Tweet

If Only I Had More Time......

Guest post by: Clare Evans

Article Overview: Now is the time of year to take a look back on what you’ve achieved this year and put together your plan for the coming year. Set aside some time in the next couple of weeks to take a look back at the past year and make a note of your successes and challenges. What worked, what didn’t? What did you learn about yourself or your business last year? Did you manage to get out of your comfort zone or were you treading the same path? Setting little challenges can be a good way to expand your comfort zone.

If Only I Had More Time......

Now is the time of year to take a look back on what you’ve achieved this year and put together your plan for the coming year. Set aside some time in the next couple of weeks to take a look back at the past year and make a note of your successes and challenges.

What worked, what didn’t? What did you learn about yourself or your business last year? Did you manage to get out of your comfort zone or were you treading the same path? Setting little challenges can be a good way to expand your comfort zone.

What goals did you set yourself at the beginning of the year and how close did you come or did you manage to exceed them? Things don’t always go according to plan - they rarely do but if you had some idea of where you were headed you probably found you were at least going in the right direction.

Ask yourself this question - If I had more time, what would I do?

Often when I ask people this they say exercise. It seems to be the one thing that takes second, third or even forth priority when we’re leading busy lives, when in actual fact it should be one of your top priorities. After all, if you don’t have your health, what do you have? Read my article on sensible exercise if you’d like some ideas to get more activity into your day. If you’re fit and healthy you’re better able to tackle what life throws at you and likely to be less stressed.

Take a look at the Life Balance Wheel and see if there’s an area of your life that needs particular attention in the coming year. Write down three things you want to achieve next year. Pick a couple of areas on the Wheel to work on. Not just New Year resolutions, unless you’re good at setting and keeping to them, but something which is going to be a major achievement for you and/or your business.

Once you’ve identified what you want to work on:

• Give yourself a timeframe - set a deadline for when you want to achieve your goal.
• Be specific about what it is that you’re going to achieve. Wanting to grow your business, have more clients or lose weight isn’t specific enough.
• Put a number as well as a date against each goal e.g. grow my business by x amount, have x additional clients, lose x pounds.

What challenges are you likely to face next year? Perhaps there are new skills you need to learn in order to achieve your goals. Do you need to have other people to help you achieve your goal or will people around you have an impact on whether you’ll be able to achieve your goal or not?

What habits or behaviours would you like to change? Often we have great ideas about what we’d like to do but people, situations and even our own way of working stop us from doing what we want or know we’re capable of.

Don’t try to do everything on your own - get a buddy, mentor or coach to help you in this process. It can make a big difference to have someone you can bounce ideas off, talk things through, stimulate your creativity and help you to work out solutions to problems.

Getting a different perspective can help you to see the wood from trees so that you can actually get on and do more. If you find you’re getting bogged down in the day to day routine, escape for a few minutes and take a look at the bigger picture. Talking to someone who’s not involved in the process can be a good way to get a clearer picture.

If you’re dealing with a particular challenge, you’re probably not the first person to experience what you’re going through so talk it through and get some support and advice. While we’re all perfectly capable of sorting things out, sometimes we need a bit of additional motivation and support.

Being held accountable for achieving what you’ve said you’re doing to do can be a very powerful way of keeping you on track and focused on where you going.

Related Articles

Article Tags: clare evans, looking back, looking forward, setting targets, time management



Related Forum Posts
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - We've also expanded the list for Contest and All-Time Leaders. It's great to now see David and Yinka on the All Time list and recognize the contributions they've made to the forums!
No B.S. Time Management - A great book I read on Time Management is No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs by Dan Kennedy.
Books that should be written - [quote:1m0dcpd7]"The Idiots Guide To Sticking With One Thing At A Time and Not Doing Something New All The Time" [/quote:1m0dcpd7] I myself am a 'constructive' procrastinator... I don't know if I'm alone in this. I have about six or seven projects I'm working on at any given time. I get one project almost done... then my interest is piqued by another project and I work on that... I get burnt out and move to another...I know I do this so I have it arranged such that once I get bored or burnt out with one project, I can step right back into project 1 - or 2 or 3, and get that a little bit more done before moving on to something else. As long as you're organized and know where all your reference material/idea sheets are when you're ready to get back to work on each project, it should be fine. I also find that by stepping away from a project - I still work on it in the recesses of my mind so that when I go back to it - it's with some good ideas that I wouldn't have had if I'd continued on with it originally. Maybe I should write a book on how to Procrastinate Constructively... I've actually thought about doing that...because most people procrastinate, don't they...and very few are ever able to stop.
Re: Half of 2011 is gone - It's flying by so quickly! Still have plenty to do that I wanted to have done by now. Time to really step it up!
Re: Alexa Ranking Goals - This is a real juggling act! Time spent promoting my site is time away from developing products and looking after my clients!!


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Basic Operating Question (BOQ) for Empowerment

Maximum Impact Restaurant Greening

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.