Time Management Strategies – Prioritize

It never feels like we have enough hours in the day.  However, the reality is that you do have the time you need.  It’s just being taken up by non-essential tasks that are getting in the way.  You can apply the 3P’s of time management to all your work to boost your productivity and increase your income.

Today we will start our discussion with the topic of Prioritize.

A “to-do” list isn’t enough. You need to figure out which items are essential and which aren’t important at all.  Start by making a list of everything you have to do today.  If you have more than seven or eight, you need to trim your list – take out everyday tasks.  Ask yourself, “If I do just one thing today, what should it be?” and put this at the top of your list.  Repeat this, and you’ll end up with a list of things you have to do in order of importance.  One way to prioritize is to consider the direct result each task will have on your business.

Here are a few tips for refining your To-Do list:

• Rank Items – Create a scoring and ranking system
• Set Deadlines for Everything – Set a deadline for everything you have to do and make it specific to a time of day
• Categorize by Work Areas – Categorize by work-related or personal tasks, then focus on one list at work and the other after work
• Categorize by Time – Create categories by time of day, or small to-do lists for each part of the day
• Break Up Big Tasks. For anything longer than a day, break it up into daily milestones and put these into your to-do list
• Remember that the goal is to have a simple system that works for you 

Additionally, don’t be afraid to put things on The Back Burner.  Have three to five tasks on your daily to-do list.  Break the habit of thinking that you need to do everything.  Choose a day each week, or a time each day, to deal with these tasks, delegate them to someone else, or make a secondary list.

 Next, we will focus on Plan.

Now that your accounts are all set up, take out the list you made about how you want to see your Income and Expenses.  These are your categories.

First let’s look at what you want for your income items.  You may simply want a Sales category.  Or you may want subcategories with different type of Income.  To add Income categories, follow these steps:

1. Go to your Chart of Accounts (On left bar: Accounting / Chart of Accounts)
2. In the upper right of your screen, click on the green New button
3. Click on the Income button at the top
4. Click on the drop-down bar under “Save account under” (Choose Income)
5. Click on the drop-down bar under “Tax form section” (Choose the category that seems to be the best fit. You can always change it later if you wish to do so.)
6. Under “Account name” enter the name that you want to see on your reports.
7. You can also fill is the Description field if you wish.
8. At the lower right, click on the Save

**If you want to add subcategories for you income streams, when you get to step 4a, simply choose the master income account that you want your subaccounts to come under, instead of the Income item.

And now we will do the same thing with your expenses.  You may like the expense category names that may have automatically filled when you created your subscription.  You can also delete or edit any of them.

• To delete an existing category, locate it in your Chart of Accounts and go to the right side of that item. You will see a drop-down arrow.  Click on it and choose Make Inactive.  This category will no longer show up on your Chart of Accounts list.
• To edit an existing category, locate it in your Chart of Accounts and go to the right side of that item. You will see a drop-down arrow.  Click on it and choose Edit.  Under the Account Name field, enter how you prefer the category to read.

You may also want to add categories that aren’t on the list already, so that you can get a more complete picture of your business’s finances.  To add Expense categories, follow these steps:

1. Go to your Chart of Accounts (On left bar: Accounting / Chart of Accounts)
2. In the upper right of your screen, click on the green New button
3. Click on the Expense button at the top
4. Click on the drop-down bar under “Save account under” (Choose Expenses, or Cost of Goods Sold if appropriate)
5. Click on the drop-down bar under “Tax form section” (Chose the category that seems to be the best fit.  You can always change it later if you wish to do so.)
6. Under “Account name” enter the name that you want to see on your reports.
7. You can also fill is the Description field if you wish.
8. At the lower right, click on the Save

**If you want to add subcategories for you expense streams, when you get to step 4a, simply choose the master expense account that you want your subaccounts to come under, instead of the Expense item.

Keep in mind that you can always change things as your business changes or your thoughts about what you want to see in your financial reports clarifies.  This is just a start and easily evolves with your needs.  You can change account names.  You can add new ones.  You can make outdated account and categories Inactive.  Your financials are always a work in progress.

If you aren’t sure that you have things set up properly, reach out to me about my QBO Audit.  The QBO Audi helps ensure that your QBO is set up well – so that you can use it with ease, stay on top of your bookkeeping, and be ready for tax time.

Or if you have already decided that you want to outsource your bookkeeping, let’s have a conversation.  My Full-Service Bookkeeping package is complete monthly support helping entrepreneurs get the bookkeeping DONE and done right!  This allows them to not only be ready for tax season, but also to make solid financial decisions about their business all year round.  When your income and expenses are completely reconciled to bank statement, we can prevent errors on tax returns while also creating an accurate picture of there your money is going! We can be ready for tax time as soon as the year closes with books that are ready to go, so that all you’ll need is a few final reports sent off to your tax preparer who can now complete your taxes with ease.  You will have me on hand to translate the accounting-speak of your comprehensive financial reports into normal-person-speak so that you can make even more well-informed decisions about what to do with your money.  And you will understand your financials and cash flow even more thoroughly so that you can confidently make powerful business decisions that bring you peace.

Let’s schedule a call to see if we are a good fit, send me a quick email at pam@adminpam.com.