Small business owners have a lot to do and the relentless forward march of time can be stressful. It’s hard to get everything done that you’d like to get done. (Heck, it’s hard to get everything done that you need to get done). You schedule, you prioritize, you delegate, but it still is an overwhelming flood of work.

What you need is focus. Stop multitasking. There is a lot of pressure to multitask: To try to cover several projects at once. And, although this might work for some things, it doesn’t work as often as we’d like to think it works. Simply put, we’re not as good as we think we are.

When we multitask, we end up doing an inferior job on all of our projects, and potentially taking longer to do them. When we focus on one thing at a time, we can actually do a better job in a shorter time. To give a simple example: If you have 4 projects and you try to multitask them, you might end up taking 2 to 2 and a half hours to complete the work and each project will feel choppy and inferior. However, if you focus on each one individually, you can do a single project in only 20 to 25 minutes (for a total time of 1 hour and 20 minutes to 1 hour and 40 minutes) and end up with 4 well-done, cohesive projects at the end.

Part of the problem is that we can’t switch as easily from one thing to another. It takes a great amount of mental energy to switch. If you’re a consultant and you’re working on a business plan for a client and at the same time you’re coaching a client on how to get the most out of their staff, you’re demanding too much of yourself at once.

Instead, you can get more done in less time and complete it to a greater level of excellence when you focus on one thing at a time.

Here are some tips to help you do that:

Batch similar projects together. Even if they are to different clients, if they are similar, you’ll do them faster and more effectively when you do them at the same time.

Stop watching your email. Sometimes, having an auto-notification of email can feel convenient because it allows you to respond to people right away. But it is a big factor in us switching from one thing to another.

If you need a period of concentration to finish a project, switch the phone to voicemail.

If you’re prone to get off onto rabbit trails about stuff, or if you’re the kind of person who will instantly hit the web if a thought suddenly jumps into your mind (even if it isn’t related to the topic at hand), keep a piece of paper on hand to list any thoughts or ideas you have. Rather than pursuing them, write them down. Then later, when you have a moment, you can get back to them but they won’t pull your attention away from your work.

Make sure you have eaten, drank plenty of water, are in relatively good health, and get plenty of rest. Busy entrepreneurs can be hard on their own bodies and not eating right or not getting adequate rest can make it harder for you to focus.

photo credit: ryantron.