For most small business owners, the road between who you are and who you’d like to be as an entrepreneur often seems winding, narrow, and much too long. You may have woken up this morning convinced that today will be the day that you get your Steve Jobs on and skyrocket to the top of your field. That is, until the day and all its troubles, meetings, decisions, deadlines and unforeseen circumstances come stampeding in. Next thing you know, you’re closing up shop, drained and baffled, wondering where the time went.

Dear business owner, you do not have to be subject to the daily tasks and operations of your business. Rather, they should be subject to you. You’ve got some strategizing, creative thinking, and growth planning to do, and you should be able to allocate your highest energy levels to these top-priority tasks. In other words, they shouldn’t get whatever energy is left after you’ve done the repetitive tasks of day to day operations.

Productivity is ultimately about stewardship. Every business owner has their own set of goals, key areas of responsibilities, deliverables, and what have you. While these may vary in detail and in execution, the factor that ultimately sets us all on level ground is time. Each of us has the same amount of time on our hands.