Agency leaders have to make a lot of decisions. There’s more work on your plate than any one person can do. It’s just the way it is.
A good way for you to manage your priorities is by utilizing The Eisenhower Matrix.
Imagine a quadrant, four blocks. There are things that are important. These will grow your business. There are things that are urgent. These have a time limitation on them.
There are things that are not urgent, meaning that you want to get them done, but there’s no pressing time frame. And, finally, there are things that are not important. These will not really change the way your business works or operates, but they need to get done.
Is it important? Is it urgent? Is it not urgent? Is it not important? Put all of your tasks into these four boxes. Multiple tasks can go inside of multiple boxes because something can be urgent and important. It can be important but not urgent. It can be not important but urgent.
Pick out the tasks that are important and urgent, and put them at the top of your priority list. The things that are not important but urgent are great things to give to your team. These generally tend to be administrative tasks that, as a founder, you are still holding on to. You can take all that urgent but not important stuff off your plate. They take up a lot of your time and a lot of your energy.
Focus on the important and urgent first, and then think about the important but not urgent. The important but not urgent tasks actually tend to be strategic priorities. You want to turn those into projects that you can work with your team on. If you want to create a new website, it’s important but not urgent. Put together a plan and assign roles. The tasks that are urgent and important are things that you keep for yourself.
Erase all the tasks that are not important and not urgent. You will be shocked at how much mental clarity you get by taking away those things that are not urgent and not important. You can keep them on a list that you check once a month. There might be something that changes, and it now has become important, but when you are trying to manage your time, energy, and focus, those not important not urgent things, they’re just sand in the gears. They just get in the way, so take them out of your field of vision.
Take the urgent but not important things, and put them in someone else’s lap.
You are left with important and urgent, and important and non-urgent things to think about. The great thing is that you, as the highest priced resource in the company, are leveraging your thought, your focus, and your actions only on those things that are important, and you have delegated or pushed aside the rest. That’s going to make you so much more effective. The Eisenhower Matrix is a great way to clarify what you need to do next.
