For many of us, Covid has caused a wave of work or we’re experiencing challenges with everyone working remotely and there’s just too much day-to-day work that needs to be done. This is an issue that needs to be nipped in the bud quickly so here’s how to get back in control of your workload so that you can make time to work on the business rather than in it.

3 steps to take control of your workload

If you are spinning multiple plates and you have too much on each plate, you need to take back control. This amount of overwhelm can be difficult to shift, so here are the 4 steps that you need to take:

Without valuable deep-thinking time, you are constantly spending your days firefighting. To take back time (and stop firefighting), see the time-management tips below. Start working smarter not harder.

You need to know where your business is growing and how you are going to get there. If you have this, then you can prioritise work of high-value and ensure that you have the capacity and resources to facilitate this growth.

Once you have a clear growth plan and a capacity and resources plan, you need to make sure that you monitor and measure progress. Whether that’s a daily huddle, a weekly operational meeting, a monthly leadership meeting, and/or a quarterly one big focus reset meeting, find what works for you and your team to keep everyone on track.

How to get back more time

We are all guilty of working too much within the business rather than on it, but how do we make more time? How do we reduce the time spent on low-value tasks and increase the time we spend on the tasks that will grow our business?

Here are our best time management tips:

• Do a time audit – where are you actually spending your time? Track what you are doing and how long it takes for 2 weeks. You’ll soon see where your time is being wasted and what needs to change.
• Plan and prioritise work – which tasks are urgent and which are the ones that will help grow the business? Prioritise these to do first.
• Delegate effectively – start delegating authority as well as tasks so that you don’t have to micro-manage.
• Minimise interruptions – when you’re doing high-value tasks, switch off your phone, mute notifications, block out your diary, and work somewhere where you won’t be disturbed.
• Ditch unprofitable clients – low fee clients are often more of a hassle and take up the most time so let them go.
• Outsource low-value tasks – this is the quickest way to gain back time and increase your revenue.
• Hold everyone accountable – even yourself. If you and your team are all held accountable for your tasks, they will get done and done promptly.

Start working smarter, not harder

If you’re overwhelmed with work and there’s just too much in the day to do, every day, take a step back and breathe. What are the goals for your business? What do you need to prioritise to get there? What can you delegate or outsource? What are the tasks that you, and you only, must do?

If you take some time to put these three steps in place – get more headspace, develop a growth plan, and monitor and measure progress – you’ll soon find that you’ll be back in control of your workload and you can spend more time working on the business rather than in it.