When I hear, “Sorry I’m late!” from someone, I know that the real meaning is usually, “I planned to leave on time but had to put out a fire!”
Now, I’ll admit, I DO surround myself with high achieving, passionate business owners.
They do have a lot on their plate. They are juggling multiple roles.
They also are NOT in the fire safety profession so they are not LITERALLY putting out fires.
But, to them, it feels like they are being bombarded from all sides all day long by questions, requests, emergencies.
So many that they don’t take their to-do lists seriously anymore.
They are unable to devote head space to working on long-term important projects.
And . . . they are seldom on time and almost NEVER early to appointments.
Which then causes their stress level to increase, their professionalism to decrease, and their work product to suffer. . . which ultimately impacts their bottom line.
Here’s the thing . . . it’s doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, it’s a pretty simple switch.
It all comes down to identifying what a REAL EMERGENCY actually is and then acting appropriately.
See, most of my clients THINK they are dealing with emergencies when in reality, they are dealing with unexpected situations.
Jane (not her real name ) and I dug into the “emergencies” that pulled her from her plan yesterday:
- An employee losing her login information
- A client calling for more information on a project
- Realizing her marketing video didn’t format correctly
Now, I’ll admit, each of these situations is important. They all need to be handled – and MAYBE they even need to be handled personally by Jane.
But they aren’t really emergencies. They are unexpected occurrences.
True emergencies are about 1) Safety and 2) Finances. If by taking action you can prevent someone from being hurt or your business from losing a lot of money, then the situation is an emergency.
Otherwise, it’s just unexpected.
In the case of a true emergency, drop everything, bring all hands on deck, and work on putting out the fire.
In the case of an unexpected occurrence, stop, take a deep breath, and determine when you want to address the situation.
- Do you have a block of time after lunch?
- Do you want to handle it first thing tomorrow?
- Do you want to reschedule your “email processing time” to later in the day to take action now?
When you can proactively handle the unexpected interruptions, you regain control of your day.
You become the mistress of your domain and can easily accomplish the most important projects in your day.
Your business grows.
Your free time grows.
Your happiness grows.
All is right in your world again!
I know, the concept seems simple to understand. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to implement. (In fact, many of my clients will “justify” why some unexpected occurrences are real emergencies . . . when they aren’t. Which causes them to stay in the struggle day after day after day.)
Good news, I’m here to help!
Schedule a complimentary Productivity Breakthrough session, and get those important projects done – on time!
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