Step 16 to Build a Better Business – Set Aside One Day a Week

Posted on Sep 24th, 2009 in 30 Steps to Build a Better Business, infrastructure and operations | no comments

Can I be honest with you?

I hate dealing with administrative tedium. There have been numerous times when I’ve procrastinated and delayed until administrative tasks have gotten entirely out of hand. Then all of a sudden I find myself having to spend a huge amount of time and effort getting everything back into some semblance of order, which just makes me hate administratum even more because it’s always so draining and time consuming for me.

After a while of this maddening cycle, I realized I couldn’t keep doing this to myself, so I adopted a method for dealing with administrative details that allows me a little bit of chaos… but only for a few days at the most. I call it the shoebox method.

I keep an empty shoebox on one of my desk shelves. All week long, I toss admin ’stuff’ that has come up but doesn’t have to be dealt with immediately into the shoebox. Things like receipts, bills, letters to respond to, business cards I’ve been given. I’ll write any other ‘not-right-now’ admin tasks that come up on a sticky note or scrap of paper, and throw those into the box as well. At the end of each week (usually first thing on a Saturday morning), I clean out the shoebox. I record transactions, file the business cards, or whatever needs to be done, as long as I get everything out of that shoebox on that one day of the week. During the week, I can still put it off the admin work to deal with more important or interesting things, but I keep the one day a week schedule so things don’t get out of hand or take me more than a day to fix.

Step 16 to Building a Better Business is to set aside at least one day a week for specifically dealing with administrative tasks. You don’t have to set aside an entire day unless you’re really behind and need to catch up. But once you’re back on an even keel, you should really need only a few hours a week to maintain things at that level.

What kind of administrative tasks should you tackle during this time?

paying bills,

preparing invoices,

returning or sending non-urgent emails,

updating corporate records,

setting up or maintaining the marketing and advertising systems you set up in Step 14,

recording transactions like expense receipts, customer payments, new contacts,

running and reviewing reports – especially for your marketing and financials,

any other tasks like the ones I write on the sticky notes that go into my shoebox. 

When you’re done with the week’s administrative tasks, make organizing your desk or workspace the last task you complete. Shred and trash unnecessary papers, wipe your desk down, and clear up any clutter surrounding your work area.

photo by Caro’s Lines (flickr)

Related Posts

1. Step 18 to Build a Better Business – Document the Basics
2. Step 27 to Build a Better Business – Build and Monitor Your Business Credit
3. Step 28 to Build a Better Business – The Secret is… Coordinate
4. Step 14 to Build a Better Business – Prime the Pump for Leads

Sage Small Business Solutions provides inexpensive infrastructure solutions for small and microbusinesses. If you're interested in improving your small business, or implementing techniques discussed in this article, find out how Sage can help.

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