Starting a new venture comes with its own challenges, one of which is managing the overwhelming to-do list. Traditional to-do lists, while useful, can often feel overwhelming ENDLESS and unstructured. Many friends have told me on many occasions that even if they put in ten hours a day working on their startup, they would run out of things to do within the first two hours. After all, that's the hardest part of being an entrepreneur – forging your own path without someone guiding you.

This is where the concept of permanent action items or PAIs comes in. This framework helps streamline your business operations zeroing in on ongoing, high-impact activities that drive growth and clarify daily objectives. The ultimate goal is to be able to unconsciously find sub-tasks that contribute to the core value drivers of your business.

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Understanding permanent action items

Unlike day-to-day tasks that can be one-off or reactive, PAIs are core activities that continually drive your startup's growth and need constant attention. These are the tasks that, when done regularly, fundamentally strengthen yours the foundation of the business and propel it to long-term success.

To illustrate, while a typical task might be “Send an email to customer X”, a PAI would be “Onboard customers”. While this structure may seem obvious, in the long run, it forces you to develop a subconscious understanding of the various elements in your business.

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Identifying the main trajectories of your startup

To effectively implement PAIs, you must first identify the critical areas or trajectories that are essential to your startup's success. Here are some reflective questions that can help identify your PAIs:

• What activities, if stopped today, would significantly affect our growth or survival?
• What are the ABCs of our business?
• Who do we answer to?
• What areas of our business are directly related to our competitive advantage?
• Where do we see the most significant gaps between our abilities and our aspirations?

Developing your PAI list

To implement PAIs effectively, start by identifying and prioritizing the ongoing activities that will significantly impact your startup. Divide each PAI into action steps for clarity and ease of execution.

Establish clear metrics to measure the success of each PAI, such as the number of new customers or campaign engagement levels, allowing you to track progress and make necessary adjustments. Review these items regularly to ensure they stay aligned with your business goals, choosing a review frequency that fits the pace of your operations.

Finally, document and visualize your PAIs using tools that keep them accessible and top of mind for your team. This ensures that everyone understands their roles and the importance of those tasks in driving the business forward.

Integrating PAIs into daily operations

Once you've defined your PAIs, integrating them into your startup's day-to-day operations is crucial to moving from theoretical to actionable steps. Start each day by reviewing PAIs with your team, setting a focused tone, and prioritizing these essential tasks. Encourage your team to tackle PAI-related tasks early in the day when their energy is at its peak, increasing productivity and ensuring key business areas get the attention they need.

Use project management tools like Asana, Trello or Monday.com to efficiently organize, track and manage your PAIs. Automating reminders and updates can keep the team engaged aligned and proactivemaintaining momentum and ensuring constant attention to these important tasks.

Regularly communicate the importance of PAIs to your team to align their day-to-day efforts with broader business goals and their impact on company success. Conduct frequent PAI-focused reviews to discuss progress, address challenges, and roll out improvements to ensure these critical tasks are executed effectively and remain central to your team's daily activities.

As your business evolves, be ready to adapt your PAIs to new conditions and encourage team feedback to improve these tasks. Recognize and reward team members who excel at executing PAIs to encourage continued focus and commitment. Implementing incentives for achieving milestones can create a sense of ownership and urgency.

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Case Study: Expanding the advertiser base for an ad network

• Background: An ad network that aims to significantly expand the advertiser base to increase revenue and market presence.
• PAI implemented: Recruit and continuously onboard new advertisers.
• Action steps: Develop targeted marketing campaigns to attract potential advertisers, host webinars and industry events to increase awareness and streamline the onboarding process to facilitate easy onboarding for new advertisers.

If you can't explain your business to a stranger without fully understanding what you do, you don't know your business either. After implementing PAIs, a person operating an ad network will be able to describe business operations using a few simple sentences.

The main objective of this framework is to simplify your vision. The next time you're wondering what to do next, you've got an ultra-minimalist list to refer to that should almost make your work life sound like child's play.