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Brick No95: The one tool which will make or break your small business
By Matt Weston, Friday 17 September 2004 Take it away, Tom Tom Peters saved me some serious time today. As I see it, my job with these bricks is not only to share my own ideas and experiences, but also to introduce you to other ideas that can benefit your small business. Usually I spend a fair bit of effort adding my commentary. But earlier this week, Tom - now the grand old man of business thinkers - posted the following on his website, written from India. In my opinion it needs very little trailer, and very little reinterpretation by yours truly. Take it away, Tom: " I want to focus on . . . THE ONE TOOL WHICH WILL MAKE OR BREAK YOUR CAREER. " Namely the . . . To-Do List. " I rarely "guarantee" . . . but in this case I guarantee that the most important thing you'll do today is spend some quality time (normally I hate that phrase) on Carefully & "Strategically" Constructing your To-Do List. " Consider these Four Cardinal Principals: " (1) Time is more important than money. (It is the only truly constrained resource.) " (2) You = Your Calendar. (You are What You Spend Your Time On as much as ... you are what you eat.) " (3) "To-Don'ts" are as important, or more important, than"To-Dos." (What's not on the list is perhaps more important than what is.) " (4) Your To-Do List must never be more than 4 items long. (Okay, you can have an "errands list" that includes replenishing the stock of toilet paper and such — but the Big Yo Mamma To-Do List must ... MUST ... never run beyond four.) " My only footnote is this: You'll see I've bastardised Tom's "THE ONE TOOL WHICH WILL MAKE OR BREAK YOUR CAREER" for today's headline, replacing his "career" with my "small business". Why? Simply because this advice is even more critical if you're self-employed than if you're a corporate climber. How you spend your time, as TP puts it, "reveals what you actually care about". In my experience, it also reveals whether your business is going to succeed or not. Remember to sign up: back to top |
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