InsightsScale

Busy Is Not The Same As Productive

A time audit shows which tasks keep you busy and which deserve your attention as the owner of the business.

By Anthea Horvat

When I first sit down with a new client, I get them to do a time audit. Most of them resist it.

In their hearts, they already know what it's going to show. They are spending too many hours on $10 tasks. They are busy, flat out, stuck on the hamster wheel of doing it, doing it, doing it. And what they need to do instead is build systems, delegate and eliminate the unnecessary.

And once you see it, you can't unsee it. That's the moment the motivation actually shows up. They look at the audit and it doesn't make sense anymore, to carry on in the same way. They know they need to stop and make a change.

Here's the catch though. Stopping takes more effort right now than continuing does. It's easier to keep doing the $10 tasks than it is to find someone to hand it on to. It's easier to carry on then build a system.

So most business owners don't stop. They keep telling themselves they're too busy to fix it. And this is the exact thinking that keeps them and their business stuck.

If you want to know whether you're actually progressing or just keeping busy, do the audit. Track where your hours went last week, and be honest about which of those hours were spent on real "CEO tasks."

systeme.io

PS I don't have something witty to say here, I have something important instead. Time, you can never get back. It's your most important resource. Treat it with the importance, love and respect it deserves.

Anthea Horvat

About the author

Anthea Horvat

Business strategist and mentor

Anthea helps service-based business owners build highly profitable, scalable and saleable businesses. She started her career as a Chartered Accountant, holds an advanced MBA majoring in marketing, and has worked with more than 6,000 service-based businesses.

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