How To Prioritise Better by Writing Your Job Description
One of the big problems we all come up against running our own businesses is knowing (and sticking to!) what our actual job is. We feel we need to be able to do everything, and to do everything equally as perfectly and professionally. Of course we know that’s not realistic, but nonetheless the pressure remains and leads to all sorts of symptoms to play out: loss of boundaries, time management issues, overwhelm and falling out of love with your business.
We started our businesses because we loved doing a particular thing, and so often that thing is the first to go when we grow. Less and less time is spent writing/making/photographing as more and more demands are made by your inbox/social media/customers. It’s at this point that not only does your creative work start to dwindle, but your intentions to learn, develop and grow go up in smoke too.
If you’re working for someone else your job role tends not to spill over like this (although of course there are exceptions!). In a team of people the boundaries between each person’s job are clearly delineated, and you’re able to know when a task is outside your remit and pass it over to the person responsible. Although in our own businesses we can’t pass over every task, we can use the traditional workplace as a model to better prioritise our tasks.
If you’re thinking this is all a bit self-indulgent and that is just the nature of the beat of having your business that you have to do more things you don’t like, then let me introduce you to the Pareto principle. The Pareto principle states that 80% of effects come from 20% causes – so 80% of revenue comes from 20% of clients/products, or 80% of your output comes from 20% of your activities. If you can do more of the 20% (and spoiler, it’s unlikely the 20% is in your inbox), then it can only benefit your business.
What is your job?
This is a question I ask clients when they’re starting to worry about how they’re going to fit it all in. Posting on Instagram is not the entirety of your job, so don’t give it too much weight. Pretend a pile of money falls out of the sky and lands in your lap – what are the things you don’t outsource? What are the things only you can do, and that you want to do? What are the things you’re best at? What would you start to make more time for?
Those things. That is your job.
Let’s use me as a practical example. In this ideal world I would outsource everything that wasn’t creation, teaching or connecting – I would continue to write my posts and my products, record my podcasts and take photos, as well as creating new things to grow the business; I would allocate more time to teaching courses online and in person; and I’d give more time over to being present on social media. They are the things I’m best at, and the things that I want to do. I’d also make more time for activities that support this work – the reading and research that helps me explore topics more deeply, for example.
That is the core of my job. Everything else is secondary.
Writing your job description
Now, let’s formalise it. You get a job description outlining your responsibilities and priorities when you start a new job, but you sure as hell didn’t get one when you started your business. Writing a job description for your role in the business is more than a funny exercise – it can help to clarify your business, manage your time and prioritise activities, reduce overwhelm and generally feel more in control.
The structure of your job description might look something like this:
Job title – call yourself that name! It might be ‘Photographer’ it might be ‘CEO’, but call yourself the title that is right for the work you want to be doing.
Job summary – a bitesize round up of what your job entails that you can reach for when you feel overwhelmed
Responsibilities – broadening out the summary, these are the areas of your role where you can make the biggest difference to the business
Key tasks – the things that directly feed into your responsibilities; these are the tasks to prioritise going forward
Other tasks – because yes, you are self-employed, and the inbox and social media aren’t going anywhere. But these are the tasks you now have permission not to prioritise as highly in future, and be ones to outsource when you’re ready
Here’s mine. It’s quite formal because, believe it or not, one of my first jobs involved writing job adverts and old habits die hard. I actually found that approaching it quite formally helped me to remain objective, but do what feels comfortable to you.
Job Title: Creative and Business Director
Job Summary:
To strategise and plan for the accomplishment of company goals, creative output and product development
Responsibilities:
Short, medium and long term planning
Developing and creating new products and offerings
Writing and photography
Trend watching and research
Community management
Key tasks:
Tracking business progress and setting the course of the business
Assess existing offerings and come up with new ideas when relevant
Create new products
Write blog posts, guest posts, emails, articles, ebooks; take photographs
Making time to read, listen to podcasts and general research around new product and content ideas
Other tasks:
Post and engage on social media
Manage or outsource accounts
Keep up with email communications
You may find yourself worrying whether you’re ‘allowed’ to specify your role like this – we are all so used to having roles given to us that defining our own can feel scary. What if I miss out something, what if I do it wrong? Well you know what? You’re the boss, and so the only person you have to answer to is yourself. Perhaps the first incarnation of your job description doesn’t hit the spot, so you need to sit down with your boss and renegotiate it – again, this should be pretty easy as your boss is you.
Having and growing a business is about owning your strengths and weaknesses, and working on ways to do more of the former and less of the latter – this exercise is the first step towards doing that. So let me know how you get on, and tag me if you share your job description online.
