How to prioritise your insane to-do list as a business owner

As a business owner, you've got a lot going on. Sometimes it's hard to know what your top priorities are and where to put your focus and since there are only so many minutes in a day, you need to find the best way to utilise your time so you can grow your business.

What are your priorities?

Figuring out what your priorities are, and focusing on them, will require an investment of time. However, I know that you don't have any extra time to begin with and that's the whole problem. The fact of the matter is, nothing will change until you decide to do things differently. If you keep going the way you have been, you'll stay lost about what is most important to your business and you therefore won't be able to focus your efforts.

You see, you do have a choice about how you spend your time. You can make the decision to use your time to think about what is most important for your business (prioritising) and then choose to devote your time (focus) on those things.

Stephen Covey made a good point when he said, "The key is not to prioritise what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities."

Identify your goals

There is no time like the present - so are you ready to get started? Why not stop what you are doing right now and identify your business goals. Focus on goals that are connected to the profitability of your business, goals that are close to the money.

Talking through your thoughts is a great way to begin. You can do this by writing down your thought process, talking out loud to yourself or better yet talking it through with someone you trust.

Top three goals

Once you've written down all of your business goals, prioritise your list with the intention of selecting the top three goals. Next to each of your top three goals, write down the things you are doing to reach every goal and how much time you are spending actually focused on those things. Sounds simple, I know, and sometimes we make things more complicated than they need to be.

Keep this list somewhere you can see it, like on your fridge or as a sticky note on your wall- or, better yet, memorise it. Start a new habit of stopping to think before you begin doing something and ask yourself this question, "Will this action move me closer to my business goals?"

Find out what matters most to you

The point is this: the more time you invest in analysing what the most important activities are for your business and planning how you will focus on them, the more profitable your business will be.