Are you ever frustrated that certain marketing or business efforts seem to always get pushed aside by more urgent projects? Or maybe there are so many things to do that it’s hard to decide what to work on. Maybe you need a plan.
Last week, I had the distinct privilege of sharing how I applied Ilise Benun’s “Simplest Marketing Plan” to my business during her “Office Hours” session and posting a guest blog about it. So, thanks to Ilise, and in honor of “Social Media Monday,” I’m sharing this idea to help you get your weekly marketing and business tasks done.
Read on below for my Task-A-Day plan
The Task-a-Day plan
When you’re a business owner—especially a solo entrepreneur—you have to wear a lot of hats. It’s hard to manage from one day to the next as you respond to urgencies of all kinds. Often one right after another. The problem with urgent things is they aren’t always the most important thing you should be doing.
A great example of this is a ringing phone. When the phone rings you answer it. Until a couple of years ago we had a house phone in addition to our cell phones. Over time, our friends and family called the house phone less and less. When it rang it was usually robo-calls, political pollsters, or about an extended warranty on the car. Definitely not important.
The “Task-a-Day” plan is way to stay focused on important goals and the tasks that get you closer to your goals. You simply attend to one or more tasks every single day to move your aspirations forward. In the process you build good habits and become more efficient and effective.
Simply assign categories of tasks to different days of the work week. Make sure the categories are specific to your goals for improvement. It could be business categories, like prospecting, marketing, sales, and accounting. It could include professional and personal development, too.
Then create a list of the types of tasks you will do every day in that category. These tasks must be linked to progress on your goals and should include routine tasks and procedures as well as “one-and-done” items. Consult your list and devote a minimum of a half hour to completing tasks in the category of the day. This helps build consistent habits for these important business matters and will help you stay on top of your growth.
A little bit of time every day will yield results. That’s the beauty of this plan, you make incremental progress while building good habits and practices. Keep it up for a few months and you’ll see how much you are getting done. There’s a cumulative effect in play. Plus, you’ll be `getting better at these tasks, becoming more efficient and able to handle more in the same amount of time. Certain things will become habits and you’ll be more comfortable and competent.
Getting started is often the hardest part so applying this plan helps get you going in the right direction. And once you’ve started, it’s often quite easy to keep going which will help you even more to achieve your goals. Since you’re doing a little bit every day of the week, the tasks become more manageable and small goals that lead to the big ones are a whole lot less intimidating.
Say goodbye to being overwhelmed. Here’s how…
Think of five things you need to handle on an ongoing basis in your business affairs. Or perhaps it’s five projects you need to accomplish, or five areas of development to pursue. Assign each of the five things to a day of the week. If five is too many, do three (MWF) or two (TT) it’s completely customizable. Remember the point is to establish consistent habits.
If it helps, use a mnemonic device or a catchy phrase.
- For me, it is arranged by categories and goes like this:
- Social Media Monday
- Teachable Tuesday
- Website Wednesday
- Thoughtful Thursday
- Financial Friday
This framework is for the ongoing business and professional tasks I want to pursue. Each area has something that needs ongoing attention for my business to thrive. You may have different categories, or you may agree with my choices here. Customize the list and adjust it to your liking and current needs. Then you’ll want to define your tasks. Here is what I do:
Social Media Monday. This is an area where I need improvement. I am on-again-off-again with social media but that’s not helpful or strategic. So, the designated tasks for this day are about engaging with others on social media and increasing my visibility on a select few platforms. That means Linked In, Facebook, Instagram, and my website. The time is reserved for posting, blogging, commenting, and participating in conversations online. It’s also when I work on targeted outreach efforts to engage potential clients.
I’m writing this post on Social Media Monday.
If you’re already in a regular social media habit, you could do Marketing Monday, instead. And I will, too, eventually. If I switched too soon, I’m likely to neglect social media, even though we all know that social media is part of the marketing mix these days.
Teachable Tuesday. This is a day for learning and professional development. It’s a day to “sharpen the saw” as Steven Covey put it in his seminal work. Take time every day to improve yourself or to learn something new. It fosters a growth mindset that will help in every other area in your life, too.
For me, as a graphic design instructor, during the fall and spring semesters I focus this day on grading, updating lessons, general preparations, and faculty duties. In the months off from school, I use this time to learn on my own and attend to my professional development.
Website Wednesday. The day for maintenance, updates, and refreshments. I’m not advocating adult refreshments (necessarily) while updating my website, I mean refreshing the web. (Though I never say never.)
This is when I add text and visuals to my portfolio or update my services page. I’ll add my blogs and posts, and make sure things are working well. Often, I review and tweak things to increase clarity or change emphasis. It’s a day for me to learn as well. To increase my skills in web design.
Thoughtful Thursday. Anything that takes an analytical focus is allotted to this day. It could be writing that proposal, reviewing projects and timelines, or creating that presentation deck. The time can be used to generate content or do research. Anything that needs brainstorming would qualify, too. As would reviewing legal documents or creating business plans.
Financial Friday. As the name suggests this is the day to do anything related to money. Such as banking, bookkeeping, budgeting, billing, tracking expenditures, doing taxes, balancing statements, collections, and forecasting. Also, if that’s not enough to be doing on a Friday, it’s for learning about any or all of these things.
These are my current essential business areas. All of which are important but usually not urgent. And because they’re not urgent, they are often the easiest things to put off. That’s why this structure helps me prioritize, keep my goals in focus, and maintain consistent progress.
Having a task-a-day plan can help you, too. Do you like my list?
What would be on yours?
