Get more done in less time is a well-known concept that deserves challenging! Somehow, this theory seems to suggest that “getting more done” aligns with small business performance and obtaining your goals. As an already overwhelmed entrepreneur, do you really want to get more done in less time, or do you want to get the right things done in less time?
Uncover the Right Things
Doing the right things in less time is how to achieve small business performance. Identifying the right things, however, is a small business entrepreneur’s greatest challenge.
Every day, technological advancements and information add unnecessary complexity to our business. In fact, Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, noted that more information is created in two days than the total amount of information produced since the dawn of mankind. Yikes! Minus a watchful eye, it’s easy to see how such needless complication distracts even the most diligent entrepreneur from focusing on the right things.
Like penetrating the hard lollipop exterior of a tootsie pop to get to the gooey, chocolaty tootsie roll neatly tucked inside, we need a smart, yet simple, small business performance strategy to crack this nut.
Stop Accomplishing. Start Achieving.
There’s a slight, but critical, distinction between accomplish and achieve. Although used interchangeably, they actually have very distinct connotations.
Achieve is defined as ‘bring to a successful conclusion; reach a goal’. Accomplish means ‘to succeed in doing’. Accomplish is about getting things done; achieve gets the right things done. By examining the definitions with your entrepreneurial critical analysis skill set, it’s easy to see how one can get things done (i.e. accomplish) yet still not reach your goal (i.e. achieve). By concentrating your efforts on achieving, your focus is on getting the right things done.
Don’t overly complicate your business. Multiple initiatives burden you and your small business. Select the most important initiatives that contribute directly to your small business goals and invest your resources there.
Eliminate that which is not producing results. Simplify. Free up the time, and more importantly the mental space, to clearly realize the right things to get done for your small business to achieve.
Small business performance is not found in getting more done in less time – it’s found in getting the right things done.
Now, let’s get out there and do the right thing!
