Eyes on the Road, Hands on the Wheel

The last few weeks have been really busy for me at RocketGirl headquarters.

My clients have returned from summer ready to launch into new projects, my 5th grader Emily is getting settled into a new school, and I’m getting into the swing of a new routine.

With so many balls in the air it didn’t take me long to get caught in the spinning world of just doing the next thing in front of me. You probably know what I mean-handling the person, piece of paper, or idea that’s right there and following the trail until the next person, paper or idea shows up. Repeat over and over until you have no idea what you’re doing or why you’re doing it.

This is a very dangerous behavior for a business owner to indulge in.

First of all, it means that you don’t really have your hands on the steering wheel. And secondly, if you’re in reaction mode, I can guarantee that you’re not moving in any kind of strategic direction.

Thankfully I’ve been doing this long enough to know that it was time to take a dose of my own medicine. It was time to make a shift. You can’t grow your business, or even tread water, if you can’t keep your focus.

When you find yourself in this situation (and who doesn’t from time to time?), remember these three suggestions for getting your hands back on the wheel:

1. Clear the space. When I’m resetting my work mode, the first thing I do is take every single thing off my desk, from Kleenex boxes and knick-knacks, to each scrap of paper. I then clean the surface of my desk (this is extra credit).
   
   Now it’s time to put back your “stuff” (but no papers yet, please). Remember that every single thing on your desk is taking up some of your attention, whether you realize it or not, so be really picky about what lives within your immediate view. 
   
   Your desk top is a place to be creative, solve problems and make money. Make sure there’s enough visual space to do that.
2. Organize the work. Despite the conventional wisdom that says to handle each paper just once, I begin by sorting my huge pile into chunks according to blow-up-ability (i.e., the likelihood that something terrible will happen if I don’t take care of it). 
   
   I do my sorting on a table, not my desk, and here are some of my categories: Red Hot (if I don’t take care of it in the next couple of days I’m in big trouble); Want To Keep But No Action Required (there’s no blow-up-ability possible); Client Work that is sorted by project, stored in folders, and sorted again according to the status of the project. GREAT!
3. Create room. The final step, and perhaps the hardest, is to dedicate blocks of time for work and schedule them into your calendar. No email, no phone calls, just you and the work. Tell the people around you that, “Unless it’s on fire, I don’t need to know for the next X hours.” 
   
   If you’ve tried all of this and still find it difficult to stay focused, choose one project to work on. Take only what you need and either move to another room in your office, bring it home, or find a coffee shop with Wi-Fi.When I do this it feels like I can get an entire day’s work done in two hours. 
   
   I can hear the chorus from here, “I don’t have time to clean my office! I can’t leave my phone or email for hours at a time! I’m running a company here!”

I’m here to tell you that, if you can’t leave your phone or take the time to get yourself organized, you’re not running your company. Your company is running you.

I guarantee that if you stop reacting to everything that’s coming at you and take some time to organize your office, your projects, your thoughts and your time, you’ll get more done more easily than you ever thought possible.

Ahh…that feels better already.