I had a pretty good week this past week. The week before I felt like I was leaving way too many things to chance, so I thought it was time to regain a bit of perspective. After all, one doesn’t just fall into success; no matter what it is, you have to work it, and it works better if you have a plan of some kind.
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So I worked out a plan based on a marketing plan I’d put together for 2011, things I want to do to earn the bulk of my cash for the year. I’ll do other things hopefully but you have to start with something. The next step was putting together a monthly plan of attack, which I started at the beginning of the month. In doing that, you also have to put together a portion of three types of things; things you want to do daily, things you want to accomplish during the week, and things you can to complete for the month.
After that I decided I needed to plan my time daily as well. So I did, and I got to everything I wanted to do that I planned for. This coming week is going to be kind of a mess since it’s Thanksgiving week and I’ll be out of town for a couple of days, but that’s okay because the plan helps me be prepared to have most everything done before I leave; whew!
As Snoopy shows, I got a lot of things checked off my list. See, I’ve been asked in the past how I get to so many things, and how I can find the time to write so many blog posts. When I plan my time, when I have plans of attack, I’m very good at it all because I don’t have to think about it. Everything’s written down in some fashion, or logged somewhere, like in my computer calendar associated with my Palm; that’s my alarm system, as well as my cell phone (remember, the stupid alarm on my Palm doesn’t work anymore). And I make sure to plan breaks and meal times as well. And weekends… I don’t plan those, but if I stick with my plan, then weekends are mine to work on my other projects, or just to try to relax a little bit; I don’t do that often.
So, I plan my blogging time, both for myself and some clients. When I’ve got other contracts to work on then I plan that time as well. I need to readjust my plan some because I’ve been thinking about trying the Chris Brogan thing and writing at least two posts a week in the coming year; kind of hard to do with multiple blogs though, but who knows right?
Are you planning for your success, or are you just waiting for it to happen? Maybe you need a planner; look at the cover below.
Hi Mitch
You do sound very organised. I am trying to be. Tend to be doing the things I enjoy doing like writing and blog commenting but know there are other things to put into place now to move my blog to the next level. So yes I have plans and next week I’ll be working hard on some of them.
I wondered why it seemed a bit quiet in the blogosphere and even on Twitter. You guys got holiday break so plenty of people must be taking a break. Hope you all enjoy your Thanksgiving.
Patricia Perth Australia
It hasn’t come yet, Pat, but this upcoming week lots of people will be traveling. I might be away from the internet a couple of days as well; haven’t decided if I’m taking the laptop with me to Mom’s or not. As to the rest, I make my plans, follow some, get caught up in things, then start over. At the end of the week I look back to see what or if I accomplished anything then start again. As long as I’m trying to move forward, I can deal with it.
This is certainly a great time to start thinking and planning for 2011, because December is always a blur. With time in general racing by so quickly, I’ve begun to understand that having a hundred little goals is pointless. So I’ve started to focus on two or three major goals and am trying to force myself to ignore most of that other stuff. Easier said than done, but otherwise the big things just keep getting carried forward to the next year, and the next.
Good move, Charles. I’m betting that this time last year starting a blog wasn’t even on your radar, and look where you are now. 😉
As my schedule fills up, I am learning more and more about how important planning is. I’m going to try your technique to try and figure out my long term plans.
I do plan ahead for the short term, but I think that I need to plan more long term.
For my short term plans I also use a lot of lists. I have 2 running lists on my phone, a personal and a work to-do list. Each night I go through each list and write a to-do list for the next day on a white board on my wall. I fill up the white board with stuff that I need to do to feel accomplished for the next day. Once I have everything on the white board checked off I try to allow myself to relax and not do any more work.
This is good for short term, but I don’t do anything for weekly or monthly plans. You must be doing something right because you do soooo much and still keep on top of things.
Keith, just getting my Palm back, even without the alarm feature it allows me to plan things, and that’s what I’m going to continue doing even more. Of course, that means you and I need to have lunch one day because our plans could be intertwined in some fashion. 🙂
I don’t plan much, alas (which really bit me bigtime when I realized I didn’t plan for my site downtime yesterday!!).
