Plan your course: Prioritize your daily activities

At Elevation Business Consulting, we are focused on helping small business owners stop scrambling through their daily operations. The journey involves building a map to guide you towards success on your terms. The process starts with finding your trail so you can plan your course and then keep yourself moving forward on your trail.  

Follow the journey of a small business owner eager to end the daily chaos and spend more time doing what he does best to expand his impact on his local community. By studying Travis from Hunchback Graphics’ experience, you will be better positioned to start your journey to end the daily scramble.  

Previously, Travis found his trail by identifying his current state, determining where he wanted to go and then evaluating his daily activities . Now he needs to prioritize how he spends his time.

Plan your course: Prioritize your daily activities

When creativity strikes, Travis responds. He loves designing and supporting organizations throughout his community. His work with Elevation Business Consulting was helping him understand what was causing his chaotic days and he has been taking steps to alleviate the craziness of each week. When he documented everything he was doing, it was clear what activities would be the best use of his skills and most critical to the organization, but he needed to be able to prioritize what was right for him to focus his attention on.

The struggle

Travis was going from task to task each day, trying to get as much completed as possible. It was haphazard and he felt like he was frequently dropping the ball or missing out on new opportunities. His side projects would add more activities to his plate. He was not prioritizing his time on activities with the greatest impact. His was being stretched thin, particularly when project deadlines suddenly became imminent and urgent. Travis needed to determine the best use of his time and energy for Hunchback Graphics and carve out time to complete those activities effectively.

Taking Action

The first step was to evaluate what activities were most critical to the success of the organization. Travis identified client deliverables as a crucial activity that needed more of his focus time. With many deadlines for projects, all with unique scopes of work, he needed a way to keep timelines on track and know how much time he needed to complete projects. He worked with a colleague to set up a project tracking document that organized each client’s deliverables, expected time to complete, and due dates. With an easy list to maintain and reference, Travis was able to carve out specific blocks on his calendar to work on each clients’ project without scrambling to hit a deadline. 

Success

Travis starts each week checking in with his co-owner and referencing the project tracking sheet. With all the specifics in one place, he can prioritize the projects that need the most attention in any given week and determine how his co-owner can best support him. In addition, he can better manage contractors that support him on his projects to ensure all the client deadlines are met. The frantic pace to meet deadlines is reduced and Travis has freed up the brain space to be creative and design, which will lead to even more opportunities to impact his community.