How Many Hats Are You Wearing?

As the mandatory shut down comes to a close, I’m wondering if anyone else is feeling a slight sense of dread?
I mean, after we all go over the initial shock (and perhaps boredom), the majority of us kinda found ourselves enjoying live in the “slower” lane.
However, as the country begins to open, one cannot help but frown at the thought of going back to life’s hustle and bustle. (sigh)
I mean there’s just so much that one person can do, yet we as online business owners—have a tendency to try to do it all!
You know, the more I think about it—I believe some of it is inevitable; as an online business owner (especially if you’re just starting out), you’ll fnd yourself wearing many (I mean many) hats.
Such as: marketing manager, bookkeeper, content developer, coach, technical support staff,
You name it—it’s what we do....
So while our lifestyle of “task juggling” is somewhat expected, it’s also important for you to understand that not all of your hats are created equal.
For example.....
Although both of these are important--marketing will always outweigh bookkeeping. Think of it this way-- w/o proper marketing, would you even be able to generate the cashflow that goes on the books.
Let's take it one step further.....
You also have to consider how much time you’re spending in each area as well.
Say you spend all day tweaking the design on your website and put off sending an email to your list, but exactly what have you gained?
Sure, you might have a prettier website, but you've also lost an opportunity to drive traffic to your offer.

Now if this sounds familiar, trust me, you are not alone.
The ability to balance between non-income generating vs. income generating business activities is a challenge that almost every business owner is forced to recon with (including myself).
Now in the ideal world of business, all you’d have to do is put on your CEO hat and delegate the responsibility, but here in the real “virtual” world, most of us don’t have that option. As an alternative, we have to make the decision to work smarter, (not arder) and guard how we’re spending our time.
Prioritize!
When it comes to the task that we must complete, we all have different skills and areas of specialty that we perfer to do.
For example, You might love customer interaction and hate bookkeeping, while someone else may enjoy crunching the analytics and doesn’t like doing live stream.
Regardless of your personal preferences, one thing is certain: money-making tasks should be at the very top of your to-do list-- (everyday).
So just what does that look like?
I’m glad you asked….
It could be product creation, email marketing, client outreach, webinar development, writing proposals—it really does vary from business to business. However, the key take-away is that its imperative for you to identify those money-making tasks in your business and be sure to prioritize them every single day
Know the Difference Between Important and Urgent
Let dig a deeper….
In his classic book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey recommends prioritizing tasks based on a time-management grid. Every task is assigned to a quadrant of the grid, based on whether it is urgent, important, both, or neither.
Once you know where a task falls on the grid, you’ll immediately know what you should be working on. For example, marketing and planning are important but not urgent. A ringing phone is urgent, but not important. The sales page for your new program, which is launching tomorrow, is both urgent AND important.
Here's an example I found on VanessaHern.com that demonstrates an awesome version of Covey's grid, that's specially designed for business owners

Pretty cool, eh?
So before you prioritize your daily to-do list, the goal is for you to think about where each of your tasks falls in the quadrant, and schedule them accordingly.
Now will you always be working on the best task for right now?
Probably not. (Nor will you always use your time as wisely as you could)….
However, I believe you’ll discover that by making a conscious effort to organize and prioritize your days, you’ll find your work to be a lot less stressful and definately much more income generating.
Alight Ladies & Gentlemen, I think here's a great place for a wrap guys, (I guess I've preached enough to you today:)
By the way, I'd like to hear your thoughts....
If you get a minute, reply back and share with me you own personal secret sauce for prioritizing your dat
Chat Soon!
AJ