I was scared to death. In my mind it was only a matter of time before I would go broke. What the hell had I done? As I pushed the lawnmower I had scored for a whopping $50 to the median between my office building and loop 323 in Tyler I thought to myself, “I have to mow the grass. I cannot afford to pay anyone to do it. Every penny counts.”

That sounds like a reasonable bit of rationale right? Wrong! I just purchased my first business. It was a real estate brokerage in Tyler, TX. Those first couple years I did everything myself. I mowed the grass. I kept the books. Wait. Let’s stay there for a second. I kept the books. One day I received a letter in the mail from a little outfit known as the Internal Revenue Service. Maybe you’ve heard of them. The note very bluntly stated if I didn’t comply with their demands I would have my bank account garnished and my doors to my office locked. It appeared I was in trouble. I mean I was in like Al Capone trouble according to this letter.

Here’s what happened. Because I thought I had to do everything including my own payroll taxes, which I had never heretofore done in my entire life, I had missed an important step. You see I went online and opened an EFT account. This allowed me to make electronic payments weekly every time I paid my employees. I would go on, fill out the form and pay. Well, the federal government being what it is, was actually more concerned with my payroll reports than they were my actual payments .As such, I got the aforementioned nasty-gram because although I was making the payments I was not submitting the required quarterly reports. The fact is I had no businesses doing my payroll taxes. Nor did I need to be cutting my own grass. As a business owner you cannot afford to let yourself get mired in tasks that take you away from making money. Both of these tasks did that very thing.

People are literally obsessed with the almighty “to-do” list. There’s something about having a list that not only keeps us on track, but also makes us seem busy. I believe an opposite list is in order. I’m currently taking a class led by Dean Graziosi. In the class Dean takes students through the following exercise, and it might be one of the best things I’ve ever done.

The first step is listing all the tasks you do on a regular basis. Then you must categorize each action. Once these are listed you then have a choice to make. Do you automate the task? Do you delegate the task or do you eliminate the task. You have to decide.

After going through the exercise I realized there were so many minuscule tasks I was performing that I just didn’t have to. I know what you’re thinking. “Well easy for you to say Jason. I can’t afford to pay someone to do those things.” I get it. I’ve been there. Trust me on this. By freeing up your physical time as well as your headspace, you will more than replace whatever monetary cost you absorb for outsourcing those tasks on your “NOT to do list.”

You rule!

Jason