We all lead multi-faceted lives. Every day we attempt to balance the personal, the professional, the obligatory, the entertaining, the relaxing, the essential, and the meaningful. We make commitments to ourselves and to others, and then we have to see them through, or at the very least, deal with whatever the consequences may be of not seeing them through.
For business owners, if we are fortunate, our commitments tend to grow as we become more successful. Our client rosters increase, our schedules fill up, and we need to make some decisions about what’s really important to us and how we approach our various responsibilities, as well as our joys, moving forward.
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Keep the Balls in the Air
The value of having a plan should never be underestimated. Through trial and error, we can chart our multitasking course. We can find the tools that help us stay on track and develop a schedule that suits our needs so it’s simple to maintain. Making lists, setting deadlines, and turning good habits into productivity systems are all vital in keeping our priorities well balanced and the various balls we juggle up in the air.
Compartmentalizing is a gift some people naturally possess. Others have to work through the mental muddle and train their brains and their bodies to be in work mode, to be in creative mode, to be in friend mode, to be in rest mode. Getting organized is really about strategy and mindset, but once it’s unlocked, productivity can skyrocket.
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Reduce the Number of Balls in the Air
Even still, no matter how well we plan, there comes an undeniable point when we have to acknowledge that our capacity has been reached and concessions have to be made. We cannot add even one more ball to the ones we’re already keeping aloft, and it is at that juncture that we have to start getting comfortable integrating the word “no” into our regular vocabulary. For overachievers and people pleasers, “no” is avoided like the plague. That practice is not sustainable, however, and will only lead to dropped balls. There’s only so much any of us can juggle, after all.
Saying “no” is a lesson we recently had to learn at Noteworthy Communications. After a year and a half in operation, we have scaled to a point where we no longer have the capacity to say “yes” to every potential client or project. While that is a good thing for our business, saying “no” is never something we enjoy. Still, we have to say “no” to some things so we can say “yes” to others, all while keeping our balls from crashing down.
Life is a juggling act and people do it every day. The juggle may never truly end, but we can put tools in place to keep the act manageable, profitable, and maybe even enjoyable. Not every system will work for everybody, but the learning experience of finding what does work for us is part of the satisfaction.
Noteworthy Communications can serve as one of your tools if you’re struggling to keep all your balls in the air. When we reach a point when we can’t juggle everything ourselves, hiring out some of our tasks can relieve that extra stress and ensure that all of the balls we’re responsible for continue to soar through the air.