EP77: Setting Priorities

I was listening to a podcast the other day.

It was Nick Warren's podcast. He has no problem talking about almost anything and will [somehow] always find a way to create a business reference.

And had recently completed a series on metaphors.

In this particular episode of his, Nick brilliantly began talking about dishwashers.

Yeah, dishwashers of all things!

He mentions that a buddy of his tagged him the other day in a message about dishwasher cleaning tablets.

Nick then went on and mentioned that he does not own one.

He said he didn't want one either.

He mentioned that the cottage where he and his wife lives [in England] is too small for one, and he is not convinced that they are better than not having one.

He said in most of the places where he stays when away on business trips or vacation, there usually is a dishwasher.

But he does not use them.

Nick mentions that of the two functions of doing dishes, washing, and drying, he is more fond of washing up.

He said that as he sees it, washing the dishes is good for the environment. [among other things]

He said it brings order to chaos and he gets enjoyment from doing it, knowing he did something positive.

That he is contributing.

However…

Drying dishes is not a habit he encourages.

Why?

Because, as he stated it, “left alone, dishes dry themselves.”

This is true.

If you just leave the clean dishes in the drainer, they will magically dry themselves.

Drying the dishes yourself is doing work that is not required.

Then Nick got to the point of the podcast.

He asked, "when you are doing what you are doing [in whatever work you do], are you only doing the things that need to be done by you?"

Or…

"Are you fiddling around with stuff, that if left alone, would take care of itself?"

He went on and talked about how it was in the Agency he owned. Nick said that there were plenty of things that seemed urgent, but if he ignored them, or more correctly if he prioritized them before he could get to it, they had mostly resolved themselves.

He said most of the time it was people he worked with, who wanted to know what he would do in a certain situation.

If they were “ignored” or prioritized, he would find that they became resourceful and found the answer on their own.

Everyone benefited.

As business people, we are busy all the time, doing things that require no outside effort is essentially wasting the time we have little of and cannot replace.

Here's the practical business application.

Are there activities that we do regularly that do not require to be done?

Are we spinning our wheels occupied with low-important tasks?

Do we wonder why we're not further along in our business?

Ever wonder where the day has gone, and nothing important has been finished?

So, are we washing up or are we drying?

Sure there are plenty of things that a business must do each day to function.

In no particular order…

Read and answer customer support emails.

Develop products and the supporting materials to launch it into the world.

Develop important business relationships that will help support you along the way.

Create marketing materials.

Write emails for nurture sequences.

Create advertising materials.

Produce podcasts.

Which is good.

We should ALL think about prioritizing our activities and tasks.

We should do the most important things first.

Keep in mind, which ones are going to make the boat go faster?

By the time you get down your priorities list, some of those seemingly essential tasks will be completed already or have gone away.

As a business owner just starting, you get to wear all the hats.

Fun, right?

Soooo, don't let unimportant tasks stop you from moving your business needle forward.

As soon as possible hire a VA [virtual assistant] to manage the needed to be done, but less important tasks, so you can build your business.

I mean really, isn't every JOB out there just someone doing tasks that the business owner doesn't want to do themselves?

They are important, but in running a business the owner must occupy his time with high-level tasks that propel the business forward to meet its goals.

Right now, YOU ARE that business owner.

Anyway, so back to the dishwasher.

I have one.

I don't use it.

My wife does.

She prefers it.

I'm with Nick on this one.

I prefer to wash dishes by hand.

I also prefer to let them dry on their own. But I have hand dried as well.

It didn't kill me.

Talk to you all, next week.

James "Setting Priorities" Brown

P.S. - In the event, you DO find that once an episode has been produced and posted, that YOU really would like more information, just let me know. Use the Podcast Questions link, click on the link here. Or you can just leave a voice message here.