Eating Dessert First? How I prioritize my day.

I'm a big proponent of eating dessert first. Here's my flawless logic: I look at my plate and eat the thing I like the most first. Then I look at it again, and then pick (from what's left) what I like the most and eat that. That way, I'm always eating the absolute yummiest thing that's available right away. Makes sense, right?

But this doesn't work so well for running a business. I'd be surfing lots of fun blogs all day long and checking out other etsy stores while my taxes, health insurance bill, and messy desk would be left on my proverbial plate.

So instead what I have to do is the old "eat your broccoli first, then you get dessert." Borrowing a trick from the Four Hour Work Week, I come up with a list of one to two major items each day to finish. I write these down either the night before, or perhaps even laying out my whole week on Sunday night.

This way, I can jump right in and get the most important tasks done for the day, and if there's time left, I can do the more fun aspects of my job. It keeps me focused, but also makes me work faster and more efficiently since I'm trying to finish up.

For example, here's my to-do list for today:

1. Send out at least one press release.
2. Write a blog post.
3. Create new sampler sheet for super-secret distribution.

And if I'm able to finish up quickly, then I can eat my yummy dessert and current addiction, the weekly "Quit Your Day Job" post on etsy's blog. I can't wait!