Your To-Do List Is Lying to You (And It’s Why You’re Not Making Money)

If you don’t have the results you want as a notary entrepreneur, you don’t have a time problem.

You have a prioritization problem.

And you’re not alone. 

We all have way too much on our plates, and most of it doesn’t actually move the needle on our goals.

In the notary world, that problem is amplified because so much of what we do feels legitimate, necessary, and helpful.

Phones ring. 

Emails ding. 

Clients need things. 

People want answers.

It all feels important.

That’s where Eisenhower’s decision-making matrix becomes incredibly useful. 

The Eisenhower Decision Matrix

So let’s slow this down and make it practical, because once you really understand this framework, prioritization stops being a guessing game and starts becoming a skill that you can gradually improve with practice.

According to the matrix, there are only four kinds of tasks in your world.

1. Important and urgent.

2. Important but not urgent.

3. Urgent but not important.

4. Neither urgent nor important.

Every task you touch fits into one of those buckets, whether you consciously put it there or not. Let’s look at how this shows up in real life for mobile and online notaries. 

Category #1: Important & Urgent

Important and urgent tasks are time-sensitive and directly tied to revenue or client commitments. These are the things that genuinely require your attention now.

In our industry, that looks like a trust delivery appointment scheduled for this afternoon. A law firm calling with a last-minute estate signing. A client who needs apostille guidance today because they’re flying internationally tomorrow. A fingerprinting appointment with a fixed start time and a client already en route.

This is answering the phone when it rings, making sure those email dings are order requests, etc. 

These tasks are often the results of our marketing and prospecting efforts-how we make money, are why we build businesses in the first place. These tasks move money, build trust, and reinforce your reputation. 

When these show up, you handle them. No debate. 

The danger of this category is that if you only live here, working IN your business, taking appointments, running all over town, no matter how much money you’re making today, you’re not planting seeds for tomorrow’s crops. Eventually, the rings and dings go quiet if you’re not cultivating relationships and assets for future business. 

That’s where the next category comes in. This is where you work ON your business. 

Category #2: Important & Not Urgent

Important but not urgent tasks are where businesses are actually built, but they rarely shout for attention. And because they don't have the sense of urgency around them, these are the tasks that usually get pushed down the priority list. But this is the biggest mistake you can make. 

These are the tasks that: 

• Keep you in front of prospective customers

• Help prospective customers find you online when they need you

• Keep you top of mind with prospects, clients, and referral partners

• Make the the go-to resource in your city

• Help you bring even more value to your network

This might be activity like; consistently updating your Google Business Profile so future clients can find you, reaching out to your Fab 100 prospects to build relationships, completing a certification that increases your credibility with attorneys and hiring parties, building systems that help you maintain efficiency, productivity, and peace of mind, writing or refining outreach messages for next week instead of scrambling at the last minute, or blocking time to follow up with firms you already spoke to.

Nothing grows, or takes off to dream levels, if you don’t do these consistently. This is what we mean when we say “plant seeds daily.” 

And that’s exactly why they’re so easy to delay. The results come later. And usually, much later than we want them too. This kind of activity requires faith…trust that tried & true methods that have worked for hundreds of years in thousands of industries will work for you too. 

And frankly, most notary entrepreneurs don’t have it-the faith, the trust, and the patience. And so they quit. Which is exactly why those who are successful often look back and say things like, “Persistence is the key to success.” 

Because sometimes, all you have to do is keep going. Sometimes, you just have to be the last one standing after everyone else spins out and quits too early. 

And to do that, you must learn prioritization. 

You must know what to work on and what to let go of for the results you want. It’s not even about the 80/20 rule anymore, not when we’re talking about the daily decisions and effort it takes to succeed. 

It’s more like the 95/5 rule: Your responsibility as CEO of your notary business is to keep 95% of your daily activity in these first two categories. 

You have to kick yourself in the ass and get this stuff done because no one is coming to save you. No one is going to do this work for you. No one is going to slow the world down while you wait for motivation to do the stuff required of you to succeed. 

That’s how you make progress. That’s how you create thrive-income. 

Now here’s the uncomfortable truth and the reality we face.

Most notary entrepreneurs don’t do that. In fact, they do the opposite. They spend the majority of their time in the next category.

Category #3: Urgent But Not Important

Urgent but not important tasks feel loud, fast, and demanding, but they don’t meaningfully grow your business.

This is the random Facebook notification that pulls you off task. The unplanned call from someone who wants to “pick your brain.” Sitting on Zoom training calls you’ve already attended three times with no intention to implement. Constantly responding to low-quality leads that will never convert. Responding to other people’s “emergencies” simply because you work from home.

These things feel urgent. They trigger responsiveness. Maybe they make you feel needed. Or make you feel busy…

But when you look back at your week, they didn’t move revenue, referrals, or relationships forward.

They drain momentum if you let them.

And then there’s the final category.

Category #4: Neither Urgent Nor Important

This is where dreams go to die. 

This is scrolling social media with no purpose. Tweaking your website font for the tenth time (Trust me, no one cares about your font). Redesigning your logo again even though no client has ever asked about it. Rearranging systems instead of using them. Perfecting things that don’t matter yet. And the secret silent killer that often falls in this category…”research.” 

These are distractions masquerading as productivity. They steal afternoons, entire weeks, and eventually…years. If you were to create a stop-doing list, like my buddy Jon Braddock suggests, this is where you’d start.

The entrepreneurs who grow fastest in this industry are the most honest about where their time is actually going.

They stop treating everything as equally important, because it isn’t.

This is why the work we do inside the High Performance community on Skool is so important. You don’t need more information. You need more implementation.  And we give you the exact framework to do that, no matter what specialty niche you’re working with, and no matter where you got your training. 

Business is business. What works, works. 

All you have to do is put it into action. 

I made a free tier in High Performance Notary just for people who like to stick their toes in first, so you can join for free HERE. It’s not a trial, so it can stay free for you forever if you want it that way. 

I also have a VIP tier available for those who like to work directly with me and others that are truly taking their business seriously, committed to consistent marketing and healthy habits that build a thriving business over time. You can easily upgrade to VIP once you’re in the community. 

I also created a more comprehensive list of activity examples for each quadrant of the Eisenhower Decision Matrix, and it’s available inside HPN as well. 

Prioritization at this level is a skill you can learn when you practice every day. Reclaim your life, your business, and your dreams again. Learn how to do this with us. 

No. More. Wasted. Weeks.