, use Monday morning to listen to podcasts or read.

      View this time as sacred to your business; don’t schedule meetings over this time, don’t answer emails, don’t answer the phone. This can involve an insane amount of discipline, but it will eventually become habit and you’ll see results quickly.

Find a tool and stick with it: There are a ton of useful, easy-to-use digital tools to help you keep track of what needs doing. The trick is to find a tool that works for you and stick with it. If you spread your task lists between paper, phone apps, web tools and software, not only do things get missed, but it doesn’t take long to feel overwhelmed and overpowered.

      None of us are robots. We all have days that get away from us and nothing gets checked off the list; it can certainly feel discouraging. But with some discipline, an actionable plan, and incorporating the tools you need to get through your to-do list more efficiently, those occasional unproductive days won’t have much of an impact on your goals and long-range plans.

RACHEL RASMUSSEN

About Rachel

Rachel Rasmussen launched Rescue Desk in early 2008, and she and her team have been helping business owners and nonprofits ever since. With a background in marketing and publishing, she thrives on the energy and enthusiasm of Rescue Desk’s clients and works hard to surround herself with creativity every day.

About Rescue Desk

Rescue Desk is a full-service virtual assistant firm and is an alternative to hiring onsite support staff. We are high-level executive assistant, project manager and marketing coordinator all rolled into one. The “virtual” in “virtual assistance” is simply logistics; we work from our office instead of yours. We partner with growing businesses and help them achieve their goals by taking the important – but time-consuming – tasks off their to-do lists. We plug ourselves into our clients’ operations and manage administrative and marketing projects, develop and implement processes, teach them how to delegate, and hold them accountable to their time so they can focus on taking their company to the next level.