Congratulations! You’ve completed another year of business. Many of you are exhausted and feeling burnt out so let’s start 2023 with a promise to rebuild how you run your business and your life. Acknowledge that your work is endless and no matter how hard you try, there will always be more. So manage it instead of it managing you.

Here’s 6 Ways to Start:

1. Schedule regular time to get things done and make it sacred. Block out an hour every day, a morning or whatever works for you to focus on projects that must get done or just think about what’s next for your business. Never give up that allotted time. You’ll find you’re more efficient and thinking ahead.
2. Make your To Do List actionable, not overwhelming—keep a master list of what has to get done and plot it out on a calendar. Don’t have a single list that makes your crazy. Does it really all have to get done this week? Are you prioritizing the things that really must get done this week? Don’t fill your list with the easy tasks and jump on them first—be purposeful and tackle the harder projects.
3. Manage Your Response Times: Set one or two times a day that you look at email—if you constantly look at email and respond instantly you set expectations that impact how you work. As long as you respond, all is good. At the same time, don’t let your emails or phone calls linger—there is nothing worse than not responding. If you don’t want a project, tell the client it’s not the right project for you. Get them off your back (and in fairness to them, let them move on).
4. Schedule meetings so they work for you. Don’t set up a Monday morning update if it means you spend the weekend putting together the update. When meeting with outside suppliers give yourself time to meet, think and act afterwards. Very few things really require an immediate action. Be prompt, be respectful—not overreactive.
5. Plan Your Vacation Now: you need time off to breathe. Maybe it’s one long weekend a month or plan a big two-week period in May before the season starts. Plan for this versus believing that you can’t leave the business. False.
6. Delegate: if you have a team member who will ultimately be doing the work, make that person the contact. If they know how to do the work, they know how to answer questions about the work. If not, train them so they can assume that workload. Don’t be afraid to give up responsibility. If it doesn’t work, fix it. It’s okay to make a mistake.

Maximizing your quality of life is critical to you being able to build and sustain your business. Control the work versus letting it control you. January is a great time to start.

Need help with this or have other business questions? SCORE Cape Cod & the Islands provides free, confidential mentoring. Contact us at capecodscore@verizon.net, or call us at 508-775-4884.