Asking for help

For a lot of professionals, there is one big challenge that a lot of us deal with, and that is asking for help. Yes, that is admitting that we don’t understand something and need someone else to help us either understand it or help get it done.

We deal with a lot of IT professionals, and it is amazing how many of them will waste hours and hours trying to figure something out instead of just simply asking someone else for a bit of help. By wasting that time there are risks that a project that you are working on may not get completed on time and who is going to be blamed for that, probably you if you were the cause of the delay.

Asking for help isn’t showing a weakness, it is showing that we aren’t perfect, and we don’t know everything about all topics. There are even times when you may be very knowledgeable about something, but this one little part of it is challenging you. Asking someone else a question can make a big difference because you may figure out the answer yourself, or they can help you achieve the answer.

In so many ways, asking someone else for a little bit of help or guidance will make you a better person because people will see that you don’t think you know everything but are willing to get help. It can be difficult to admit that you need that help, but it’s better than spending hours and hours that you really don’t have trying to solve the problem yourself. Make sure that if someone has said to you that if you don’t understand a topic to ask, that you ask for the help if you run into a problem. The person offering the help is probably very knowledge on that topic and is willing to help you.

Asking for that bit of help will make a difference because you can then continue on with the project you are working on and get it completed. Don’t be afraid to ask for help because we all need help at various times.

Managing tasks

For a lot of us, we have a bunch of things that we need to do each day or even each month. I know that as a small business owner, there are a lot of tasks that need to be completed each month, so I need a method of tracking all of them.

To make things a little easier for myself, I started out by writing out all the different things that were needed to be completed each week, month, yearly, quarterly, etc. Yes, the list starts to get rather long, but at least then you know what you have to do and also when these things must be done. If the item has a specific deadline, I also noted them because it helps with the overall planning of getting everything done. Remember even all those little things that you do automatically need to be noted because what happens if someone else needs to do these tasks at any point, they need to know everything not just the bigger things.

The quarterly and yearly things are the ones that normally have deadlines, so I make sure these are noted in my planner to ensure that they are all met. If you have this type of tasks, what I would suggest it put a reminder in our calendar at the beginning of the month that the task is done, even if it’s not due until the end of the month. By doing this, you are reminding yourself that you need to work on making sure that you meet that deadline. For a lot of these quarterly and yearly tasks, I try to ensure that I meet all of these at least a week ahead of time to ensure that if an emergency comes up I don’t forget about them.

The weekly and monthly things are a little bit easier to manage because they happen a lot more often. Again, they do get added into my planner to ensure that they are completed when they need to be completed. There have been people that say to me why do you have to note all the weekly tasks because you do them each week. I will admit that just having them documented means that they are not stressing me out as something that I must remember to do.

So yes, being able to manage your tasks the way that works best for you is very important. If you are having problems getting your initial list put down, why not sit down with someone and talk through some of the different tasks that you do and see if that helps. It is sometimes fun to look back at the list and think through everything because quite often you will remember something else that you do and didn’t note it down. I have kept my list close at hand as I have been working through the yearly tasks to ensure that I have them all noted down.

Managing tasks for a small business can be quite a challenge, but having a list of the different tasks and when they are all due makes a big difference. Take the time to get this list prepared because it could save you a lot of time in the future, especially when a deadline comes up, and you forgot about it.