As we discovered last week, when all your systems are in your head and you’re the only one spinning all the plates, you will start to feel overwhelmed and plates will start to fall. This week we are all about quieting your mind.

Have you gone to bed and had all the things from your to-do list, all the things you didn’t get done, and all the things you have to figure out how to get done tomorrow, spinning and spinning? Now you can’t sleep and you are going to wake up tired on top of the overwhelm. That’s not going to help you be productive and proactive. 

Become Proactive - Not Reactive - In Your Business

Take out the list of all the things you do each day and let’s break it down a bit.

What are the things that can all be bunched together? For example, I bunch blogs, emails, and social media for the week into one block of time. They all feed off each other and work together, so it’s more efficient to have the full thought: write this blog, develop these posts, and write this email to correspond. Schedule them all out and go have lunch (lol)! 

Because I have done this many times over and over, I know the entire process takes me about 1.5-2 hours. You might need to experiment and make sure you give yourself enough time to complete the full task in the block you set aside. If it needs adjusting for next time, adjust (just don’t skip lunch!) 

Now, let’s go one step further. I don’t need to be the one who schedules the blog, email, and social media posts. I have a Virtual Assistant that does this, but she needs instruction and a good process to get it done. My rule of thumb is that I do a task 2 times and then hand it off. The first time the task is an idea and I’m usually fumbling around getting things set up (i.e. the blog platform, the template for the image, etc). The second time I write the blog, I set up the process and develop an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for the task. I perform the tasks and use Loom to record each step while I’m doing them. 

Look over your list and choose 1-2  SOPs you can put into place this week. Do this even if you don’t have a Virtual Assistant and you do the tasks all yourself in your business. 

Here is an SOP Template you can use and a sample of a task in the template format:

SOP Template

SOP Template Sample

Please let me know how it’s going for you and if you have any questions.