Get organised and clear on where your business is and what you need to do to slow down this summer, without losing momentum, or your to-do list growing by the hour.
Doesn’t that sound great?
It can be easy to get into the routine and way of business life that working on something to do with your business everyday becomes the norm. Even on weekends we can ‘just quickly do’ something to make ‘next week easier’. Sound familiar?
Yes, me too. That was me a few years ago at a time when my business was going through a significant growth phase and I was so conscious of keeping everything super streamlined and efficient. I felt that was what my business needed during that period, and perhaps it was. Indeed, there are certain times when we do need to put in that extra work, time and effort in order to shift our businesses into the next level.
As an entrepreneur, holidays, downtime, true rest and relaxation can be hard to come by, and that thought pattern is usually down to our own inbuilt work ethic that our businesses need us to keep on going as there is always so much to do and decisions to make.
I wrote about how a plan, processes and practice are essential if you want to take time out, but there is something else that underpins those factors that is often overlooked.
Getting ahead.
Stepping back from your business takes confidence. And to get that confidence you need to know exactly what is going on in your business, and what’s coming up in the weeks or months ahead. I have always got my eye three months ahead of where I am, so as well as my present commitments and plans for my clients and my own business projects, I’m drafting out what is coming up too.
How far can you see ahead in your business? Do you know what’s coming up next week, next month, or next quarter?
Now, as you know I am all about saying goodbye to overwhelm in business, and you might be thinking that having in your mind what is coming up that far ahead is overwhelming and you just need to keep things simple and look at what’s in front of you this week.
That’s all well and good, but what is overwhelming is when something creeps up on you that you’ve had in your blind spot.
So how do you get ahead in your business without adding to everything you have going on right now?
Take a 30,000ft View
Take a big picture view of what’s going on right now, and you have on the horizon. You can’t get ahead if you don’t know what all the moving parts are right now. This is such fundamental activity that can bring so much benefit to you and your business. If you do one thing today, do this.
Set your focus
Now you know everything that you have going on, set you focus to get ahead. What have you identified that is in your blind spot that you can plan in, note down, or just keep it in your vision so it won’t creep up on you!
What do you need to do, delegate or delete to make sure you are making progress?
Take action daily
Getting ahead and staying ahead takes work, the 30,000ft view and the daily focus is not going to get you there alone! Take action everyday to get what you need to get done, done, even if that might be tasks you thought you might do two weeks from now.
And then, relax!
