This blog post was written by our friend, Pat Miller.

Pat Miller is the founder of the Small Business Owners Community and a strategic coach for solopreneurs who are tired of surviving their business and ready to lead it with clarity and conviction. A former broadcaster turned business builder, Pat helps entrepreneurs break free from burnout by confronting the real issues holding them back, starting with charging too little. His work centers on quitting the noise: the people pleasing, the overdelivering, the fear-driven hustle, and focusing instead on the actions that drive profit, purpose, and personal growth. With a mix of empathy and tough truth, Pat guides business owners to reclaim their time, raise their rates, and rebuild a business that feels aligned, impactful, and worth the effort. His trademarked mantra, Don’t Grow It Alone®, has become a rallying cry for the entrepreneurial misfits who have found their place among the business-obsessed inside the SBOC.

‍

Most productivity advice is designed for people who have a boss, a fixed job description, and a predictable workload. That is not you. As a small business owner, you are the boss and the employee, the strategy and the execution. So when someone tells you to simply “manage your time better,” it is not helpful—it’s insulting.

The real productivity problem is not that you are bad at getting things done, it’s that you are trying to do too many things that should not be on your list in the first place. That is why I call most people’s to-do lists “productivity theater.” You look and feel busy while still not getting closer to time freedom.

To spend more of your time doing the right thing, I encourage you to go through three steps: cancellation, delegation, and automation.

Cancellation - This is where you review everything on your to-do list and ruthlessly drop any task that does not create revenue, clarity, or momentum. You cancel the meetings that exist out of habit instead of necessity. You cancel the projects that keep lingering because you are afraid to admit they are not worth finishing. This is a little embarrassing because you’ll quickly learn how much of your time you’ve been wasting. With a leaner to-do list, you may advance to step two.

Automation -This is where AI earns its keep. At this step you will build as many programs and agents as you can to handle the repetitive or time-consuming tasks. First drafts (hello, Enji's AI Copywriter!), research, summarizing data and meetings, email sorting and so much more can now be handed off to machines. In 2026, this will grow more and more where we will have a large portion of our daily work automated. The goal is to automate as much as you can before finding people to do any additional work.

Delegation - You’re left now with “truly human” tasks that AI cannot do, yet. These are the tasks that you need to get to a contractor, VA, or employee. You are the most valuable resource in the business, and you must spend as much of your time as possible with customer facing execution (the product or service), and in the early days, sales.

Productivity is not about cramming more into a day, it's merely the art of getting stuff done. By cancelling, automating and delegating you can max out your opportunity and free up more of your time. Make it a point to review the workload quarterly so you can stay on top of the tasks and in front of your clients.

Productivity is the second step of the Fridays Off Theory that helps entrepreneurs build the freedom of time and money they deserve. Learn more about Fridays Off and our peer group practicing the habits at smallbusinesscommunity.com

‍