If you feel like your business is not performing well during challenging times, then you probably should stop watering your weeds at work. This phrase refers to not focusing on the right things and wasting energy on the wrong ones.
If you take a look at a field or a lawn, you will likely see some weeds. These pests are designed to grow quickly and aggressively. They are sneaky as well because whenever you water your lawn, plants, or flowers, you’re also supporting the weeds.
Now, let’s switch out the word, “weeds” for “problems.” Do you understand how allowing issues to grow will come with long term consequences?
Consider these tips to help you stop watering your weeds at work:
Control Your Time
Do you feel like you never have enough time to get your work done or focus on your most important projects? There’s a good chance you’re allowing some weeds to fill your schedule.
For example, sales people have the right to promote their services to you and there seems to be more sales calls (and even scams) , as a result of the pandemic. But you don’t have to drop everything and read or listen to every pitch. This is especially true if you don’t even need what’s being offered.
A quick, “No thanks,” is much better than spending 15 minutes politely listening to an explanation about something you don’t need. This isn’t being rude. It’s about honoring your productive time.
Track a week or two and see how much time you’re spending on this kind of issue and figure out a plan to reclaim this time. This could involve the use of a gatekeeper or some other barrier.
Inaction Is an Action
The one weed you’ve noticed in a field will soon become many if you don’t do anything about it. From the broken office chair to falling behind on marketplace training, there are a lot of issues that demand your attention.
Like pulling up a weed, you mean to do it but can never find the time to execute. Consider picking a day, when you’ll do nothing more than address all of these little issues. This way, you limit their potential impact.
Once you’ve gotten rid of these weeds, you’ll likely say, “Why didn’t I do that earlier?”
Not Watering Your Weeds at Work Requires Discipline
Take a moment to celebrate getting rid of your “weeds” but understand more will likely appear down the road. You need to be prepared to address them.
Otherwise, they’ll continue to grow and take more and more of your time. There will always be temptations and distractions that will give you an easy excuse to push things back until another day.
It’s a lot easier to fix one problem that emerges, rather than be intimidated into inaction by a growing number of things you must address.
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