How to Juggle Multiple Tasks

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Starting a business used to be a distantfantasy, something you tossed around while at your desk in corporate SA. Butnow you’ve done it. And though you’re proud, you’ve also got 14 things to dobefore breakfast – and space for only nine. Think you can’t get through it all?

Here are experts’ methods to keep you from going mad:

1. Stopwhining.

Stop wasting time worrying; it’sself-defeating. Your job is to get things done. The more time you spendworrying, putting things off and spinning your wheels, the more you add to yourworkload. Watch how quickly that pile on your desk disappears when you stopkilling time and actually attack it.

2. Eschewperfection.

Perfectionism is your enemy. Manypeople don’t turn in work – never get things done, never start a business -because they’re waiting until it’s perfect. Life isn’t perfect; you’re alwaysdoing things that are less than optimal. You have to take a risk. Maybe you’llmake a wrong decision, but you have to make the decision and move on.

3. Meetsmart.

If you find yourself in an unavoidablemeeting, make sure your time is well spent. Try scheduling 20-minute meetings,either 20 minutes before lunch or 20 minutes before 5pm. People want to go tolunch, and they want to go home. Tell them, “We’re not leaving until wefinish”, and watch how quickly the work gets done.

4. Maketime to have fun.

Remember what it is you’reworking for. You started a business to enjoy your life more fully, not to be atthe mercy of anyone else’s schedule. Scheduling fun time to relax is just asimportant as scheduling that management meeting. It will refresh you and giveyou the energy you need to tackle more work. How to do it? By being efficient.Get your work done as soon as it comes in – when it’s out of the way, you canmove on to the fun stuff.

5. Treasureyour family time.

The one organisational tool youcan’t live without is family support. Time together may not always be possible,but squeeze in even an hour a day, and make sure it’s quality time. 

6. Don’tdwell on the past.

This goes for past victories aswell as defeats. Don’t complain about what went wrong. If you’ve just had theworst sales year in the history of the company, go out and cool off for 10minutes and then get back to work. And if you’ve had the best sales year in thehistory of your company, go out and celebrate for 10 minutes and then get backto work and improve it. You celebrate victories for a short period of time, andyou mourn defeats for a short period of time.

The key to juggling all the stuff in yourlife? Be passionate about what you’re doing. If you love it, you can do it.Also, remember to enjoy the process of growing your business. It’s why you gotstarted in the first place.

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