Author: EvieBurke

Where I am, most of the kids started their new year of school last week.

When I was a kid, this time of year meant a new planner for the academic year, new notebooks, and new folders.

As an adult without kids, this time of year means I get to take advantage of back to school sales just for me.

Which I did last week and bought a couple of new notebooks and pen sets (yay colored pens!).

But I digress.

While it is a great time to take advantage of sales, it’s also a great time to re-evaluate your goals for the remainder of the year.

You probably have a pretty good idea about how to evaluate your goals and set new goals or update your previous goals for the year, however, I want to share some things for you to think about or consider as you do this.

1. Your goals for the year are not written in stone!
   You can change them to better reflect where you are now and what you’ve learned this year.
    
2. Don’t forget to review what worked and didn’t work this year.
   So often we want to jump into the planning and we forget to give ourselves credit for the things that we already accomplished (regardless of what the goal was).
    
3. Brainstorm!
   Think about the things that you’d like to experience or achieve through your business before the year ends. This doesn’t mean you have to do them. Sometimes one idea leads to a really fun or cool idea that you might not have thought of if you jumped right into setting goals.
    
4. Know the difference between intentions and goals.
   Intentions are what many people call goals. They’re things we want to happen, we intend them to happen, but we can’t actually control them. They’re things like how much money you want to make, how many clients you want to work with, etc.
   
   You can’t force someone to work with you, that’s a decision the other person needs to make.
   
   However, you can do any number of things to encourage those intentions to occur.
   
   However, you can do any number of things to encourage those intentions to occur.
   
   Those are goals.
   
   Goals are how many phone calls you’ll make, how many networking events you attend, how many social media posts your business page posts in a week, etc.
   
   You can control the outcome of your goals.
   
5. Know how you’re motivated.
   If you’re motivated by BIG intentions, then, by all means, play big and double or add a zero to that income intention.
   
   If BIG intentions paralyze you or feel impossible, DON’T DO IT.
   
   Instead, think about doubling the goal – make more phone calls, do more of the things that encourage those intentions to materialize or manifest.
   
   Doing this can mean you meet your income intention sooner in the month, then you can decide if you want to continue the work and make more money, or if you want to adjust your focus to something else. It also can be helpful when something unexpected happens, like you get sick. You won’t spend the last week rushing or trying to force things to happen.

Next week is the last month in August and a great time to plan September and take a peek at your 2019 goals.

Intention and goal setting is something we do every month in the Unnamed Productivity Club. If this would make a huge difference in the success of your business, I invite you to join us for a month! The minimum commitment is a month. If it’s not for you, you can easily cancel.

If you’re not sure the Unnamed Productivity Club is a good fit for you or you have any questions, reach out and let’s talk. The easiest way to do that is to leave a comment or fill out the Contact Me form here.

PRODUCTIVITY FOR SOLOPRENEURS: INSIGHTS TO GETTING THINGS DONE #115

I keep seeing this recommendation to only have 3 things on your to-do list a day.

The first time I remember seeing it I wondered if this person spent A LOT of time in meetings and had extremely little time to do anything else.

After all, a VERY common piece of productivity advice around to-do lists is to break things down into individual tasks. In other words, don’t have projects on your to-do list.

So, if you’ve broken your projects into individual tasks, how is it possible that someone would recommend to only have three tasks to accomplish each day?

Again, are they spending A LOT of time in meetings?

What I found is when someone recommends having only 3 things on your to-do list, what they actually mean is to have 3 small projects or 3 large tasks.

A small project might be “write blog post.” This is a small project and not a large task because there are multiple steps to it. Generally, you’re going to write the blog post, create/find an image for it, edit it, add it to your blog, schedule an email with it to go out, and create/schedule social media posts about it.

That’s a small project.

Your three things in a day might be: 1) write blog post, 2) go to networking meeting, and 3) have client meeting (or do client work).

I don’t disagree with having three small projects or large tasks each day. I think that’s probably a good goal.

But there are still some things missing.

1. They’re not clear that they don’t mean individual tasks
    
2. They’re not including the things you do on a daily basis like checking and replying to email, business social media check-ins, phone calls, or planning.

Even though they say to only have 3 things on your to-do list, that’s not really accurate.

The guideline of having three small projects or large tasks on your to-do list each day is good. But also remember to have the steps for the small project written down too AND the things you do daily.

PRODUCTIVITY FOR SOLOPRENEURS: INSIGHTS TO GETTING THINGS DONE #114

Last week we talked about boundaries.

One of the skills that can help you with honoring your business boundaries is the ability to clearly say no.

Saying “no” is a muscle. Like any muscle, it needs to be exercised to be strong.

Saying “no” is also a gift.

Yes, it’s a gift for yourself, but it’s also a gift for the other person.

Think back to a time where someone seemed interested in your service or product.

Maybe you asked them if they were interested in more information or purchasing.

If they said “not right now” or “maybe later” then you reached out to them again later.

If they said “this isn’t something I’m interested in” or “no” then you didn’t reach out to them again.

When they clearly said “no” you didn’t spend any more of your time reaching out to them.

The same thing happens you’re able to clearly and confidently say no to something you know you’re not interested in. That person no longer reaches out to see if your answer is going to change (saving them time) and you don’t have to spend your time answering the question again.

So, only say “not right now” or “maybe later” when it’s true.

There’s a group that has reached out two or three times to ask me to join. I honestly might be interested later, but now’s not the time. I tell them that and I expect that I’ll be asked about it again in another year or so.

Here’s a quick “how to say no” guide:

1. Be brief.
   You don’t need to explain everything that went into making your decision. You can say “That doesn’t work with my schedule” or “That’s not the right fit for me.”
   Or saying no can be as simple as saying “No”.
   
2. Be honest.
   Don’t make something up to get out of something.  You’ll both feel better about it later and you don’t have to keep track of fibs.
   
3. Say “No”.
   Seems straight forward right?
   Remember phrases like “I think that” or “right now” or “I’m not sure” make the other person think you might change your mind later. 
   Be clear with your response and let them know you’re not interested.
   
4. Repeat. 
   Even when you’re clear with someone, they might ask you again later to see if anything has changed. 
   Be kind and let them know the answer hasn’t changed.

If this topic feels like it’s impacting you personally, and you’d like some help, let’s talk! The easiest way to set that up is by applying for coaching by clicking here.

PRODUCTIVITY FOR SOLOPRENEURS: INSIGHTS TO GETTING THINGS DONE #111