Start with making a short list of the things that are the most important to your business or your life.
Why is it important to identify essential things?
The first rule of simplifying things to focus on the core activities is to identify the essentials, what you love, what is important to you — and then cut out all the rest that distracts you and keeps you from doing what is important. The same applies to businesses – if you run a coffee shop, focus on making the best coffee in the city; if you sell clothes in your small retail store, focus on picking some unique garment to create competitive advantage, etc.
We have so much stuff in our lives, from possessions to things we need to do to information coming in to visual and emotional clutter, that we are overloaded. The result? We end up doing a lot of things that are not really important to us, because we have so much other stuff to do that has crept into our lives and that we leave in our lives, unexamined.
How to identify essential things?
1. On Day 1 of this week, make a list of all the things you do in your life, all your commitments, as well as the things you wish you did (things you really love, but do not have time for). This is your long list.
2. On Day 2, pick the top 4-5 things from the long list. Just the things you love most. This is your short list. My short list includes: reading and writing about business management, running and strength exercise every single week, spending happy time with my family, building wealth and financial security for my loved ones (not in that particular order).
3. On Day 3, figure out which of the things you do these days are on your short list, and which are not.
4. On Day 4, consider sending an email or making a call to get out of something that you do that is not on your short list, even if it seems fairly important. Will life go on if you cancel the commitment? Is it worth canceling, so that you can have space for your short list items?
5. On Day 5, schedule a block of time in your calendar for something that is on your short list that you do not have enough time for. Consider this appointment sacred.
And you can continue this process in the coming weeks — begin to eliminate or reduce the things that are not on your short list to make room for those that are. Schedule time for the things on your short list.
Simplifying is not meant to leave your business or your life empty — it is meant to leave space in your life for what you really want to do. Know what those things are before you start simplifying.
