When you are organized, that will help you achieve your goals in a timely manner. You need to organize your tasks so you will know what needs to be accomplished and when they need to be accomplished. No business owner should be without a daily planner.
You have probably used various kinds of planning tools before, including a daily or weekly planner, a month-at-a-glance planner, and so on. It is important to keep in mind that the purpose of scheduling is not to enslave you to your planner, but rather to record your decisions about when certain things should happen.
Your planner should include your schedule for client time, marketing time, social events, meetings, exercise time, and any other time necessary to achieve your goals. Keep the planner with through out the day and note all projects or tasks that come up along with the due dates of those assignments. Check them off as you complete them so you know where you are at all times with your projects.
Refer to your planner often – multiple times a day. Make this a regular part of your routine. When you get up in the morning, look at your planner to see what needs to be done for that day.
If you have an appointment, be sure to include a phone number next to the notation in case you have to cancel or change times.
Use a highlighter. Color-coding can help differentiate between appointments and work. For example, highlight in blue your client appointments, yellow for projects and tasks, and green for everything else. The key here is easy recognition. When you open your planner, you can easily see what needs to be done.
Tomorrow we’ll be discussing a little about “Time Management 101”.
hey, I’m Kim + I am ridiculously passionate about helping you to work smarter and not harder + to realize how freaking amazing you actually are, exactly as you are and how easy business really can be when you are in alignment + simplify + add systems to organize your business + plan your business growth. I’ve been geeking out about online business, online marketing + systems + personal development + all that stuff since I created my first business back in 2006 + sold it.
This whole business owner thing is not for the faint of heart, there is a reason why most businesses fail!
While the road to burnout doesn’t look the same for everyone on it there are some similarities you typically experience on this path!
You’re always in the weeds of your business
You don’t have efficient systems and processes (or maybe none at all)
You aren’t delegating effectively
You can’t take time off
You’re trying to do too many things at once + wearing all the hats
It’s exhausting just thinking about it! But there’s a way off the hamster wheel!
If you’re overwhelmed, overworked, stressed out, and worried that if you take time off the bottom will fall out from beneath you and your business will fall apart.
Then, you are in the right place my friend, been there, done that, got the tee-shirt and I’d love to support you in ending the cycle!
You’re invited to access the training + 1 pager worksheet NOW!
Discover 3 Keys to Unlock Freedom + Cashflow in Your Business so that You can Stop working so hard, plug the leaks in your business so that you can unplug from your business and actually have free time to enJoy your life + love your business again!
4 Responses
Hi, Kim 🙂
I am such a organization geek. I LOVE my planner. Which one do you use? I currently use Google Calendar. I would love to hear your suggestion for a to-do list mobile app. I use Astrid currently and can’t get it to sync with my calendar :-/
Hi Kelly,
Thanks for you comment. I use Google Calendar as well. Depending on what you are doing task wise you can use the tasks within Google calendar, that works great. Otherwise I usually use a project management tool for my todos as well to keep them organized. Central Desktop.
Hope this helps!
Kim
I couldn’t manage without a planner but it’s the pen and paper kind. I’ve tried a few online options over the years but not found anything that seems to suit. I was having an online meeting with somebody on skype recently and they were sharing their screen when we were trying to re-arrange a next appointment. Took them about 5 mins to schedule in the meeting time compared to a few seconds for me to grab my desk diary and write it in!
Maybe I just haven’t found the best of the online planners out there but the offline is so handy to refer to without having to be at the computer or have it on but I’m open to any recommendations that keeps things super simple and without the extra time I observed as I watched in dismay as this other person added in our next appointment in their online planner – it was truly painful!
Anyway, I’m loving your blog posts Kim – keep up the great work,
Lynn
Hi Lynn,
Thanks so much for your kind words, I’m blushing!
I use a paper planner as well as Google Calendar, this way I can keep my online calendars through Tungle.me and TimeTrade up to date as well, in addition all 3 calendars sync up to my my ipad and phone which is great when you dont have your planner with you 🙂
As much as I love technology I still enjoy using a paper planner as well.
Hugs, Kim