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One of the biggest mistakes that I
see business owners making is spending all of

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their time on the short term tasks
that feel urgent or feel important, and

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not making any time for the things
that will actually move their business forward,

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not just keep the lights on and
keep the business running as it is.

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Welcome to Imperfect Action. I'm Steph
Taylor. For years, I read all

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the books, downloaded all the freebees, and did all the courses, but

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it wasn't until I started taking imperfect
action that my business had its first million

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dollars year. Imperfect Action is about
doing things before you're ready, prioritizing consistent

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action over perfect action, and moving
forward even when you're not sure you're doing

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it right. On this show,
you can expect mindset advice, actionable marketing

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tips, and strategies to build a
business that brings you more profit, more

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freedom, and even more joy.
Are you on the list to get my

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daily businesses? Every day, I'll
send you a bye size prompt designed to

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help you grow your business in a
more intentional way. Sign up at Steph

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Taylor dot com, forward slash DBB, or the link in the show notes.

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Hey, Welcome back to im Perfect
Action. This episode six hundred and

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seventy How to choose where to focus
your time and energy in your business when

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your to do list is overflowing.
This is something that pretty much every business

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owner is going to experience at some
point in time in running your business,

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and I know it can be so
incredibly challenging when you feel like you are

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being pulled in a million different directions
in your business and you just don't know

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where to focus. Next. Do
you try and keep the lights on,

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do you keep the wheels running,
or how do you even find the time

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to invest in the things that are
going to grow your business. So the

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very famous thing I want to talk
about before you really jump into how to

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focus or where to place your focus
in your business is this concept of short

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term gain versus long term gain tasks. Now, running your business is a

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little bit like gardening, So short
term tasks are the things like watering and

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weeding the garden. You have to
water your plants every day otherwise they die

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right otherwise the weeds will take over. And this is like dealing with the

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day to day operations your emails,
client needs. All of the things that

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keep the lights on in your business, the things that are working in your

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business versus the things that deliver a
long term gain, things like planting new

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seeds, fertilizing your plants, pruning
them. You don't necessarily see the immediate

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results and they don't feel as urgent. But if you skip these things in

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your garden won't grow. These are
things like creating a course so you don't

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have to work with clients as much
long term, designing a new lead magnet

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to grow your email list, starting
a podcast to attract more of the right

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people into your business, the tasks
that are working on the business, but

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when your to do list is overflowing
and feel really hard to create time for

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those longer term tasks, when you
don't even feel like you have time to

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stay on top of the short term
things. And one of the biggest mistakes

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that I see business owners making is
spending all of their time on the short

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term tasks that feel urgent or feel
important, and not making any time for

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the things that will actually move their
business forward, not just keep the lights

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on and keep the business running as
it is. But that's easier said than

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done, right, Like, how
do you choose where to focus when there

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are just so many things you could
focus on at any given point in time.

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So here are sort of rough five
steps that I would take. Step

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number one is I would get really
clear and where my business is heading.

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Often we can get caught in just
running the business and you just end up

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peddling this bicycle with no real idea
of where you're going or what you need

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to do to get there. And
if you don't know where you're going,

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you're not going to wind up anywhere
in particular, or you're going to wind

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up some where that's completely different to
where you want it to be. Now.

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I created a free workbook called Escape
the Messy Middle that I designed to

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help you to get complete clarity on
where your business is heading, so that

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you can grow your business with intention
and focus rather than trying to do all

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of the things and exhausting yourself in
the process. If you want to copy

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of that free workbook, send me
a DM on Instagram with the letters EMM.

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You can find me there on Stephtaylor
dot co on Instagram EMM, and

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it will send you the link to
that automatically. All right. The second

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thing, the next step, capture
everything that needs to be done to keep

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your business running. So write down
all of those short term gain tasks all

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of the things that need to be
done to keep your clients happy, to

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keep the lights on in your business, and write them down, whether it's

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a physical planner or a digital task
management software like click up. We use

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click up, I love click Up, Asana, Monday, any of those

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one so you can see in front
of you. These are all of the

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things that need to be done,
and then ask yourself, do I really

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need to do this task? Is
this task moving me closer to my bigger

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vision for my business? Or is
it actually just taking off my time?

