On to part 3 of business planning, if you've not read the first two yet, you can find Part 1 and Part 2 here.
So you have written down your big goals and sorted them out so you have some to aim for now and some you will tackle in the future. Then you have broken your current goals down into bite sized pieces, you've answered tons of questions about these goals that will help you reach them. We now need to get going on them and all of the questions you answered make up your steps to reaching them.
What we are going to do now is plan out our weekly and monthly tasks, you can also plan out each day, but I know some people prefer not to do this.
First up, when do you want to achieve this goal? Get your calendar out (I have a separate work calendar for all of my design deadlines, etc) and decide on a deadline. Now if you aren't very motivated, and when it comes to your own business you really need to be strict to sticking with your deadlines, you need to think of this deadline as an important client's deadline or a huge university dissertation hand in. It is just as important (if not more so!) as it will be getting you one step closer to having a thriving business.
After you've marked your big deadlines on you need to sort out smaller deadlines for each week. There are loads of weekly planners online which will help you with this, so download one of them, or design your own, and use this to give yourself weekly tasks.
Here is the one I designed, I'll write down and highlight tasks I need to get done on that day, but everything else I write down I can do whenever. I also have three main goals that MUST be done that day!
We're always going to have those easy tasks on our to do lists alongside the not so nice tasks. It can be so easy to just complete the easy ones first and leave all the nasty ones until last, which is only going to make you feel less motivated and you may not even get everything done in your week if you avoid them!
What I have begun doing is alternate between the jobs on my to do list, I will do one I enjoy and then tackle one of the ones I would rather not have to do! Knowing I have another nice task after I get it completed makes it easier. Imagine leaving all of the jobs you don't want to do until the end of the week, it's Friday and you're getting into that weekend mood (which is basically 'NO WORK, WOOOO'). The chances of you getting those jobs done are slim to none, I know, I've been there many a time!
Which brings me to my last point on planning your week, leave a few really nice jobs until Friday, nothing that is going to leave you frustrated and feeling like you need a whole bottle of wine to just get through it. Just those nice easy ones you don't mind doing, preferably jobs you can have a bit of music on while you do it, it will leave your week finishing on a good note!
You can break down your week even further into daily tasks and I'm sure this works for a lot of you, however I quite like to make a mega list to get done in the week and then I have the choice of what I want to do when. You may have an off day, a day where you are feeling tired and just not on your game, so you may not get through your to do list that day. A weekly plan will help you plan out certain tasks for certain days aswell as those jobs you can do on any day, so those off days won't affect your whole week!
How do you plan out your goals? Do you have daily to do lists or do you use a different method? Let me know in the comments below!
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