Your To-Do List Is Lying To You

Introduction:

Your To-Do List Is Lying To You

I've got a slightly uncomfortable question for you.

How much of what you've done in your business today actually put money in your till?

Not how busy you've been.

Not how many things you've ticked off.

Not how many hours you've spent at your laptop.

What have you actually done that could move your business forward?

Because there's a trap I see small business owners fall into all the time.

We write a huge to-do list.

We start with the easy jobs.

We tick things off.

And by the end of the day, we've been incredibly busy...

But have we actually grown the business?

That's a very different question.

Your To-Do List Thinks Everything Is Equally Important

That's the problem with a traditional to-do list.

"Follow up with someone who asked about my product."

and

"Change the font on my Facebook graphic."

both take up one line.

But they're absolutely not worth the same thing to your business.

One could result in a customer.

The other could result in... a slightly nicer font.

Yet which one are we tempted to do first?

The font.

Of course we are. 😂

It's quick. It's easy. We can tick it off.

And we get that lovely little feeling that we've done something.

This is how we can spend hours working on our businesses without actually doing much business.

So I want you to try something different.

Stop Writing One Big To-Do List

Instead, I want you to divide everything you need to do into four categories.

1. MAKES MONEY 💰

These are the activities that could directly result in business.

Things like:

• Following up with someone who has shown an interest

• Checking in with a previous customer

• Having a conversation with a potential customer

• Making an offer

• Asking for a referral

• Following up an enquiry

• Reconnecting with someone you've previously spoken to

• Speaking to customers about reordering

These are the things we often put off because they can feel a little uncomfortable.

And yet they're usually the things most likely to actually grow the business.

Funny that.

2. SUPPORTS MONEY 🌱

These activities might not generate a sale today, but they're building the foundations that help sales happen.

For example:

• Creating genuinely useful social media content

• Writing an email to your customers

• Attending a networking event

• Writing a blog

• Growing your email list

• Collecting testimonials

• Improving your customer journey

• Creating content that answers common customer questions

• Building relationships with your audience

These things matter.

A lot.

But there's an important distinction between marketing your business and doing something directly connected to generating a sale.

You need both.

3. ADMIN 🗂️

Then we have the jobs that simply need doing.

Invoices.

Updating spreadsheets.

Filing receipts.

Organising customer information.

Scheduling content.

Sorting emails.

Updating records.

They're important, but they don't necessarily deserve the best two hours of your working day.

Where possible, batch them.

Automate them.

Create templates.

Give them a specific slot in your diary.

Don't let admin expand to fill every available minute.

4. CAN WAIT 💤

This is where things get interesting.

Because every business owner has jobs on their list that feel productive...

but really aren't.

Changing your Canva fonts again.

Redesigning a graphic nobody has seen yet.

Rewriting your Instagram bio for the seventh time.

Researching whether you should be on another social media platform.

Watching another training when you haven't implemented the last three.

Spending an hour looking for the perfect Reel audio.

Reorganising your Canva folders because suddenly that feels very urgent indeed.

You know the ones.

I'm not saying you can never do them.

I'm saying you need to recognise them for what they are.

Busy work disguised as business.

Here's The Rule I Want You To Try

Every working day:

Do ONE thing that MAKES MONEY before you disappear into everything else.

That's it.

Before Canva.

Before reorganising anything.

Before checking whether your Reel got another 12 views overnight.

Ask:

What's one thing I could do today that could genuinely lead to business?

Then do it.

If you only have an hour to work on your business that day, this becomes even more important.

Don't spend 55 minutes making a graphic and five minutes wondering why nobody is buying.

Prioritise the activities that move people closer to becoming customers.

Try The 1-2-1 Method

If a giant to-do list overwhelms you, here's an even simpler way to plan your day.

Choose:

1 Makes Money task

2 Supports Money tasks

1 Admin task

Anything else is a bonus.

Suddenly your list isn't 27 things long.

It's four.

And, more importantly, those four things have been chosen intentionally.

For example:

MAKES MONEY:
Follow up with the three people who asked me about my product last week.

SUPPORTS MONEY:
Write one useful Facebook post.
Email previous customers with a helpful tip.

ADMIN:
Update customer records.

That's a far more useful day's work than ticking off 14 random jobs simply because they were easy.

But What About Social Media?

This is particularly important because I know many small business owners spend a huge amount of their available time creating content.

Social media absolutely matters.

But posting isn't the end goal.

Customers are.

Before you create a piece of content, ask:

What is this post supposed to do?

Start a conversation?

Build trust?

Educate?

Answer an objection?

Show a customer result?

Generate an enquiry?

Make an offer?

If you can't answer that question, you're potentially creating content simply because you think you should be posting.

And that's another form of busy work.

Your Business Doesn't Need You To Be Busy

It needs you to be intentional.

There will always be another email.

Another graphic.

Another notification.

Another bit of admin.

Another new platform somebody tells you that you absolutely MUST be using.

You could work on your business 24 hours a day and still find something else to do.

So the goal can't be:

"Finish everything."

You'll never finish everything.

The goal is:

"Do the things that matter most."

Your Challenge For Tomorrow

Take your current to-do list and grab four different highlighters.

Mark everything as:

💰 MAKES MONEY

🌱 SUPPORTS MONEY

🗂️ ADMIN

💤 CAN WAIT

Then look at what you've got.

You might discover something quite interesting.

Your list may be absolutely packed...

but very little of it is actually connected to generating business.

And if that's the case, you've just discovered something far more useful than another productivity hack.

You've discovered where your time is really going.

Tomorrow morning, don't ask:

"What can I tick off quickly?"

Ask:

"Which thing on this list is most likely to move my business forward?"

Then start there.

Because your to-do list will happily tell you that everything is important.

Your bank account knows it isn't.

Other resources to help you get started, download my FREE Social Media planner to start planning out your content