Business Rituals: The Real Battle Is Managing Ourselves

When it comes to doing business, it feels like we always have more things to squeeze into the average day. The demands on us as business owners continue to grow, our ‘to do’ list keeps getting longer, and the days seems to get shorter.

One of the biggest factors affecting our success is without doubt, managing ourselves and managing our workload, neither of which is easy.

For most people working in their own business, I think it’s fair to say that we haven’t had formal ‘getting stuff done’ training.

We work out our own style of doing things, generally following the ‘squeaky wheel’ approach of doing the work by the client that makes the most noise or the job that has become the most urgent.

Not the best way to manage anything.

The big problem is that often we haven’t established smart and effective daily routines.

Having been in business for many years, and worked with many business owners, I believe routines and business rituals are central to whether or not a business is successful.

Trial and error 

Determining the right routines and business rituals is not easy. We need to try different things to see what works and what doesn’t.

We need to talk to other business owners to find out what they do and see if it will work for us. We need to read and research ways of establishing routines and getting things done, to look for ideas that might work for us.

So, what are the routines and rituals we need to establish and follow religiously? I think there are several that are most important:

1. Morning ritual 

Have a really good morning ritual to get your day started the right way.

This includes your personal routines, perhaps exercise, stopping and having a good breakfast, taking the time to plan your day ahead, and thinking about your priorities for the day.

Morning rituals are really important. Find one that works for you.

2. Plan your day ritual 

If you don’t have an effective daily planning ritual that works for you (and this is the key), you will probably bounce around all day and not be as effective as you would like to be.

Think through your day: what absolutely positively needs to be done, what has to be done first, what’s going to derail you, and so on.

Once you have a daily plan, the next ritual is of course learning to stick to it.

3. Project management ritual 

This means the steps you take to actually get jobs done.

This starts from the minute you submit a proposal or quote right through to the project’s completion. What processes and procedures do you have in place? Do you follow them? If not, why not?

4. Health and well-being rituals 

As a self-confessed recovering workaholic, I know just how important it is to have good routines and rituals around your daily health and well-being.

Once again, it’s pointless if you establish routines and rituals that are unrealistic and unsustainable.

5. Money routines and rituals 

The last piece of the puzzle is around money. What are the routines and rituals you have here? Or more importantly, what do you need?

Many business owners are not very good at managing money, managing their accounts, doing their bookwork etc.

The same concept applies ‒ we need to establish daily routines and rituals that work for us. Most of the time this relates to processing money tasks promptly.

A work in progress 

Now, as I touched on earlier, it’s rare that we simply find a routine, establish it in our business, and everything is rainbows and unicorns.

We need to start by accepting that we need to have better routines and business rituals, and then set about finding the ones that resonate with us.

Then we have to try them out and see if they work for us. Remember, it takes some time to turn a routine into a ritual.

The better we are at managing ourselves, the more likely we are to have a successful, profitable business.

Take control of your daily routines and rituals and enjoy the results. Just be a little patient and keep looking for the routines and business rituals that work for you.

What’s your most effective ritual, or biggest challenge?

Andrew Griffiths is an inspirational mentor, global speaker, and an international best-selling author with 12 books now sold in over 60 countries. To connect with him, send an email to editor@leaderonomics.com.

Reposted with permission