I am guessing that you are one of the 95% of people in employment (as opposed to self-employment) who see themselves as having to attend their place of work for a set number of hours every day. I may be wrong on this and you may have a different take on things, but for most of you out there, you put in the hours you need and then call it quits, head for the door and go home.

Some higher ranking managers will have a task oriented view on things, rather than my narrow, time bound description of working life. In fact they, in common with any successful business man or woman, will have this task oriented view. Looking back over history any successful person, of any description, will have approached their work in the same way.

Put simply, it’s all about lists. So, if you’re self employed, you need to make a list. Before you make your list, it is essential that you know what your goals are, because I don’t mean a simple list. It needs to be a prioritised list. Knowing your goals allows you to assess your list in the light of what you need to do in order to achieve your goals. Some things will be ‘nice to do’ – they’re not important in the grand scheme of things, so they come low down. Other things will appear to need doing straight away, but don’t offer much in the way of progress towards your goals, again these come low down on your prioritised list.

What you should aim for then is a list of tasks that will deliver the results that you have identified in order to get you where you want to be. Achieving them is then a matter of application.

This article, written by me, has previously been published on my former on-line incarnation, www.thesimonlewis.co.uk.