What Tasks Do You Need To Do Every Day As An Entrepreneur?

I was talking Friday with a CEO I am advising named “Paul”.

Paul’s in fund-raising mode right now. Nothing else matters when you’re in fund-raising mode except raising your money.

I told Paul, “You need to have a laser-like focus on raising your funding. Let me put it to you bluntly:

“Don’t spend time on it if it doesn’t help you raise money. You need to just say no to everything else.”

Time management, of all the things you need to get good at as CEO, is something you need to relentlessly practice every day.

It’s easy to get distracted as CEO.

You’re going to have more to do then you have time to get done. So you can work really hard every day, and fool yourself into thinking you’re accomplishing a lot.

The reality can me very different.

The best daily advice I can give you is plan your day.

You should have a set of yearly, quarterly, and monthly goals. Then you should translate these into the daily goals you need to achieve.

I like to put everything on my calendar.

Meetings, phone calls, work that needs to get done put it all on the calendar.

I have a simple rule: I don’t work on it if it’s not on the calendar.

You don’t need a “to do” list if you use your calendar as a combination calendar/to do list. Everything is in one place for you to see.

Then, pay attention to two things as you’re building your daily plan:

A. Make sure what you’re working on fit your monthly/quarterly/yearly goals.

Relentlessly delete everything that doesn’t fit your plan. You’ll learn how to say “No” when you do this.

But, you’ll also find you have more time to do what you really need to do. Then…

B. Pay close attention to what you do well at certain times of the day.

I find I am at my most creative early in the day, so I will schedule my creative work like writing for early in the day. I will schedule more mundane tasks for later in the day.

One final tip: Leave time for breaks between tasks.

I will schedule 15 to 30 minute breaks between tasks. I schedule breaks because I know that I will go over time on some tasks every day.

The breaks keep me on schedule. And the breaks allow me to get through with everything on my list most days.

There’s nothing like getting everything on your list done to make you feel like you’re making progress. Then each day you’ll feel like you’re building momentum.

For more, read: What Are The 17 Biggest Surprises When You Founded Your Company?

Is Your Business Stuck? Maybe I Can Help.  Click Here.

View original answer on Quora.