As a business owner, you are probably taking on all the tasks in your company.
From Marketing to Customer Service, Sales or administrative tasks…There is no doubt that you are putting in hard work (and long hours) to make your business successful. And if more work is required, the harder and longer you are working.
But are you making the most of your day or is your day taking the most of you?
*https://www.thealternativeboard.com
3 reasons why working harder is not efficient
#1. Being busy doesn’t mean you are being productive!
The busyness syndrome
“I am going to dedicate the next hour to work on my business strategy…but I need first to reply to yesterday’s comments on my website.”
“I will skip lunch today so I can extract my sales report.”
“I just can’t work on my new project ideas right now, because a client just sent me a chat to inform me that they didn’t receive their order and I need to investigate.”
Do these situations seem familiar?
We work in a fast-paced environment, and to stay in front of the competition, we need to be responsive. So we spend our days being busy, answering emails, attending meetings, replying to social media posts, entering data, and creating reports…. It is even more true for Small Business Owners like you who need to multitask, doing everything at once, starting to work on a task…until an even more urgent one arises!
Your tasks list seems determined to stay untouched – or worse – bigger, but by the end of the day – even though you have done a lot and put in extra hours – you often realize that you have actually accomplished nothing!
Studies found that there is a correlation between overworking and productivity level.
A *Stanford research shows that after a certain peak of about 55 hours, additional work becomes significantly less productive.
People who worked 70 hours per week didn’t get more work done than those who worked 56 hours.
*https://siepr.stanford.edu/publications
What true productivity means
- Productivity means that you are achieving your desired results with less effort and time; it is being efficient and not busy.
- Productivity increases when you eliminate overtime; you work less but do more.
- Productivity requires time for valuable work; you focus only on the tasks that are critical for your business growth.
Stop wasting your time being stuck in today’s emergencies, performing meaningless tasks, or tasks that waste your time!
Start to recognize which tasks only YOU can perform, tasks that create value, improve your services or increase your business performance…and allocate time to perform them!
It will allow you to work on tomorrow’s goals, accelerate your results and give you a long-term competitive advantage.
| Being productive isn’t just about being busy. It’s about working efficiently and focusing on getting the right job done. |
Make Productivity Happen.
Work smarter, not harder!
#2. Working too much is bad for your health
There is a growing body of evidence to support how overwork causes stress and fatigue that put you at risk.
How overwork can reduce health and longevity
Chronic stress leading to medical conditions
If you overwork and are subject to stress, your cortisol levels (the so called “stress hormones”) increase, which can lead to high blood pressure, high cholesterol level and a large range of other health problems.
*https://www.sciencedirect.com
Changes in behaviour leading to unhealthy habits
You are not sleeping well
Overwork will likely impact both the quality and quantity of your sleep, which in return can affect how you cope with stress, solve problems or recover from an illness.
You are not eating well
If you overwork, most likely you are not taking time to eat. Skipping meals can cause your blood sugar levels to drop, leading to low energy and brain fog.
And at the end of the day, after all those exhausting hours, you might not feel like cooking a nutritious meal. Instead, quicker and more comforting – but also often less healthy and more processed – food fixes like snacks or takeaways look more appealing.
You are not exercising
If you overwork, you are probably not getting much exercise or not taking enough breaks, which can cause long-term mental and physical health problems. Most often, it is likely one of the first things you stop doing altogether.
You have unhealthy coping mechanisms
If you overwork and you feel overwhelmed, most likely you will turn to smoking or drinking when all you need is to disconnect or release your stress.
How overwork can exacerbate mental health issues
“It can be tempting, in our goal-oriented society, to push ourselves beyond our capacities in pursuit of success. But when we do this we tell ourselves that our work is more important than our health. Without our health our success means nothing. No promotion, nor raise, no accolade will mean anything if you aren’t happy and healthy.”
Olivia Kram
Risk of depression and anxiety
Always working hard with no time to rest can lead to emotional exhaustion and depression. It is also one of the main causes of burnout, leaving you overwhelmed and drained of energy.
Negative impact on your personal life
If you overwork, you have little time to spend with your family and friends, to take care of yourself, or do the things you enjoy. You are “wired” to your job and can’t ever quite disconnect. You are missing crucial quality time that could benefit not only you but also your loved ones.
It is even more difficult if you are working from home and the line between professional time and personal time can be blurry.
| Consistently working long hours and managing an excessive workload can be detrimental to your physical and mental health, and in consequence, put your business at risk. |
Embrace health and success.
Achieve a greater work-life balance!
#3. You can do anything but you can’t be good at everything
The fact that you can do something doesn’t mean you should do it.
The doing It All syndrome
As a Small Business owner, you feel the pressure that you have to handle all the aspects of your business. And most probably in the beginning, it might be true, you might be the only one to start up your business.
“The inability to delegate is one of the biggest problems I see with managers at all levels.”
Eli Broad
However, along the way you might have noticed that you struggle to do your accounting, that you have no idea how to do a SWOT analysis, or that you don’t know how to improve your SEO. The truth is that there are tasks you are good at and tasks you are not good at.
We all have weaknesses and strengths, that’s what makes us both unique and human!
You need to know your weaknesses!
In the same way you identified the tasks that don’t create value and waste your time, you also have to identify the ones you are not good at!
“One of the most important things you can do is to know the limits of your talent.
Know what you are good at so that you can focus on your strengths and delegate the rest to others who are gifted in those areas.”
KennethMd.com
Admitting their own limitations is a trait that most successful business leaders share. Delegation is not a sign of weakness; it’s rather a sign of strong leadership. Strength comes from recognizing when you need help, going beyond your fear of losing control and the fear of change.
If someone else can do it better than you, let them!
If you are not good at doing something, why not hire someone who is good at it to do it for you?
There are indeed some tasks that should be delegated or outsourced because they are better done by a professional.
- You may not be a good writer or it just takes you hours to write a decent piece of content : you can find a freelance writer to write high-quality blog or social media posts that will drive traffic to your website.
- You may not know how to organize your customer service : hiring a professional who dedicates their full time to carrying out these tasks will ensure that your customers get the support they deserve.
- You may not know how to design the logo for your brand or the graphic identity of your website: an expert in graphic design will create attractive visuals and effective communication of your ideas to give higher visibility and enhanced credibility to your brand.
These are only a few examples of the tasks you may not be good at, and for which hiring an expert might be necessary!
“Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it…Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.”
David Ogilvy
| You will achieve better results through delegating a task you are not good at to a qualified professional who will perform it better and quicker than you. |
You do not have to do everything yourself.
Start to delegate now!
Ready to delegate? Explore the unique value I add to your business!
Click here to learn more about my services and how I can bring a holistic approach to your work.
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