CONSISTENCY IN CHAOS

Consistency in Chaos

By: Eric Bugera

Striking a balance between fluid and stable working conditions.

• As your business grows, so will small, unpredictable, daily chores.

• Effective housekeeping will keep you from running into entirely preventable stress or problems.
• Find a small block of time for daily upkeep, free from distractions, and triage as necessary.

Out of Time

Time and tide wait for no man. As you age, as your business grows, and especially as your responsibilities mount – time seems to speed up. No one stage of life is the same, but consistency appears in the acceleration of time. As you continue to live, life seems to rush by. Everything takes longer than anticipated, interruptions or unexpected problems arise, and your to-do list keeps getting longer. The risk of overwhelm is high, but these are the costs of being a coach or trainer. You are solely responsible for the success of your business. You are also solely responsible for staying on top of your daily tasks. Otherwise, the rising tide will swallow you – and you’ll suffocate in the ever accumulating busy work.

Rigid Instability

Your professional existence is to accommodate others. Training sessions, emails, text messages, continued education, the list goes on. A seemingly endless list of tasks that pop up at greater frequency than you ever anticipated. Some are predictable, others are wild cards, but the buck always stops with you. No one else can complete this growing list of small but significant chores.

Your career being completely predicated on the schedule of others means you will need to expand the concept of your own schedule. The hourly sessions will not make up the entirety of your work day. Instead, those hours will remain fluid – a block of time that will shapeshift daily to the needs of your paying roster. Your housekeeping flow, administrative work, or personal development, that is what you will need to accommodate. Finding a rigid structure to place into a chaotic schedule is the move that will keep you afloat. Be it the first thing in an (earlier) morning flow, a night cap to prepare you for the next day, or anywhere else you can insert it. 

Triage is a business owner’s best friend. Within the confines of a head-down grind-out task list, there is still often not enough time or brain power to accomplish all that needs to be done. Embrace this, triage, and let it cause no further anxiety. If it cannot be done today, it will be done tomorrow; but, it is necessary to stay on top of the absolute mandatory daily tasks that afford you this luxury. Emergencies, needs, “would-be-nice”, absolute wants – order of operations for task completion.

The Job is Never Done

Getting good at managing the small but ever present tasks that move your business forward is  a skill that will alleviate tremendous daily stress. Find a quiet space with no distractions to grind out as much of your daily upkeep as possible.  Bonus points for leaving your phone in another room. The amount of efficiency you can produce when you’re rushing against the clock is probably higher than you think – but set yourself up for success. Respecting the need to eliminate small, seemingly insignificant, but mounting responsibilities will prevent small problems from being big ones. However, the job is never done. Daily work is daily work for a reason. While you continue to grow and flourish on the public facing side of things, remember to adapt, grow, and flourish on your daily housekeeping business duties.

• Find a quiet place and block off a consistent time period.
• Eliminate distractions. No social media or external contacts save emergencies.
• Ground out emails, organization, or any other small but daily mandatory tasks to keep you from being buried under business administration.