Working Through the Never-Ending To-Do List of an SMB Owner

In partnership with

Good Morning!

1. Feature: Working Through the Never-Ending To-Do List of an SMB Owner
   (3 min)

2. From the Archive:

   • A Proven Method to Analyze and Cut Expenses

   • Using Non-Compete Clauses in LLC Operating Agreements: A 2025 Guide for SMB Owners

Consistency stacks, Thursday included.

-TCoL

Missed our last feature article? Template Tuesday: A Board of Directors for your LLC?

If you’ve read The Co. Letter for long, you know we are big fans of Andy Grove, the former head of Intel. In his writings, Grove gave strong, practical advice, exactly the kind we try to deliver here. No clickbait. No perfect morning routine. No $3,000 consulting session to get a simple answer.

We recently ran across a simple question and Grove’s equally simple response to the most common problem of our time: being overwhelmed as a small business owner with a to-do list that never ends. His answer is so good, so calming, that we decided to share it here.

Understand, he does not give you a magical hack. But it is vintage Andy Grove: sound, practical, and calming.

Unlocking Incrementality: A Guide for Marketing Success

In today's chaotic marketing landscape, brands need a reliable way to measure what works and what doesn't. Incrementality is the answer.

This free ebook, “Unlocking Incrementality: A Guide for Marketing Success,” will teach you everything you need to know about incrementality, from the basics to advanced strategies.

Inside, you’ll learn:

• ‍What incrementality is and why it matters: Understand how it differs from traditional attribution and why it’s essential for modern marketers.

• ‍How to measure and test incrementality: Explore proven methods like geo experiments and conversion lift testing.

• ‍How to optimize your marketing spend: Identify your most impactful channels and allocate your budget with confidence.

• ‍Real-world success stories from top brands: See how leading brands use incrementality to drive growth and improve ROI.

Download now and start making smarter marketing decisions today

The Trap of Trying to Do It All

The Question:

I run a small business. I find that no matter how many hours I work, I can’t fit all the things I need to do into my working day. Any suggestions?

Grove’s Answer:

“Your problem is very common. We always seem to have more work than we are staffed for. Our response then follows an equally common pattern: We try to do all that is expected, more or less at the same time. Even as we work harder and harder, we fall "behinder and behinder," as the saying goes.

Next, as we start taking shortcuts to speed things up, the quality of our work begins to suffer, and we find ourselves having to redo things, further compounding our work load.

Even if at this point, to avert a catastrophe, we get permission to hire more staff, we clearly won't have time to interview candidates properly, or to train them once they're hired. And so it goes ...

To break this self-destructive chain, assess how much you are capable of doing and fight off all temptation (and pressure) to do more. Put the things you must do in order of importance and start at the top of the list. When you are done with the first project, review those remaining, put them in order—again (your sense of priorities may have changed)—and go to work on the top one again. Prioritizing your projects and concentrating on the top one will take self-discipline and courage, but there is no other way.

You wouldn't speed up boarding a bus by squeezing passengers through the door three at a time. In the same way you won't accomplish much by trying to do more work than you and your staff are capable of.”

The Discipline of Prioritization

Grove doesn’t leave it there. He adds another layer that every SMB owner will recognize: the immovable deadline.

Later, Grove added:

“While selectivity is a must, I admit that it's much easier to prescribe than to practice. I get a reminder every time I go on a longer business trip. My departure is a firm deadline for all of my activities at the office—the plane leaves whether everything I need to do is completed or not. This non-negotiable deadline, coupled with the need to clean up all pending matters that I would otherwise deal with during the time I am on the trip, invariably puts a great deal of extra pressure on me.

During such times I am forced to practice the selectivity I just preached to the utmost. My adrenalin usually starts pumping about a week before my last day at the office. From then on, I survey my work load with a ruthlessness that stems from my desire to survive: I only get involved with meetings, issues, calls, or visitors that meet some unwritten but very stringent set of criteria; everything else I firmly defer to someone else. (Delaying requests for my time won't work at such times, as I know from experience that the period after my return will also be a very hectic one.)

The principles that guide me are not to get involved in anything that I can't finish and to dispose (by referring the task to someone else or simply by saying no) of all other matters. If I succeed, I board my plane exhausted but with no dangling matters left behind.

Selectivity—the determination to choose what we will attempt to get done and what we won't—is the only way out of the panic that excessive demands on our time can create.

There is no miracle drug for the next writer's problem either.”

Great advice, then and now

Every business owner knows the pressure Grove describes. The to-do list grows faster than we can cut it down. The temptation is to do more at once, but that path only multiplies errors, stress, and frustration.

What Grove offers is not a trick. It’s a discipline. Choose. Cut. Finish what matters most. Then do it again tomorrow.

For SMB owners, the list will never shrink. We need to recognize that and firmly deal with it.

Citation

Andrew S. Grove, One-on-One with Andy Grove: How to Manage Your Boss, Yourself, and Your Coworkers (New York: Penguin Books, 1988).

Sponsor Spotlight

TaxElm: Unlimited access to expert tax strategists and a complete roadmap—from design to implementation—to help you legally pay the least in taxes. Explore our process here or book a discovery call with Matt Grimmer from our team.

Have an interesting business question and need a free bit of advice? Send your question to [email protected]. No confidential info, please!