FM Walsh & Associates Inc.

Why Smart Entrepreneurs Underperform

Most of the business owners I come across are pretty smart.  They have great ideas, great spirit, and relentless tenacities to get things done.  After all, you don’t venture into entrepreneurship if you don’t have these qualities.  However, where I see some entrepreneurs suffer in performance is in the area of “overloaded circuits”.  We tend to cram a lot into every day.  Do you multitask a lot, for example – do you check e-mail, talk on the phone, and have lunch at the same time?  Is this a regular occurrence?

In this day and age where we are constantly bombarded with information and live life at an ever-increasing pace, it’s easy to fall into the trap of doing a lot of things every day and yet not getting anything important accomplished.  As a result, we turn into people that find it difficult to stay organized, set priorities, and manage time.  We react to problems as they happen instead of managing what happens in our lives.

Don’t undermine your strengths and talents because of overload.  A few tips to help you get started:

• take care of your physical foundation:  get adequate sleep, watch what you eat, exercise
• each day, build some “think time” into your schedule that is free from appointments, e-mail, and phone calls
• before the end of a work day, schedule your tasks for the next day and stick to them
• break large tasks into smaller segments, and reward yourself for each small task done!

If you feel overwhelmed, slow down, move around, take a brisk walk.  The idea is that your business is a marathon, not a sprint.  Do like the marathoners do – run 10 minutes, walk 1 minute, repeat.  Give yourself permission to take the long term approach and move towards a more productive, better balanced, and rewarding environment!