Have you ever had a week where your To-Do list just seems to keep growing on its own? As soon as you get 2 things done, the phone rings and suddenly you’ve added 3 more things to the list?
Or maybe it’s not a phone call that brings up new items for the list; maybe as you are thinking about some part of your business, you are the one who comes up with 3 great new ideas that are added to your To-Do list…
As our business grows and expands in several new directions this year, I am finding myself a little overwhelmed at my ever growing To-Do list. I find myself working on one task while ideas for new projects pop into my head. So I’ll add a few things to my To-Do list for later and try to finish the task at hand.
While it’s somewhat stressful to have a To-Do list that seems to be a mile long, it’s also exciting to think about new projects:
What can I do for project A today?
Do I have enough time to work on project B today?
Where can I find the resources to finish the outline for project C?
…and so on…
But after reading an insightful article “It’s Not About You in FourSquare and Other Social Channels” by Shel Holtz, I’ve come to realize that a lot of what fills up my days lately seems to focus on what I want to do for my projects. When really the focus should be on the clients:
- What do my clients (or potential clients) need?
- What service/product will best help my clients?
When I focus on the clients, look at my To-Do list, and ask myself “what items on this list do the clients need the most?” it becomes much easier to prioritize and get things done.
Suddenly, my mile-long list becomes much shorter: I now can focus on the 2-3 most important items that benefit my clients today.
How many times do we start a new project (or even a new business) because it’s something we think is fun or something that excites us?
Maybe our focus should remain on the clients – the reason we stay in business – and plan our projects or new ventures around what the client really wants; on what excites the client.
So as I’m putting a focus on the clients and what they need, I’m working on a much shorter, more meaningful To-Do list today – how about you?