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Are You Getting Distracted From The Work That Matters Most?

StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Distracted from work|Are You Getting Distracted From The Work That Matters Most?As a business owner, especially that of a fledgling company, you have to get used to wearing a lot of hats. Manager, salesperson, marketer, visionary, and more. However, it’s easy to get so used to performing a wide series of tasks that you can get pulled away from your core business. When that happens, the foundation that supports the whole can start to crumble. Here, we’re going to look at ways of making sure that doesn’t happen.

Know and set out your core tasks

The first thing you have to make sure that you do is set your focus in the right place. You might have plenty of responsibilities to fulfill and jobs that need to be done, but how many of them should truly fall to you? With the help of tools like a priority matrix, you can set out all the tasks that you need to accomplish and order them by urgency and importance. That way you can always make sure that your attention is going where it’s needed.

Automate what you need to

There might be work that you want to ensure is completed, but to do it manually, yourself, would simply take more time than it should. There are all kinds of automated software that you can use to take care of several tasks in the business, with accounting software being some of the most helpful and widespread. Of course, even automated tasks need a guiding hand, but they can at least take some of the load off your shoulders.

Don’t let the busywork distract

There is other work that’s important but doesn’t need all your time and energy to take care of, even if it can’t be automated. For basic admin work and dealing with emails and other communications while you’re busy, a virtual assistant can be very helpful indeed. Just be mindful that, if you’re using freelancers, you be careful as to what access you give them to what resources.

Know when you need the experts

You might be able to do the work of a virtual assistant just fine on your own, but you need them because you want to free up your time. There are other tasks that are more complex, however, and can pull you entirely away from your core business if you focus on them. Tech work, for instance, can be entrusted to an IT support company. Similarly, you should rely on HR experts to take care of crafting HR policies and running payroll, just as you should have lawyers working on contracts. Don’t try to do it all yourself if you don’t have the necessary expertise.

Look at expanding your team

Of course, outsourcing is not always the answer. If you find that you reliably have needs that you’re not able to meet in your own business and the cost of outsourcing would simply run too high, then you need to think about what job roles you can create and start finding new hires.

Your core business needs your attention (and no one else’s) to make sure that it’s run right. Other parts of what you’re currently doing might not have the same need. Be sure to keep that in mind with the tips above.