Working On It, Not In It

Everyone knows this phrase – on it not in it, just as we all know we should ‘focus on the important’ bits first. We also know we must have a goal; a destination or we could end up back where we started. A plan; otherwise we will just go round and round in circles.

So why don’t we? Sometimes we just love working in our business just that bit too much, or is it that we don’t know where to start?

If you need something to focus on then remember your £100K salary? You are the director for a reason – you are paid to direct not do. And in exchange for your £100K you need to be giving the business back 10 times that figure - £1m worth of value.

How do you do that?

1. Delegate, automate and terminate those things that you can get done cheaper, easier, better or quicker. The £30ph bookkeeper will do in 2 hours what it takes you all day to do – so that’s freed up your Saturday or Sunday!

Related post: Delegate, Automate & Terminate 

2. Think. Thinking time is crucial – what is your goal, the plan, the options, the vision, what is the business about? Where are you losing or making money, are you doing the right things; in fact what are the right things?

3. Link with others. Feed off their success, their values, work ethic, and infectiousness – avoid the people that drain the life out of you.

4. Keep learning. Be a business and a life student, see what others do and what you can learn from them, what can you improve or adapt for your business. Industries outside of your sector are great learning opportunities too.

5. Focus on achieving rather than doing – we can all be busy doing nothing! One thing I like is to complete 3 tasks before 10. And I write them down the night before so I can be at full throttle within minutes of starting work.

Related post: Just do it

6. Try the 18 minute rule – there are 26 of them in a working day – that’s 26 tasks. I can now write a blog in 18 minutes. It was half a day but now its 18 minutes and £10 to my VA to post it, SEO and tweet it. 222 minutes saved and 12 more 18 minute chunks to work on the business. My husband jokes that the 18 minute alarm gets more attention than he does!

You probably can’t stop working ‘in the business’ straight away. So, decide what you need in place to be able to do just that and systematically solve each issue – soon you will only working ‘on the business’.

Your only challenge is to find the time – a few percentage points of your ‘un-productive’ time could help you now.