Tag: objective

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6 Steps to Quarterly Planning for Increased Productivity

Quarterly planning is a strategic productivity hack that organizes your goals and objectives into a 90-day action. This method is designed to help you accomplish more goals in less time.

 

Here are eight steps to quarterly planning so you can better manage your time and increase your productivity:

 

Step 1: Start with A Clear Vision

Define your idea of success, dreams, and aspirations you wish to achieve for your business. Visualize what you want for your business and life. If you have already developed a business plan, then this should be pretty easy to get started.

 

Step 2: Set Your Dates

Choose the quarters you want to work in. Ideally, these quarters or 3-month periods should be set to make sense to your business and its processes. Keep in mind your busy seasons, when your customers have the most revenue or problems to solve, or any other important information that could affect the flow of business.

 

Most businesses and organizations use the quarterly schedule as following:

 

  • Q1 – January 1 to March 31
  • Q2 – April 1 to June 30
  • Q3 – July 1 to September 30th
  • Q4 – October 1 to December 31st

 

Step 3: Outline Your Main Objective

Now that you have determined your quarter dates, you need to develop three main objectives you wish to work on for the next three months that each can be accomplished within three to four weeks. These main objectives should get you close to your vision and idea of success that you set in step one.

 

Step 4: Create Action Steps, Deadlines, and Set Priority Levels

Develop three to four action steps that allow you to accomplish the main objective you set for that month. Be clear of the resources you need, what values and morals you need to instill for success, your strengths, and weakness and what obstacles may get in your way.  Then set deadlines and a priority level of high, medium, or low. This way, you know which action to take to get you where you need to be and on time.

 

Step 5: Be Mindful and Keep Track

Be mindful of your actions, practice discipline, and track your results for real success. Be realistic.

 

Step 6: Stop, Evaluate and Repeat

You can’t have a successful plan if you don’t take the time to evaluate. You need to make sure it is optimized for your goals and business success. Ask yourself open-ended questions and reflect on the actions and goals you accomplished. Keep in mind your emotions and feelings while doing it too. All successful plans change and grow over time.

 

If you haven’t already changed to a quarterly schedule yet, then use these six steps to get started in no time and reap the benefits before it’s too late.

Outsourcing: The Key to Success for The Life Affirming Entrepreneur

 

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The Secrets to Time Management and Why You Need It

The most successful entrepreneurs have this key skill down to a science: time management.

It’s time to get the cold, hard and ugly truth out of the way. If you have not realized your goals and dreams yet, it’s likely your time management skills, or lack thereof, are to blame. As with any skill, there are things you can do and implement to improve it.

 

The following are the secrets to time management and why it’s a must-have skill to run a successful online business: 

 

Proper Time Management Is A Choice and A Skill You Can Practice

You can make a choice and commit to get things done on time and not procrastinate. Poor time management always stems from something, and as a responsible and successful adult, you must make the conscious choice to understand why and develop strategies to overcome it.

Scheduling to Avoid Burnout: Learn to Take More Breaks

Increases Creativity and Makes Innovation Easier

Proper time management means you have the right amount of time for the tasks and areas that matter the most. It means you are no longer wasting too much time on mundane and tedious things that don’t get you to where you need to be—freeing your time and allowing you to be more creative and innovative in your industry.

 

Take Full Responsibility and Understand Your Value

You know why you didn’t get something done on time or what is causing you to procrastinate more times than not. Please take responsibility for your actions and realize the value you bring to yourself, your business, and the world to overcome it.  

 

Schedule and Implement in Order of Importance and Urgency

This way, you can be sure to give yourself enough time for each task required. If you plan a task that needs your total concentration, knowing you will be interrupted quite a few times or need to leave soon, you simply won’t finish it. Don’t ignore reality, or you’ll set yourself up to fail before you even get started.

 

Be Aware of Your Main Objective

Always keep your main objective for the day at the top of your mind. Unfortunately, you won’t always be able to plan for everything. There will be distractions in work and life, but if you train yourself to keep your main objective on your mind at all times, you will know when and how to snap back easier.

 

Be Comfortable with Abnormality

In other words, in order to establish proper time management, you will probably have to go against what your peers or co-workers are currently doing. You have to say no to longer lunch breaks or any other activities you know will only further distract you.

 

Overall proper time management starts with taking responsibility, creating a daily to-do list, sticking to your schedule, and remove unnecessary distractions to ensure you always stay on track.