Getting the most out of your day.

I have taken a while to write anything about what is happening with Covid-19. Since this has started I have like everybody else has been wondering what can I do to help and unfortunately other than by abiding by the regulations there is nothing much I can do. Additionally like many business owners I have been wondering when will it end and what can I do to keep my business going. One thing has struck me though and that is a lot of people have gone from a very structured work life to a completely different experience. This is something that I have a bit of experience with and I decided I might give my thoughts and what I feel works for me.

In my own experience I went from being a senior manager in a company to going out on my own. In the company I had a lot of latitude but I was still accountable. I had to be in work for a certain time and there was always a rough structure to the day with daily tasks. You knew you would have x number of customers or meetings. You got up, went to work and came home. By going to work and doing your job you felt you had done something for the day. I went from that to starting a new business from scratch. I knew what I wanted to achieve but there was no structure or daily routine, I had to create everything. In this situation how do you know that you working hard or that your day has been worthwhile?

For me simply it was by goal setting, large goals and small goals. You had goals that you needed to hit in order for the business to go forward but you also had to set daily goals such as tell four people about your business or work on a marketing plan. They all had one thing in common they were moving me and the business forward. There were days at the start when we were very quiet but I knew if I kept hitting these goals I was doing something worthwhile. When you are on your own you can’t lie to yourself you know if you have done a good days work or not.

In these strange times there may not be enough work going on but you can set different goals for the day. One of the most valuable things you can do is read why not read something that relates to your industry every day or listen to a podcast? Over the next few blogs I will be recommending some things that are helping me to get the most out of my days. In the meantime here is an article in Entrepreneur.com about Goal-setting that I can recommend.

Andrew