Handle Your Sh**: Turning Your Small Business To-Do List into Mission Accomplished

This year, my wife, Lisa, and I decided to handle our sh**. It’s our New Year’s mantra. And it’s both a rallying cry and a reality check. To handle my sh** meant that I needed to tackle my small business to do list. And when I did, I found out that my small business to do list was a hot mess.

The hard part of creating a small business to do list isn’t actually making one—it’s doing it. If you own a small business, you know this all too well. Your small business to do list might include everything from client calls to ordering supplies to figuring out why the office Wi-Fi is spotty. And while you start each day with good intentions, somehow those critical tasks always seem to multiply instead of going away.

So, how am I going to make my small business to do list not a hot mess? I drew a line. Literally.

The Line on My Small Business To-Do List

Here’s how my small business to do list would typically go: I’d start with a reasonable list of things to accomplish for the day. But then, life would get in the way, and I wouldn’t finish everything. Naturally, I’d carry the unfinished tasks over to the next day. By midweek, I’d have a list so long it looked like it belonged to someone running five businesses instead of just one. By the end of the month, I was buried.

And the worst part was that important tasks got lost on the small business to do list – and I never accomplished everything I wanted to in the year. (More about how part of me may have liked that later.)

So, I started out this year with diligence and verve, ready to handle my sh** by putting everything on my small business to do list. But as I started to do what I did most every year–bury myself with boxes to check–I finally came to terms with the fact that I was a small business to do list failure, and I either had to throw my small business to do list out or try another tactic or fix my small business to do list.

The truth is: I’m married to my small business to do list. So, I went for the fix. The fix, which I didn’t recognize as a fix until weeks later, was 100% accidental. One day, in desperation to stop yesterday’s to-do items from comingling with today’s projects, I drew a line. A simple, clear, definitive line. Little did I know that the line would both liberate and organize me in ways that I have never experienced before. Here’s what that line helped me do:

Stop Pushing Tasks Down the List

The line allowed me to focus solely on the tasks I wanted to accomplish that day without losing sight of the others I needed to tackle in the near future. That sense of presence but not pressing—because the line clearly demarcated what had to be done today versus later—let me fully concentrate on the tasks at hand. As the day unfolded, I began naturally moving tasks above or below the line based on shifting priorities. This flexibility created a rhythm and fluidity that gave me confidence. No task felt lost or buried because everything remained visible—either just above or below the line—and I knew it would all be addressed in due time.

Stop Losing Tasks on Purpose

About that fluidity…as I shifted tasks above and below the line, I realized that sometimes a task would sink lower below the line because it just wasn’t as important to get done. But then I also started to notice that sometimes the tasks were things I didn’t want to do, and it was easy to forget them the more I buried them.

This was a huge discovery for me, and I called myself on it. I didn’t trust myself to remedy the situation through willpower alone. Instead, I identified the tasks that I liked to do and put a plus mark next to them. I placed those tasks under the line. Above the line were things I may or may not like doing but needed to be done.

At the beginning of the day, I would move a “+” task above the line. If I accomplished my other tasks, I would let myself work on the task I wanted to. For me, and I think most people who work for themselves, controlling what you want to do is hard because we are the bosses. No one is telling us to make an appointment with the accountant except for us. By rewarding myself with tasks I liked for doing tasks that needed to get done, I was able to get more meaningful stuff done on my small business to do list.

Embrace the Power of Small Wins

As I got more important stuff done on my small business to do list, something shifted in my psyche. I felt good, and I wanted recognition for my list checkmarks, especially for tasks I had put off forever. The checkmarks and the reward of getting to do one thing I wanted to do off my small business to do list helped satisfy that need for recognition, but telling Lisa, my wife, what I accomplished was also key. And the great thing about this was that it wasn’t just me saying I got work things done—I was getting “us” things done because my small business to do list had personal items on it, too. Like my small business to do list, some of these personal items had been on the list for a long time.

Maybe experts would say to keep the two lists separate, but by combining them I was able to bring Lisa in on my reward system when I accomplished “our” goals. It also satisfied the need for more instantaneous rewards, like boxes checked, which research shows is important in creating a habit. BJ Fogg, the author of “Tiny Habits,” emphasizes how celebrating small wins and immediate reinforcement can make a habit stick, and I found that to be true here.

Draw Another Line

As great as all this is, there were times when my brain kept dumping more stuff to do on my small business to do list. At first, I started to panic. Then, without thinking, I drew another line. Below this line were items that needed to be addressed down the road but should stay nearby and eventually be shuffled into the daily list.

The Line is Gold

The great thing about a line on my small business to do list was that it made my list a living thing. It was no longer static and frozen in time. The line made me constantly interact with my small business to do list. What goes above the line? What goes below? Where does this item fit in my small business to do list? Am I prioritizing my “I Don’t Want to Do Items” over my “I Want to Do Items”?

I love my list now. I’m hoping that I will still love it because I was able to accomplish most of the things on my small business to do list by the end of the year. I will keep you posted!