When I first started with my business, I was working constantly. I’d sometimes get up at five in the morning and wouldn’t finish until ten at night. It was exhilarating to do it all, but thankfully, I knew it couldn’t last. So as soon as I could, I started taking things off my plate and stopped doing it all. It was better for my clients, and most importantly, it was better for me.

But getting to this point isn’t easy and some people never get to the point where they can take anything off their plate. So what do you do then?

I think the natural inclination is to “lean in” and do it all. The problem with that is you will eventually burn out and hate what you do. The goal is to avoid that. So how do you avoid that?

Notice

The first step is to notice what you do naturally and what you put off. Just take one day and notice with no judgment. I’m not saying that you need to put anything off while you’re noticing. What I am saying is that you just take note of it.

Your natural inclinations will say a lot about how you move forward and what should stay on your plate.

For example, I don’t put off scheduling articles to go out on social media channels. It’s not that it’s necessary that it stays on my plate. It’s more that it’s fantastic for my brainstorming for me to read every piece of social media news. As I’m scheduling, my brain is working and it gives me space to do that. And yes, this is a big part of the reason why I always keep that on my plate.

While you’re doing your noticing, also take note of what times of day you tend to get things done and what times of day where it’s a little more difficult. Yes, this can be task-dependent, but it can simply be a question of energy levels. I know I can tell the difference between the two and I am sure you can as well.

I’ll just add that it’s really important that you are honest with yourself about what you naturally do and what you naturally don’t. If you can’t be honest with yourself here, you’ll never get to a place where your systems work.

What do you need to do

Once you’ve done some time noticing and dividing your tasks into those you can easily do and those you don’t do as easily, it’s time to categorize them even further.

What absolutely needs your attention? Do you have tasks to do that you have no hope of handing off ever? What absolutely needs your eyes?

You should end up with four lists after this: Have to do/Easy to do, Have to do/Not easy to do, Don’t have to do/Easy to do and Don’t have to do/Not easy to do. These lists should represent everything on your to-do lists.

Yes, it takes time to categorize like this, but it will save time in the long run when you sit down and figure out the prioritization and what might need some bigger pushes. Once again, being truthful means you will get further along.

Have to do/Easy to do

Now it’s time to deal with each list individually. There are two that are the easiest to deal with, and the Have to do/Easy to do list is at the top.

If you are going to lean into anything, lean into what is easy to do. I would take these tasks and schedule them into your day when your motivation is lower but not at its lowest. You want it to get enough of your attention, so doing it when you are at your lowest is not a great idea. But you don’t want to waste your highest motivation times on things that are easy to do.

Don’t have to do/Not easy to do

This is the other list that is pretty easy to deal with. Take it all off your plate as soon as possible. Hire someone or look for companies that can do those tasks for you.

Can’t afford to do that? Look for AI solutions. AI doesn’t take the place of human beings. But it can be a tool to do tasks that wouldn’t otherwise get done. Just make sure you leave some time so your human eyes can give the results of the task a once over. You can never fully trust the results of AI and a human touch truly does make a difference.

And I would also ask if these tasks really need to be done. What value are they bringing to your business? Can you get by without doing them? If your gut reaction is even close to maybe, I would drop them immediately. See what happens when you don’t do them and then adjust as necessary. And remember that you can’t do it all, so forget about these tasks completely as soon as possible

Have to do/Not easy to do

Now, we start looking at the tasks that are a bit more difficult to deal with. How do you do tasks that you have to do and they’re not easy for you to get done? You can’t just throw them away like some of your other tasks.

Your first stop is figuring out if you can put them in someone else’s hands. Even if you don’t have much of a budget, take a look at this option. The worst thing that can happen is that you figure out exactly how much it would cost to give the task to someone else and you have a goal amount of money to bring in. The best case scenario is that you find out it’s not as expensive as you thought.

The next stop is seeing if AI can help you out. I think brainstorming is your best use of AI. But it’s a great tool when you’re in a situation where a task just won’t get done otherwise. So turn over those tasks to AI and then take give it a quick look to make sure it’s done correctly.

Neither of those solutions work for you? Then you need to gamify it. I’ll see how much I can get done in ten minutes. Or I’ll give myself a treat for getting a task done. Or I’ll have someone check in to give myself a time limit for the task. Whatever I need to get stuff done. Decide what will motivate you the most and use that to get tasks done. It’s simple and silly. But my God is it effective.

Don’t have to do/Easy to do

So maybe I’m alone in this, but I have several tasks I like to do because they’re mindless and leave my brain room to problem solve. These tasks are great for me and so easy to do. But they are so low priority that there are definitely times I shouldn’t do them. And at the same time, they’re helping with tasks I do need to do. It’s a conundrum.

I will usually schedule these tasks for times that I wouldn’t normally be that effective at working. For some reason, my motivation is low at these times of day and a good filler task could potentially get me back on track. Or maybe I’m just starting the day and I need to slowly get into my day. Doing these tasks can give my brain some time to work out what I have to do throughout the rest of the day. Whenever it’s unlikely you’re going to get anything done, do one of these tasks. Even if they’re not high priority, they can be super helpful.

Let the rest go

Look, there is only one of you. You’ve dealt with all the tasks on your list as well as you can. If you find you still can’t do it all, this is not a problem with you. This is a problem with your expectations of yourself. You need to lower those into something that is actually manageable by a human being or else you are going to end up not being able to do anything. Whether that is because of burn out or a physical ailment, something will eventually stop you. Keep going by learning to let go of what doesn’t need to happen.

Are you trying to do it all? Are you ready to make a change?