Goals & Milestones
Take all of the thoughts, ideas and big picture goals out of your head and either write them on a piece of paper, or store them digitally online.
When they’re out of your head, you can take more of an objective look at them, prioritize them and even remove ones that you feel aren’t relevant for your business. Doing this will also give you more peace of mind, because you can visualize your goals and create the right strategies.
Prioritize this list and then categorize each item into four different buckets: One Month, Three Months, Six Months and Twelve Months. If you’re a digital person like me, you can use your notes app or a task management tool such as Trello—my favorite.
“By dedicating a certain number of hours to just one task, you ‘block off’ your time (and your mind) from other projects–and the myriad of other demands on your attention.” — Toggl
Time Blocking
What is time blocking you ask? This explanation from Toggl, sums it up pretty well: “By dedicating a certain number of hours to just one task, you “block off” your time (and your mind) from other projects–and the myriad of other demands on your attention.”
If you’re like the rest of us—and are always on the go—you’ve likely thought to yourself, “I just don’t have the time.” I get it! As a business owner, 24 hours often seems like it’s just not enough time. Set aside 1-3 hours of uninterrupted time as many days as you can, for important business tasks such as client follow ups, proposal reviews and other revenue-generating activities. If you’re a night owl, make your productive time at night. If you’re an early riser, like me, getting things done in the morning before the world wakes up, is such a great feeling.
As a solopreneur, there couldn’t be a better time to set the foundation for your business. Protect your time and energy by setting boundaries when it comes to requests for meetings, networking events and working on the most important business tasks. Once you’ve created a system for yourself, it becomes much easier to see what’s working and what’s not. This is truly the key to creating business success.
