The busyness of being in business

Being in business is a never ending cycle of lists and checkboxes, making sure we stay up to date on the various deadlines that we need to adhere to and those that we self impose. It’s easy to become overwhelmed in the busyness of business.

As we near the end of another financial quarter, there’s a few things that I’m ticking off the list of accomplishments for our clients and within the office:

• Single Touch Payroll implementation
• Taxable Payment Summary Reports
• Payroll Tax Returns
• Workcover Declaration Notices
• the list goes on….

Today I’m sharing my 5 favourite things that help me in my every day work life to give me more time for other things I enjoy doing:

1. TIME BLOCKING – In basic terms, this is when you set time aside to do specific tasks without trying to multitask – so basically, you don’t let anything interupt you. I find this works best for me when I time block things like “emails” and “phonecalls” and “meetings.” Basically, I don’t let the flow on from those things distract me from getting through the rest of the group of tasks. I am definately more efficient when I timeblock.
2. COMMUNICATION – The IQ team is made up of awesome humans who all have awesome lives that don’t neccessarily allow us or require us all to be in the Burleigh office Monday – Friday, 9-5. Being an e-office (paperless environment), working remotely is seamless, but we needed something that allowed us to keep our office culture and communication at the same level as if we were sitting right next to each other. We have been using Slack for over 3 years and use this as our communication hub and have banned internal emails. This helps us to get things done in the most time efficient manner as well as letting us share photos, do video calls and search prior chats for
3. TASK MANAGEMENT – This has been a game changer for me and our IQ team. We use kyber which integrates with Slack and allows us to set ourselves and each other tasks with timeframes, deadlines complete with follow up and the ability to delegate and make notes as required. I love that I can see at a glance what I need to do as well as what any other team member has on their tasks list for today, tomorrow and the future as well as what they have completed.
4. LEARNING – I am commited to being a lifelong learner (that’s a term I picked up at my kids school and I am running with it because I really like the alliteration.) I have a host of podcasts that I subscribe to but the ones I am loving right now are Next Generation Innovators Podcast Future Women and The Startup Grind Podcast . I have had a client recommend the Jordan B Peterson Podcast to me but I am yet to check this out.
5. PEOPLE – I can’t really make a list of the things that help me do what I do best without listing people! I choose to surround myself with people who are on the same page and who are going in the same direction. We have pretty specific goals and ideas and we make sure we all know what they are and how we are going to get there. I also try really hard to give those people as much of my time as they need so that they can be the very best versions of themselves. I also make sure I both contribute to and seek the counsel of an outstanding support network of business mentors that I can turn to when I need advice – this is invaluable to my general day to day activity and sanity.