| How to manage a small business
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How to manage a small business
It happens that the flood of “To Do” tasks can come into view irresistible. Here’s a easy way to cut through the clutter and make stuff happen.
How to manage a small business step 1 - Jot down Think of your mind as RAM Random Access Memory with restricted capacity. To free your creative sense for insight, and problem solving, carry a note pad and write down what you have to do. Every day when you get back to your desk, open your computer and sort out the list.
How to manage a small business step 2 - Is it practical? If you can’t act on it, put it into one of three categories, reference, like a notable article, a task that you might do later, sooner or later – maybe, and trash. If an article is reference, you can file it in a desk sorted by Manila Folders or even scan it and save it as a PDF file on your computer. Trash goes into the circular file. For one day maybe, you can use a personal organizer, but since this is the 21st Century, I structure the time in my life around Microsoft Viewpoint which lives on my desktop computer and speaks to my Palm Pilot. Both have a tasks function that I have broken into categories, one day maybe being one that I occasionally check.
How to manage a small business Step 3 - If something is actionable either do it., delete it, or defer it. If a task can be knob where you are in just a couple of minutes do. It would take longer to defer it.
How to manage a small business step 4 - Delegate it If you can delegate it, do so. Viewpoint gives you the option of conveying a task to somebody else, setting due dates and priority and sending the task to a recipient in your contacts list. It will also notify you when the task is reported done. You can file this task in another Outlook category, waiting for.
How to manage a small business Step 5 - Defer it If you can’t handle a task immediately defer it to a category where it can be done, for example @phone, if you have to call a client, @home to mow the lawn @office, @gym, or @errands. If a task has to be done at a specific time, put it under the Outlook calendar; if must be done by a certain time, file it under deferred with the due date and time. Don’t forget to set reminders.
Step 6 - Project Management Of course you will have projects that can’t be handled as simply. File these in the task manager under projects, labeling each. Projects will require more research and have to be broken down into multiple steps.
Step 7 - Once a week be sure to go over your tasks, checking on their status, moving to do items to the calendar. For more on this simple but effective method of managing your in-box, buy David Allen’s book Getting Things Done.
How to manage a small business >
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