8 Lists to Make Right Now If You Own a Business
Lists are great! That is…if you actually use them. Otherwise, you will just have piles of notebooks with repeated lists that don’t do much besides look pretty.
Why are lists important as a business owner? Well, the more you use the lists, the more likely they will become habits. And the sooner they can become habits, the sooner you can focus on the right things in your business.
Because you can watch all the productivity videos you want, but if you don’t STOP watching them and START doing what they tell you to do, it’s pointless.
That’s why today, we’re talking about list building and the role it can play in YOUR biz — and I’m giving you eight different ones to help you get started!
Idea lists
You’re an entrepreneur like me, so I know ideas are popping into your head nonstop. It doesn’t matter if you are sleeping, at a soccer game, in the shower, or trying to make dinner, ideas will hit you.
And they tend to appear at the most inconvenient times too…so write them down!
I use Asana to keep my ideas in an easy-to-access place where I know I won’t lose or forget them (psssst…it has an app, so you can do this on the go, too!).
Once you write them down, park those ideas and let them sit for 30 days. Yes, a whole month. Why? Because you’ve got things to do in the moment, and the last thing you need as a business owner is to get distracted by shiny objects.
List of quotes
With so many podcasts, courses, and books, there’s a lot to learn about being a business owner. We’re constantly consuming information, so when it comes time to post something inspired by what you learned, it’s easy to forget!
One way to combat this? Write it down.
There have been COUNTLESS times when I’m listening to a podcast and I’m nodding my head in agreement — and THAT'S when I need to pull up Asana and add it to my quotes list. And I’m willing to bet it's the same for you too.
Brain dump list
On Sunday afternoons, I like to sit down in my office alone with the door shut, and sometimes locked (hey, if it’s one thing a kid will do, it’s barge into a room with an unlocked door! And I need a no distraction zone). I list out all the things that are running through my head so I can have a fresh start on Monday morning.
I can then look at my list and see if there are tasks that need to be assigned to me this week, if I can delegate to one of my team members, if I need to put a reminder on it to come back to it next week, or if it’s an idea I need to put in the parking lot.
List of stories
I have to credit this idea to my client and friend, Ashlyn Carter. She’s an amazing copywriter who’s always talking about the power of storytelling.
She suggests tracking things that happened to you — even if you don’t feel like your life is “that interesting”. They don’t need to be epic stories, but things that other people, specifically your target audience, can relate to.
So at the end of each workday, I take a few minutes to jot down one or two things that happened that could be used as a story.
Maybe it’s having a call with a friend I met 3 years ago and we talk about how we’ve changed over that amount of time (and relating that back to how your business also evolves).
Or a story about getting off a team call and pinching myself for a minute that I have a team (realizing how far I’ve come).
If you look hard enough, you’ll find something you can use.
My “Done List”
This is the Trena Little spin on a classic to-do list.
We all know our to-do lists are a mile long, and we never really get them taken care of, right?! This is constantly going to make us feel like a failure, I know it does to me.
And after constantly chasing that to-do list for weeks, it eventually builds up until I’m so stressed and overwhelmed that I just bow out and avoid work.
So at the end of every single week, mostly on a Friday before the kids come home from school, I go through my week and see what I’ve checked off in Asana, look through my Full Focus planner and look at my Google calendar.
Then I jot down the things I actually got done this week.
We’re always racing against the clock to see how much we can get done, but rarely ever stop to celebrate our small wins — even if that just means clearing out your overcrowded inbox.
List of friends, mentors, and business buddies
Running a business is freakin’ hard. But you know what helps? Having people at your side to help you through it.
While my agency rapidly grew through 2022, I was grateful, but it was still stressful because it happened so fast.
Had I not had my business buddies running agencies to reach out to, I probably would have burned it all to the ground (or just spent a week in bed binging Netflix…who knows).
It also helps to have a sounding board. They can talk with you through all kinds of things going on in your business to help you realize you aren’t alone and most of what you feel is normal.
List of “life areas”
No one is just a business owner. We’re all people with many things going on in our lives, from pets, to family, to friends, to school, etc.
And it can be hard to maintain those boundaries so we can give our all to each of them. So some of the lists (what I call life areas) I’ve created to limit the chaos in my out-of-business life are:
A standard grocery list: My kids and I are pretty routine when it comes to eating so our grocery list is easy to knock out.
Meal planning: I HATE coming up with meal ideas so we keep a running list of things we like to eat and add whatever we don’t have to the grocery list.
Cleaning lists: What gets cleaned on what days because I don’t want to spend my entire Saturday cleaning.
Book lists: When do I ever have time to read?? But I still have it.
Netflix list: Listen, TV time is my self-care because it’s the ONLY time my brain typically turns off. And I think that’s important.
You can get creative with the life lists, and you may even find that when you spend less time making decisions in your business AND personal life, decision fatigue may not be so prevalent.
List ways to respond to your emotions
I know it sounds weird, but this one was a game-changer for me. To be totally honest here…it’s been an emotional ROLLERCOASTER over the last 7 years of growing my business.
I’ve seen so many of my business friends come and go because of the stress and burnout that comes with being a business owner (it’s real, you guys, and it’s TOUGH).
And I’ve been right there with them. I’ve wanted to throw in the towel plenty of times but what I've also learned is that if you don’t have a way to respond to the ups and downs, this is going to be a difficult job.
For you, keeping those thoughts in check could look like going for a run. Or taking a break to go run errands and jam out in the car. Or going to sleep early.
How the Enneagram has helped me through this
You may or may not have heard about the Enneagram personality test, but that’s what it is. And because it focuses more on your core drives, it tends to be a little more helpful for me.
Learning about my type (all the Enneagram 3s out there, raise your hands!!) has helped me learn what I need to do to stay balanced.
If you want to learn more, I’d recommend checking out these people over on Instagram:
Speaking of burnout…
If you’re a business owner, you’re bound to be on the verge of burnout at some point. And I imagine that you've been there a time or two before.
But it’s something that can easily sneak up on you and you don’t even realize it until you’re about to burn everything to the ground. When you’re managing all of the responsibilities that come with being a solopreneur, it doesn’t take long if you aren’t keeping yourself in check.
With all of this pressure, you’ll eventually pop from burnout.
In one of my recent podcast episodes, I share what I do when you’re on the burnout spiral…as someone who has been there before way too often.
