Planning
Many years ago my sales manager said, “Fail to plan, and you plan to fail.” No truer words were ever spoken. We sometimes believe that taking the time to plan wastes time. The opposite is actually true. Take just 10-15 minutes to plan and you’ll save at least 30-minutes, if not more.
Don’t think that just because you’ve made the plan that it’s set in stone, because it’s not. While I encourage you to stick with the plan as much as possible, adjust the plan daily and you’ll feel much more organized and accomplished throughout the week.
I usually take 10-15 minutes on Friday afternoon to take a look at what projects need to be transitioned over to the following week, as well as what new projects need to be added to the next week’s to-do’s. This allows me to hit the ground running on Monday morning so I can stay focused on the tasks at hand.
Be sure that you also include your marketing time, networking events or meetings (online and offline), accounting, errands, whatever you need to accomplish in the coming days. This will keep you free from having to squeeze in important business management requirements that sometimes get put on the back burner when we get busy with client projects.
They are all important, especially marketing your business, and must be figured into your normal daily cycle in order to stay focused.
At the end of the day on Monday, I look back at my plan and make the necessary adjustments to move forward with the rest of the week, and so on. My plan is adjusted sometimes daily, in order to keep in line with the tasks that have specific deadlines, and those that simply need to be accomplished regularly.
This doesn’t mean this is THE way to plan; this is what works for me. Try it for yourself and see how it fits. If it doesn’t, find something that will and stick with it for several weeks before trying something else.
What I hope you’ll find is that within about 3-4 weeks, it will become a habit. Once it becomes a habit, you will find it much easier to set aside the time (and it usually takes less time each week) to make sure your plan is in place.
Jeannine Grich, owner of Accurate Business Services, a VA practice, is an author, writer, speaker, and VA Business Coach, specializing in providing professional business coaching to established and start-up virtual assistants (VA’s). For her FREE article, “What’s Holding Back my Business Success?” or “Finding or Expanding Your Niche”, Visit: https://VAbizcoach.com; or contact her at: [email protected].
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