Lesson learned (I hope)… planning would have definitely made things far more easy. Ah well, live and learn…
Good stuff Barb, and that’s the idea of planning. Still, I’m betting you had a long term idea of the changes you wanted to make to your site and how you were going to work on it all.
I definitely need to start planning my daily tasks. I am starting to work longer periods of time and accomplish less.
I hope your marketing projects come together nicely and you will have time to relax too !
Thanks Alex. I hope so as well, but the reality is that even ifI don’t, at least I will know what I still have to do and what I still want to do later on.
Mitch I do not plan. I am more of the go with the flow type of person. I also do a whole lot of procrastination and waiting to the last minute. I know I need to and I am planning on making plans 🙂
Karen, planning on making plans; what will we do with you? lol
Being organised is indeed one of the best traits a business owner can have, Mitch. It helps get things done faster and better. I commend you for having a plan and sticking to it. Good job!
– Wes –
Thanks Wes. I certainly try to stick to my plan, but when I don’t, at least I know how to pick up where I left off.
I am very happy that new year is just around the corner. 2010 was very bad for me in personal and business plan. It all started on the last Christmas day, I had a motorbike accident, but thanks God I am alive. I brake up with my long term girlfriend on the new year’s day and in the middle of the year I decided to leave my full time job which in the beginning I felt it was a mistake. Followed by bad luck, even planning every step of mine. However the curve start looking better and everything is much better now and I feel stronger.
That sounds pretty bad, Carl; I hope you have a much better 2011.
Hi Mitch. I’ve always been big on planning and, having a rather leaky memory bank, I depend on lists and schedules to keep things straight.
Where it tends to go wrong for me is when I’m toodling along keeping on schedule and something unforseen happens. Let’s say Mom calls and says “Water is squiring out of my kitchen faucet and spraying all over my kitchen, please come help.” Now, if I check my planner and say, “I have an opening a week from Thursday, are you available then?” I should forget about being invited over for Thanksgiving dinner. If I go trotting down the hill to Moms house, wrenches in hand, It will be occupied for a half-day and will be a half-day behind for who knows how long.
Same if I under estimate the amount of time a project will take. I’m bad about this one! Too optimistic of my abilities I guess.
I’m trying to schedule a little more “loosely” and not be so obsessive-compulsive about some things. If the lawns don’t get mowed this week the world will not end. That takes two weeks.
Just this weekend I’d decided that I’m spending too much time reading blogs. I schedule this in as Education, and learning from folks like you has value, but my reading list is getting long. I get up early to make extra toime for this. And sleep deprivaton is probably why I’m blathering on and on like this. Sorry!
Allan, I always figure the schedule is there to help you stay on target, not hinder you if something else comes up. When that happens I just adjust the schedule accordingly. There are few things that have to be done exactly when I say I want to do them.
Oh, may I ask what plug-in or dealiebobber you use to offer the ability to subscribe to comments by e-mail? I find that a useful feature. Thanks!
Allan, this is easy; it’s called Subscribe to Comments! lol
Hey! Even *I* can remember that long enough to go find it. Thank you!
I snagged it, mashed it in there and it shows up. I *think* it even works! ‘Preciate the help!
That’s what I’m here for. Of course, now we have to figure why your blog posts aren’t showing up with my CommentLuv plugin. Are you putting the entire URL in, or just the bit without the “http://www”?
I don’t know why, but the more I try to plan, the more things happen that get in the way of my intended plans. Murphy and his Laws seem to always find me 🙂 That being said, the best planning that I do is to decide to stay up an hour or so after everyone has gone to bed, gather my thoughts and just enact them immediately. So far, it’s worked ok for me.
That’s a good deal, Jessica. As for the planning and complications part, actually that’s a good reason to write things down, because there’s always something you might forget to add to your list.
Dennis, in my opinion whatever someone does as far as planning goes is much better than not doing anything at all. Of course, you have big audacious plans, so you’re really going through it all.