As leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs we juggle numerous projects, deadlines, requests for our time, ideas, Rocks, and hundreds of other things every day. We can feel overwhelmed and stressed by lengthy to-do lists, looming deadlines, and being out of focus. Strengthening the Six Key Components™ of our businesses help us effectively and efficiently manage the daily issues and challenges.
That said we might struggle to manage our time well, stay on track and be productive.
Enter the assistant — an actual seat on your Accountability Chart™, someone within the company that can assist you, a virtual assistant, or maybe even a technology solution that automates a task.
A skilled assistant can take a number of day-to-day and periodic activities off your plate so that you can focus on what you do best. If you have completed the Delegate and Elevate™ exercise, perhaps there are tasks you don’t like to do (even though you are good at them), as well as tasks you don’t like to do and are not good at doing. This is the first place to look in order to free up some of your time.
Here are some other ideas for consideration:
- Can someone sort your incoming email and handle the routine ones so you can address the most important communications? For example, someone could handle unsolicited resumes and inquiries about exhibiting at an upcoming trade show. They could clean out all the junk emails, such as the opportunity to share in the $76 million dollar inheritance you can get from an unknown, deceased relative in a country 22,000 miles away.
- The same process can also apply to daily mail.
- Perhaps you can sort the stack of papers sitting around your office into two piles—the items only you can address, and the routine matters someone else can handle, such as filing, shredding, or copying.
- Let someone else handle your schedule.
Do these ideas sound scary? Yeah, they did to me too. I have to admit, however, that hiring an assistant when I was CEO of a large company saved me at least one day a week. My assistant and I had a 10-minute meeting each morning — a quick check in to see what the day’s priorities were — and then we both went to work. When I finally hired an assistant, I stopped yelling, “Help!”
It can be hard to pass the reigns of even the easiest tasks onto someone else, but doing so lets you transition from working “in” your business to working “on” your business. When you delegate some of your daily mundane tasks, you can focus on the bigger, more crucial projects that require your attention. A management system such as EOS® can give you the tools and processes necessary to make important yet sometimes difficult business decisions such as this. EOS®was instrumental in growing my business when I was a CEO, and I’m confident it can help you, too.
Please fill out the consult form below if you’d like to talk with me further about EOS®or hiring help for your business. No one likes to feel unproductive or like they are drowning in their own administrative tasks. And you shouldn’t have to. Let EOS®be your life preserver so you can break through the ceiling and focus on growing your business.
