Stop devoting all your attention to non-executive tasks. This year is already moving quickly, so your work management schedule needs a boost.
If you are ready to expand your business and produce sales, you must work in an environment that promotes execution. An important first step is to look into AI technologies that may help you plan your work and establish a timetable based not only on your business but also on your habits. This will make the process bearable, but everything is relative.
This article is part of Effició’s “Operational Excellence Through Education” series, where we share resources, tools, advice, and infrastructure changes to help you align your business for long-term success. In this installment, we want to share five broad categories into which you can split your time, along with three activities to get you started. Other forms of work can be added and adapted for your company:
1. Client/Customer Work
This includes providing services and products to clients if you have not delegated this yet.
- Follow up on questions, requests, and inquiries from clients.
- Update, organize, and finish client projects and research.
- Create quarterly communication programs for announcements, special offers, and new product introductions.
2. Administrative Work
Paperwork, phone calls, emails, scheduling, and other “busy work” that keeps the business running.
- Work on a formatted daily activity schedule that includes all those things you have to do to keep the business running—phone calls, emails, scheduling, checking messages, going through mail, etc. Spend only one hour per day doing your daily activities first thing in the morning.
- Maintain your daily executive to-do list by keeping your list in a spiral notebook with dates on each page or an electronic notebook like OneNote. Write all details for each to-do and check off as you complete.
- Check your project folders and update details, dates, and delivery schedules.
3. Strategy Work
This is your center for taking action on anything strategic, such as planning, reading, continued education, documenting, etc.
- Commit to strategic planning for at least five hours per week.
- Check your goals, milestones, and actions, and update progress and results.
- Engage in market research, product research, and new technologies research each week.
4. Marketing Work
Spend your time persuading your target audience to buy what you are selling.
- Post a blog entry once per month about your company’s dedication to a specific topic or value.
- Write a new quick tip every month called “executive perspective” or something that resonates with you and post it on social media.
- Work on completing your marketing department, systems, and processes every week until it’s completely documented.
5. Procrastination Work
This involves sitting around feeling bad because you are not doing what you were supposed to do, so you do something else.
- Procrastination work is a valid way to divide your time. There aren’t three activities we suggest because this category is defined by you. Try to come up with your procrastination schedule to determine your best procrastination activities. Once you see the things you do, you probably will not do them anymore.
If your environment is not suitable for how you do business, it will be difficult to finish routine tasks, let alone implement executive plans. Therefore, get focused and organized to divide your time effectively and facilitate execution.
By adopting these strategies, you can create an environment that enhances your productivity and helps you achieve operational excellence.
For more insights and actionable advice tailored to your unique business challenges, attend our free education seminar. Held on Zoom every 1st Thursday of the month, this seminar will provide you with the full details of our education programs and help you take the first step towards enrolling as a student.
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