Keeping Yourself Accountable to Your Plans

When running a business, it can be all too easy to fall victim to the seemingly never-ending array of tasks that pop up daily. But when we let those small things pile up and take over our time, we can lose sight of the bigger picture

Work on your Business, not in your Business

This saying really stuck with me as I started venturing into the world of entrepreneurship. This phase brought to mind elaborate CEO-like plans for the next 5 years with spreadsheets and financial goals which didn’t speak to me at first.

But as I let this idea stew in my mind it kind of clicked.

Yes, every business owner should set aside time to review longer term plans and goals, and of course look over your finances, but the bigger take-home for me was to also set aside time to make conscious choices about how you want to run, and work in, your business. 

As a course & digital product shop owner, creating new products and marketing them is a big part of my business. This is technically part of “working in my business” and I would NOT want to change that!

But I also spend time reviewing my offers, testing new strategies and optimizing the assets I’ve already got. That’s “working on my business” and that’s the stuff that really moves the needle over time!

Setting plans you’re excited about

One of the easiest ways for a plan to fall apart for me is if I don’t really care about it. Without a sense of excitement, it can be really hard to push through the tough moments that come up when working towards any goal.

So one of the most important requirements for me when making plans is to check in with myself and make sure I’m actually excited about not just the dreamy end result, but also about the path to get there.

Now that doesn’t mean that every moment will be a fun-filled party, but if, on the whole, I’m enjoying the path toward my ultimate goal I am always more motivated to keep going!

Inside my Elastic Planning Workshop, it can be all too easy to fall victim to the seemingly never-ending array of tasks that pop up daily. But when we let those small things pile up and take over our time, we can lose sight of the bigger picture

Breaking it down into bitesize bits

Setting big goals is important but can be super overwhelming when you actually sit down and try to make them happen.

Imagine your goal is to book 100 clients this year… How do you sit down on a Monday and make that happen?

Well, you can start by listing out the logical steps it would take to get to your bigger goals can give you milestones along the way that help you make progress. This will help you not get stuck in the big-picture mindset for too long and give you something actionable to get started on today.

I love having my calendar filled with my to-dos and I block out time each day for the tasks I know will move the needle forward in my business. These can be larger, more vague tasks like “create a new package” or more precise, action-oriented tasks like “write a blog post on X topic with Y keyword”. As long as I feel confident that I can sit down and achieve that thing, then that’s the right level of precision for me.

Once you’ve got all of those lovely bite-sized tasks broken down, you’ll need to do the important work of prioritizing them! Sometimes you can’t get started on something until another task has been completed. And some of your tasks will be “nice to haves” and can wait until later to get done.

I share a great way to review your task list and get your to-dos prioritized inside the Elastic Planning Workshop that makes this whole process a whole lot less overwhelming.

When the going gets rough…

I know, normally that saying ends with “the tough get going”… but the suborn, perfectionist in me really struggled to let go of things that weren’t working for me. I’ve learned this lesson the hard way but I can honestly say that some of the things I love most about my life now happened because I let go of something that wasn’t working for me.

I studied for YEARS to work in set design and I loved the craft, but once I got into the workforce it became clear that the lifestyle that went along with this work I loved just wasn’t working for me. Making the decision to let that go and open myself up to whatever came next was a super scary step to make, but even in that moment, I knew it wasn’t as hard as sticking with something that just wasn’t meant for me.

Ultimately, you are the only one truly responsible for achieving your goals so whatever works for you to move forward with those plans and make them happen is the right strategy for you.

But if you need a little nudge to get moving, I’ve put together my 5 best out-of-the-box tips to get unstuck and get moving on your task list when willpower alone just isn’t cutting it.