Grow Your Business, Reduce Your Stress & Sleep Better In 5 Minutes a Day

I have to confess something that you might have already guessed:

I am not as productive as I want (or need) to be.

My to-do list is probably never less than 50 items long. Between multiple revenue streams, multiple clients, multiple careers… there’s always tons to do.

And that’s where the trouble comes in.

With so much to do, it’s easy to lose focus. To stress and worry because it’s not all getting done, it’s never all going to get done, so why even bother, maybe it’s just time to turn on Netflix and pack it all in until tomorrow.

The result of that, of course, is that I then lie awake, stressed out and sleepless and thinking about all the things I still need to do, because watching Netflix does not a successful business model make.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, you can skip that whole cycle of overwhelm and stress and sleepless frustration.

You can grow your business by taking just five minutes out of your day.

1. Take five minutes at the end of your work day to look at your to-do list.

Here’s the secret I’ve discovered: on any given day, your whole to-do list doesn’t matter. In fact, it probably breaks down into:

things you do every day
things that can be automated
time-wasters
things you’ll need to do eventually
things you need to accomplish to grow your business now

That last category is the only one that matters for these five minutes.

2. Pick the five most important things you need to accomplish this week.

Then, cross of four of them. You’ll be left with one thing. That’s your to-do list for tomorrow.

Sure, there may be other things you get done in your in-between time, or once your #1 thing is done. But that one thing is your goal for tomorrow.

3. Think about tomorrow’s schedule

What do you have planned? What time do you have available for work? How can you be the most productive?

By answering these questions before you shut off for the day, you’ll have a schedule ready. You’ll have a goal for tomorrow’s work and a plan to accomplish it.

To grow your business, you have to be productive. But productivity isn’t always about doing more. Sometimes, it’s about doing one thing really well… so it’s off your to-do list for good.