It’s the start of the week. You head to the office and you’re ready to get things done. You have a long list of projects waiting for you. Meetings. Finalizing a presentation. Social media posts. More meetings, which will likely result in another project. Your list seems to keep growing. How are you going to get everything finished and meet your deadlines?

You’re frustrated. You are the one who knows how to do all of these tasks. But there never seems to be enough time to make the progress you need. You’ve considered delegating, but it would take you a while to teach someone. And you don’t want to spend the money to pay an outside consultant to take over something that you can do yourself. So you continue to chip away at your tasks.

Whether you’re the company owner, the project manager, or one of the team members, one of the most important things to know is the value of your time. We only have so much time in a day. Being productive is crucial.

Understanding where your time is spent and how to use it the most effectively will help you tackle your neverending project list.

To help you prioritize that task list, here are a few things you should consider:

What are the most valuable contributions that you make to your organization?
Specifically, what are the top one or two things that you do that bring the most value to your company? This might be sales revenue, customer retention, sales leads, strict financial controls, or some other measurable.
Let’s say you own or run a small business. You wear a few different hats at any given time. It’s important to you to stay on top of everything else in the company to make sure things are going the way they should. It’s tough to juggle it all, but you feel that it’s best.
If you are the main sales person, bringing in sales and new revenue should be your number one priority. That means your top focus must be sales. Making the sales visits. The phone calls. Answering prospect emails. Ensuring a smooth transition to the account team to take over the account. Networking, working with your marketing team, or whatever brings you leads.
This may all sound like common sense, but when you’re trying to manage multiple departments and keep up on what’s going on with the rest of the company, it’s easy to get distracted from your primary focus. So you must focus your time.
The projects that bring the most value to your company should be your top priority. Especially if these projects are the ones that fuel your company’s growth and add to the bottom line.
Are you working on something that will grow or benefit your company?
Is your company rolling out a new service or working on a growth-focused project? If you’re not currently doing this, is it something you should consider? Your business is going gangbusters, so you’re laser-focused on its success. That’s great news!
Running a company means being on the lookout for new opportunities, trends and the next wave of growth. You’ll want to be prepared when you’re ready to take the next step in your business. Ideally, you’ll be ahead of the curve and leading the way.
To do this, you need to stay up-to-date on industry news. Read the local or national publications and blogs. Listen to podcasts. Go to industry conferences. Network with others in the industry to know what’s happening and coming soon.
Most importantly, understand how your company can take advantage of these trends, and your next step to grow when the time is right.
How do you prioritize this? Knowing the industry and your game plan for growth is critical. Unless you are actively making a change in your company, stay focused on your primary role we discussed earlier. But keep it as a priority that works with your schedule. Listen to podcasts during your commute. Your sales lunches can double as an opportunity to learn about what your prospects are seeing in the industry.
By staying on top of what’s happening in the market and what your customers need and foresee needing, you will be more prepared to make a change. Fit gathering this information into your schedule in a way that works best for you.
What are the things that you do well and efficiently?
Everyone has tasks that they do better than others. You might be a savant when it comes to doing the company financials, but it might take you longer to dig in to the new project that just landed on your desk. Most likely, the things that you do well and efficiently are also the ones that you enjoy doing the most.
There are two different ways you could handle the workload.
The first option is tackle the things that you do the best upfront. This will get the most work done the quickest. Once you make solid progress on your project list, leave a good amount of time to work on the things that are harder to do.
The second alternative is to work on the hardest project first and make some progress on it. If you’re overwhelmed with your new project, break it into manageable chunks and work on one of these chunks at a time. After you have made some progress on the new project, switch to the tasks that you do better and faster, which will seem like a reward for your hard work and progress.
Develop a schedule that works for you and maximizes both your time, and the results you need to achieve. Once you develop what works best for you, stick with it. You will get more done when you continuously use your system.

Take a look at your project list again with the above recommendations in mind.

Identify the items that you can reasonably get done.

You probably still have a list of things you want or need to accomplish. Here are some final ideas.

What are the things on your list that you can delegate? These are the things that are Important for your business. But they do not require you to personally do them.
Is there someone in your company who can take on these items for you? Divide the tasks between multiple team members so you’re not overloading them. This might be an opportunity to let a newer or younger employee take on more responsibility and free up your calendar at the same time.
Don’t get rid of everything at once. Set time to move one project a week or a month, depending on your needs and project scope. This will make it easier to put in your schedule, and time to prepare for the meetings. Then monitor it to see how it goes. Ask the person now responsible for this project to check in with you regularly to make sure you’re satisfied that they understand the project and are doing the work correctly.
Don’t have a team member who can help you with some of your tasks? You may want to consider outsourcing some projects. This might be outsourcing a marketing campaign, using a virtual assistant to manage your schedule and emails, or hiring a virtual employee, like a virtual CFO, CMO, IT resource, or other role.
Taking items off of your project list that don’t have to be done by you will help you feel less overwhelmed. Having people do the work will still help you be in control while allowing you to stay on top of what’s going on in the rest of the company.
One more important thing.
Work can be overwhelming at times. Be sure that while you’re working hard, you’re also taking time for yourself. Schedule a day off. Be sure you’re taking a vacation. An afternoon or long weekend will help rejuvenate you to come back and tackle next week’s list.
The list will be there. Hopefully a little shorter next time.