7 Tips for Prioritizing Tasks if You’re an Entrepreneur
Does every task on your to-do list feel absolutely urgent and critical? You’re not alone. A recent study by Slack shows that business owners lose an average of 96 minutes of productive time each day (or about three weeks a year).
If that sounds familiar, then keep reading this guide, where we’ll show you how to prioritize tasks as an entrepreneur or small business owner. Expect practical tips that’ll help you avoid distractions, keep your focus, and make smarter decisions.
Why Prioritizing Matters More When You’re an Entrepreneur
Being an entrepreneur or business owner often entails wearing many different hats, like store manager, marketer, bookkeeper, sometimes even receptionist. Your days are constantly packed with way too many moving parts, constant decisions, and unexpected tasks that all demand your attention.
As such, it’s easy for everything to feel equally urgent, even when it’s not. Like everyone else, you have limited time, energy, and attention span, so it’s all about figuring out what should come first and what can wait.
Below are the main benefits of effective prioritization as an entrepreneur:
- You finish the high-impact tasks first. The work that actually grows the business gets done sooner instead of getting buried.
- You feel less stressed and are less prone to burnout because your to-do list is shorter, clearer, and more manageable.
- You’re more likely to produce better-quality output given that you’re saving your time and efforts toward important tasks.
- You make faster, clearer decisions. When you know what to prioritize, there are little to no project bottlenecks, and your staff can proceed.
How To Prioritize Tasks as an Entrepreneur: 7 Useful Tips
Here are some of the most effective ways to prioritize tasks and actually focus, especially if you own a relatively small business.
1. Define your goals and objectives for the week
At the start of each week, list two to five things you want to accomplish by the end of the week. These should be specific, measurable outcomes that are tied to either revenue growth, customer retention, or risk reduction.
Your set of clear goals and objectives for the week should act as your filter: If a task isn’t relevant to any item on that list, then you should either reschedule, delegate, or perhaps drop that task.
Also read: What Do the Most Productive Entrepreneurs Do Differently?
2. Sort your tasks by what matters
When everything looks important, give each task a quick score. Look at three things as your criteria for scoring:
- Impact: “If I finish this, how much will it move this week’s goals/objectives?”
- Urgency: “What’s the real deadline, or what’s the consequence if I don’t do it soon?”
- Effort: “How big is this task? Can I finish it in one sitting, or will it take several sessions?”
Score each on a simple 1–3 scale, where 1 is low and 3 is high. Then, use this formula to calculate the total score per task:
(Impact × Urgency) − Effort = Score
Once you have all the scores, place tasks into four lanes: Do Today/ASAP, Schedule This Week, Delegate/Automate, or Postpone/Drop.
The Do Today/ASAP category is obviously for tasks with the highest scores. Meanwhile, Postpone/Drop is for those with the lowest scores, given that these don’t exactly help your current objectives, or they can wait without negatively impacting anything.
3. Run the “fire vs. fuel” test
Does every task still feel urgent even after you’ve tried filtering? If that’s the case, you might want to consider doing the “fire vs. fuel” test. Here, you’ll further sort your list into two types:
- Fire: These tasks are for fixing or addressing problems with real, near-term consequences. Example problems are a failed payment run, a supplier delay, or a missed legal filing.
- Fuel: These are tasks that don’t necessarily demand your immediate attention, but they do significantly improve your efficiency and revenue over time. For instance, setting up better onboarding, improving the checkout flow, or creating a monthly metrics review.
Once you’ve sorted out your list, follow this simple rule of thumb: Every time you finish handling a Fire task, allot about 30–50 minutes for one Fuel task. That Fuel task should be dedicated to documenting steps for preventing a similar Fire from happening.
Over a few weeks, you should be encountering fewer surprises and more steady progress, given your proactivity. Sure, you may still have to do Fire tasks every now and then, but Fuel tasks reduce how often and how hard they hit.
4. Block time for deep-focus work
Although you’ll probably never have “the perfect schedule,” you can definitely reserve certain hours (aka time blocks) specifically for high-priority tasks that require your focus. It doesn’t have to be multiple times a day; even just one solid time block is enough as long as it’s consistent.
Treat these particular time blocks like private appointments with yourself: Show up on time, close the door if you have one, silence notifications, and clear your desk or station so you can start right away.
You might also want to keep a visible timer running on your phone or computer. This will help you stay on track and reduce the urge to switch between tasks.
5. Cut distractions as much as possible
Most focus-related problems are caused by too many incoming messages and alerts competing for your attention. That’s why it’s important to limit the options for how people can contact you. Pick two main channels (for example, email and Slack) and state when people can expect responses from you.
Fewer inboxes mean fewer places to check, fewer interruptions that may pull you off task, and lower chances of missing something important. It also sets expectations so no one is waiting for instant, lightning-speed replies from you.
Additionally, fix your workspace to make it more conducive to concentration. This includes putting your phone out of reach during deep-focus blocks, using headphones if noise is an issue, and ending each day by clearing your desk of anything you don’t need for tomorrow’s first task.
6. Delegate or automate tasks that don’t specifically require you
Make a quick list of tasks you repeat a lot and don’t require your unique expertise or authority. Ask yourself: “Can someone else do this task to the same standard, as long as they’re given clear steps and access to the right files?”
If the answer is yes, then add it to the list. Typically, these tasks include the likes of data entry, invoice follow-ups, basic customer replies, and schedule reminders.
Next, decide what to delegate and what to automate. If a task needs judgment, empathy, or customization, delegate it to someone on your staff. On the other hand, if it follows a clear rule and happens the same way every time, it’s likely best to automate it with a tool.
Extra tip: If you run a service business, you should definitely use Bookedin to handle routine tasks like synchronizing your and your staff’s schedules, sending appointment reminders to clients, and collecting deposits online.
7. Know when to say no (without overthinking it)
At this point, you probably already know that saying yes to everything often leads you away from your real priorities. The hard part is giving a deliberate “no” without second-guessing (as long as the situation calls for it).
However, it’s also true that this advice is easier said than done. Saying no can feel risky if you’re not used to it, and that’s understandable — but try not to overthink things. After all, saying no is a normal part of running a business.
To make it more doable, you can also use this simple filter: If a request isn’t urgent, doesn’t advance any of your weekly goals/objectives, or could be done by someone else, then it shouldn’t get your time today. You can either decline it completely, delegate, or postpone for later.
Also read: How To Go on Vacation if You’re a Small Business Owner
Key Takeaways on How To Focus as a Business Owner
As you can see, figuring out how to prioritize tasks as an entrepreneur all comes down to choosing wisely, and directing rather than reacting.
When you consistently follow the prioritization tips above, you’ll finish the work that actually moves the business — and perhaps even feel less tired.
And for those who own service businesses (think salons, spas, tattoo shops, and fitness studios), one of the easiest ways to prioritize is to put routine administrative tasks on autopilot.
That’s where Bookedin comes in. With this online scheduling tool, you can utilize various features like 24/7 booking on your site and socials, automatic schedule confirmations and reminders for clients, and more!
Go ahead and grab a free trial today to see the difference in your productivity as well as your clients’ experience.
