Focus Question: What do you want to focus on today?

Description
There are many competing priorities in a business. What are the things you want to focus on today? This week?

As solopreneurs, it’s unlikely that our To-Do list will ever be complete. We can overwork ourselves to the point of burn out.

As virtual and remote professionals the issue of prioritization takes on immense significance given that we are likely to be part of multiple teams, working across different time zones, with each team and leader having different priorities. Having to work more autonomously, and independently, we also can benefit from prioritizing what’s important from the “bigger picture” of what’s on our desk at any given moment of time.
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In Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack, I share four different prioritization tools which will help you identify what is going to give you more focus:
1. The Strategic Issues Mapping
2. The SWOT
3. Covey’s Urgent/Important Matrix
4. Urgency/Importance Matrix

Activity
It can be useful to adjust our lists and tasks laying them out in different ways get different perspectives. Here are several ways to slice up your current list:
Make a list of the most important tasks you have on your plate right now. Assign them a weighting in terms of a 1-10.
Then look at the original list again and distribute them according to whether it’s something you can DO, DELEGATE, DEFER or DUMP. Now renumber them again. Assign those that can be deferred to a new list or schedule them in. Dump items need to get dumped. Delegate those onwards that you can. What do you notice now?
 
If you are doing some longer-term planning, refer to the SWOT and/or Strategic Issues Mapping which you’ll find in PlanDoTrack If you are feeling overwhelmed, stuck or working on immediate priorities consider using the other prioritization tools.
 
For more on this topic check out
Pages 118 to 125 of the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner. These sections cover the topics of Time Management and Personal Productivity for the Virutal and Remote Professional.

Best wishes,
​Jennifer

Focus Question:  What systems will help you scale and streamline?

Description
Systems help us scale things. They are what helps us magnify our presence, even if we are a small company. Systems may link into automation to reduce the time spent on tasks that are not a “value add”.

In the remote space, systems also ensure consistency. This is critical if we are one of many people in a program. If I am offering something here in Toronto in a certain way, or with a certain promise, things are done the same way via my colleagues in another location.

In order to ensure systems don’t just become a “thing” we will want to ensure that we are also having a discussion around the values that underpin a system. So, for example, if we have a value of being “high touch” our systems for client onboarding may also reflect that. There may be personalization and a human touch behind that part of the work. What might be automated instead are some of the financial pieces of the work. 

​Activity
Think about these four areas of work – learning, project management, financial and communication. What new additions could you add to help amplify your efforts?

For more on this topic check out: 
​Section 3 of PlanDoTrack

All the best,
​Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Co-host of the Remote Pathways Podcast
Potentials Realized – Coaching, Training and Consulting Services for remote teams, leaders and professionals 
 
Check out the most recent Remote Pathways Podcast Episode, where we explore the people, places and processes of exceptional remote work. You can listen to the latest episode here, or on your favorite podcast player.
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