Having an A-List Will Save Your Business

So how do you build this list when everything on your plate feels important (and let's face it, if we are going with the plate analogy, then only the meat and broccoli need to be eaten to survive)? 

Here's the system I have my clients use. Two lists: an A-List and a B-List as we create the weekly schedule. 

The A-List gets done no matter what. These are the activities that, as you do them, your business will grow. Floods come, the week falls apart, a kid gets sick, and the A-List still gets handled, no matter what. 

The B-List would be nice. It's useful work, real work even, but if it slips to the next day or next week, the business doesn't feel it. The B-List is what you reach for after the A-List is done, not before, these actions can boost your business, but aren't the engine that makes you go (you know, the corn, the bread, the brownie on your plate).

So how do you decide what goes where? One question: Does this activity start, deepen, or maintain a relationship that could lead to a referral?

If yes, it's A-List. The conversation, the follow-up, the coffee with a partner, the call to check in on a past client, the podcast episode. This is the work that actually fills your pipeline in a referral business.

If no, it's B-List. The posting, the polishing, the logo tweak, the new tool you wanted to try. All helpful sometimes, but never urgent.

There's a real cost to getting this backward, too. Researchers at UC Irvine found it takes people an average of around 23 minutes to fully refocus after switching tasks (no stat has ever been more relatable). When you treat ten things as equally urgent and bounce between all of them, you're not doing ten things. You're paying that switching tax over and over and finishing none of them well.

Two lists fix that: the A-List tells you where to start and the B-List tells you what can wait. And the relief that comes from knowing the difference is how we keep things simple at Live Local Marketing. 

So pull up last week and start sorting every activity into A or B using that one question. I think you'll be surprised how much of your stress lives on the B-List.

What's one thing you've been treating as A-List that's actually a B? Name it in the comments. Saying it out loud is half the battle.

And if this is bringing you enough value to want more...visit www.LiveLocalWarmMarketing.com and see the resources available to your referral marketing journey.