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Stuff We Think

Shiny Things Can Be Good Or Bad

posted on June 03, 2010 by Win Day in Business Improvement   You & Your Business      (0) comments

Is This You?

The Shiny Thing versus Getting Stuff Done

Most entrepreneurs I know, me included, have what I call "shiny thing syndrome". I don't have ADD, not by a long stretch - but I can and do get distracted by new stuff.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. The willingness, the tendency, to explore new things has led me to some interesting territory and prompted me to make career changes:

• full time employment as a chemical engineer (with a pause along the way to be a full time stay at home mom), leading to
• contracting as a freelance technical writer, leading to
• full time employment as a network security administrator (hey,it made sense at the time; I was writing the operating policies for the department anyway), leading to
• going back to school full time to learn multimedia development, leading to
• owning and operating a small business as a web developer, leading to
• helping other small businesses grow and excel by providing online resources through this website, as well as learning how to become a “Profit From Your Passions” career consultant as well as an “Idea Consultant” for small businesses

Each change (well, except for the blip as the network security administrator) has resulted in both personal and professional growth in a big way. I've had to learn new technical skills as well as how to run and grow a business.

But on the smaller scale, I have to be very careful about not "getting my stuff done" because I've found a new distraction, a way to procrastinate. My love for learning new things, especially techie geeky stuff, can lead to spending time on the shiny rather than the necessary.

What I Do

I have several ways to keep on track:

I plan out my week's task on a whiteboard.  Actually, I list about two weeks' worth on the front and long term stuff on the back. I'm not good at blocking out my time into regularly scheduled sessions, but I do like crossing stuff off my lists!

I allow myself about an hour first thing in the morning and one to two hours after the end of the workday for the shiny. In the morning, I go through my email, newsgroups, and regular blogs; in the evening, I repeat that plus look for other blogs; I follow the links I've bookmarked but didn't want to explore right away; I read business books that aren't included in my coursework.

In between, I try to stay on track and Get Stuff Done.  I've found as I get older that I can't make the lightning switch from one task to another and back that I used to, so I need to dedicated a chunk of each day to work on one thing at a time. Sometimes that's coding a website, sometimes it's writing content and creating products, sometimes that's the coursework for the training program I'm enrolled in. Sometimes it's doing the stuff that supports the businesses operations (bookkeeping, marketing, etc.).

I haven't resorted to the Pomodoro Technique of setting a timer when working on a task, but I might come to that! So far I've been able to stay focused when I need to.  In short bursts, anyway!

What Do you Do?

What do you do to stay focused and on task? Are you a list maker? Do you block out your weekly calendar into specific work sessions? Do you use a timer or timer software?

Small business owners NEED good time management techniques, and what works for me might not work for you. If you want to know more or need some tools, or if you HAVE a system or tool that works for you, let me know. Maybe my next Shiny Thing will be to research and review time management tools and techniques!

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