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Entrepreneurship is made of a variety of tasks and priorities and also, a variety of potential difficulties and struggles. When you are trying to stay on top of all your business responsibilities and challenges, it can become harder to keep yourself focused on what really matters.
Here are the best tips and strategies that I use in order to remind myself of the big picture and avoid obsessing on minor details.
I believe that this process goes beyond the business world. Reminding yourself of your personal goals, values and motivation can be useful in every aspect of your life.
The Daily Review
If you have been reading my blog or watched me on YouTube, you know that daily reviews are an important part of my productivity process.
These can start off as very specific – I write down and prioritize or regroup the top tasks that I want to work on and complete by the end of the day. This is a great technique to set goals for the day or work session, and avoid getting distracted by other tasks.
But after you have written down your to-do list, it can be a good idea to find motivation by reminding yourself why you are focusing on these tasks in the first place, and what role they play in the scenario of your business or personal ambitions.
Unlike the to-do list, this part of your daily review should pay attention to the bigger picture, which can go anywhere from fitness goals to revenue targets, and should serve as a reminder of what really matters to you.
I normally perform my daily review in the morning, when my mind is fresh and I find it most useful to decide my priorities for the day.
However, some people like to carry out their review in the evening, as a way to wrap up their day and evaluate their work session. You can try both ways and find out what works best for you, and it might be that you have a morning and evening review.
Remind Yourself Of Goals
Refreshing your memory on goals will motivate you and help you keep things in perspective. Looking at an apparently trivial task on a list and reminding yourself that completing it will work towards the 10% revenue increase you want by the end of the quarter will in turn have you thinking about how that revenue goal will change your business, and the reason why you set yourself that target in the first place. Instead of letting that task drag on and getting frustrated at yourself, you will renew your motivation and boost your productivity.
Getting lost in the details and drifting from the original perspective is normal over time. Even when there is a really valuable goal or benefit behind your project. That is why so many successful entrepreneurs plan work and targets on timelines of 30, 60 or 90 days. If you want something done in the long run, you need to remind yourself of it on a daily basis.
One of the best parts about using these techniques is that they do not work in one way only. By reviewing and reminding yourself of long-term goals daily, it will also be easier for you to prioritize your present tasks. Seeing how they do or do not fit in the bigger picture will boost your motivation and productivity, but also help you to place them at the top or bottom of your priority list.