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A lot of the time we can
fill out to do lists with things that

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make us feel busy, make us
feel productive, but don't move our businesses

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any closer to where we want to
be and that we don't really want to

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be doing. So ask yourself,
do I want to be doing this task?

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Then step three? What bigger projects
need to happen to move your business

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closer towards that long term goal.
So go through the exercises in the Escape

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the Messy Middle workbook. If you
haven't got that, dm me on Instagram

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EMM I'm there at steph Taylor dot
Co. And once you've figured out those

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exercises, You should then have a
rough idea of what needs to happen to

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achieve that bigger vision, right,
whether that's launching a podcast or finally creating

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that membership, or building out that
funnel to fill your coaching program, whatever

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it is. These are all big
projects and you might feel like you want

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to do them all at the same
time, but you're actually a lot more

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effective if you just focus on one
at a time rather than constantly switching between

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all of these different things. Dive
headfirst into one, complete that, then

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do the next one. And I
know it's so hard. Like that entrepreneurial

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brain, I get this as well. We want to do all of the

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things and we want to do them
yesterday, but sometimes slow and steady is

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the easiest way to get to the
finish line. So pick which one you

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need to focus on first. Pick
which project you need to focus on,

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or which project you want to focus
on first, and start with that one.

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Then step fourth, what needs to
happen to make this this first big

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project a reality. This is where
you want to capture all of the tasks

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that need to be done and put
them side by side with wherever you captured

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those other tasks that you needed to
keep the lights on. So if you're

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putting them an all in, click
up, keep it all in, click

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up. And remember these tasks that
you are putting in to make this bigger

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project of reality, they aren't going
to feel as urgent as the others that

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keep the lights on in your business. So rather than relying on urgency to

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make these things happen, you're going
to need to be intentional with how you

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prioritize them rather than just working on
them when you have time. Okay,

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you're going to need to make time
to get these done, and this might

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look like getting up an hour earlier
every day, or skipping Netflix at night,

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or setting a boundary around how often
you check your inbox every day and

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then using that little bit of extra
time to work on your business instead of

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just constantly being available in your inbox
and being really reactive with what you are

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doing. And then step number five
is be realistic with your daily to do

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list. This is hard, I
know, I get this. How often

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do you actually complete everything that is
on your to do list? If you

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are an overachiever, you probably overestimate
how much you can get done in a

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day. I do this too.
And then when you roll your to do

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list, the left over tasks on
your to do list over onto the next

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day. You feel like you're behind, You feel like you haven't been as

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productive as you should have been.
You guilt yourself about it, and then

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you end up constantly carrying over these
tasks and never actually ticking off the entire

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to do list. So instead of
trying to do everything, how can you

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try to do less but only do
the things that are really important. Time

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blocking has been a really great tool
for me for being realistic with how much

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I can get done in a day, because I will put it in my

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calendar how long I think it's going
to take me to do something, and

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then I realize, oh, I'm
trying to like budget ten hours worth of

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work here, and I'm only going
to work four or five hours today,

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so there's no way I'm going to
get this done. Let me now prioritize

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what is the most important things that
I need to get done with my limited

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time today rather than what are all
of the things that I can get done.

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A tool that I've started using for
this is called sun Sama sun Sama

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and not sponsored at all by them, but like, this is something I

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just discovered this year, and it
integrates really nicely with click up, so

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that I've now got every day,
I can look at all of the things

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that need to happen in the business
that's in click up, and then I

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can put into my own calendar,
my own personal to do list, all

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of the things that need to be
done, and I can also schedule in

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things like exercise and the various things
I need to do around the house,

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so I know this is what I'm
getting done, this is what time I

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want to shut down my day,
and I'm being a lot more intentional with

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where I'm spending my time. So
those are the five steps that I would

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go through. I get clear and
where my business is heading. Capture everything

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that needs to be done to keep
the lights on in your business. Identify

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what those bigger projects are that need
to happen to move your business towards that

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long term goal. Identify what needs
happen to make the first big project a

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reality, not all of them.
We just want to do one at a

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time, and then be realistic with
that daily to do list, intentionally create

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that time to work on the tasks
that will make that big project a reality.

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That is it for today's episode,
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Thank you so much for listening.
Catch you next time.