Tips to tackle the tasks you don’t enjoy

Prioritisation

I’d firstly be thinking about how important and urgent the task is. Also, does it align with your values and vision? This will help you prioritise it in your schedule. You may find that on reflection, the task you’re putting off doesn’t need to be done in the first place.

If you decide that it does need executing:

Start with the end in mind

Tap into your future self… is this a task that future you, e.g. successful business owner, would be doing? For instance, a lot of small business owners don’t like reviewing the metrics or numbers… but I’m guessing that most successful business owners will have some awareness of their KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). That’s not to say that they’ll necessarily be the ones gathering the numbers and doing the calculations, but they will certainly be reviewing them.

Outsource the task

If it’s truly something you don’t like to do and you can afford to do so - outsourcing the task might be an option. Continuing with the metrics example, it might be that you outsource the collation of the data to a Virtual Assistant.

However, for a lot of small business owners at the start of their entrepreneurial journey, hiring out tasks may not be feasible.

So what else can you do?

Break the task down into smaller chunks

Sometimes having something on your to-do list that feels big can be daunting. For instance, let’s consider the task of ‘build website’. Think about how you might break this task down into smaller, more manageable chunks. What would be the first step in getting it done? With this example, it might be ‘decide which platform to build website on’. You can map out the whole task into these smaller chunks, but then just focus on getting that first step completed.

It’s also helpful to set a deadline, or schedule the time for the task or the smaller steps in your calendar. Typically, what gets scheduled, gets done. If you don’t schedule the time or set a deadline, the task will likely end up taking more time to complete and you’ll also have the stress of the task weighing on your mind the whole time too.

Incentivise

Decide in advance how you will celebrate when you successfully complete the task. You don’t need to wait until the whole task is complete to celebrate, perhaps you will have milestones along the way that you will celebrate. And it doesn’t need to be anything flashy. It could be that you complete the first two steps, and then you allow yourself to have a rest. Take a walk and grab a nice coffee.

Create a back-up slot

Another idea is to create a back-up slot. This suggestion comes from Laura Vanderkam, an American author and speaker on the topics of time management and work/life balance.

It’s a technique that I’ve used for my weekly run. I had committed to myself that I would go out for a run every Wednesday (I'm doing my best to improve my health & fitness, and beginning running again is the next step in my journey). However… 

Have you ever made a commitment to yourself, scheduled it in your calendar… and then not followed through with it? (my hand is well and truly raised!).

Sooo… what I decided to do was to create a back-up slot. My ideal would be to get up early and run first thing. I blocked out an hour from 6-7am for this. But, just in case I didn't make it out for whatever reason… I also blocked out 2-3pm. The process of doing this made it more likely that I'd actually get it done. Anyway, I did get up as planned and ticked off the run first thing. Beauty of this is that I then got an hour back in the afternoon! 

Now, I'm not suggesting this is the answer for all things you need to do… creating back-ups for everything is likely overkill >>> but for the important things, perhaps this might be something you could try.

Accountability

Another tip to tackle the tasks you don’t enjoy is to get yourself an accountability partner. Is there someone you know that it struggling with the same task? Could you schedule some time together to both get the thing done?

This might look like meeting up to run together, or it could be booking an hour together on Zoom.

There are virtual accountability rooms that you can pay to join, such as Caveday, which is a virtual facilitated workspace that can help keep you focused and productive.

Hire a coach

It would be silly of me not to plug myself here! As a time management coach, I can help you with all of the above. This might look like getting more awareness of how you use your time, gaining clarity over your values and future vision and learning how to prioritise and plan your schedule - with the goal of freeing up time so you can get things done. As your coach, I will also be holding you accountable throughout, and will be there to cheer you on too.

Find out more here on my one-to-one coaching.