Two Fantastic Tools
Well, it’s been school holidays here. We spent a week at the in-laws down in Victoria and the rest of the holidays staying at home. The kidlet and I spent a lot of our time doing ‘girl stuff’, cooking, sewing and really enjoying each others company.
In the middle of our visit to the in-laws I spoke at the Business Mums Network Pampering day. It was a really great day and kudos to Melissa for organising it. The talks will be available soon in downloadable and/or CD format, along with the notes.
Recently I discovered two fantastic tools that I’m loving using.
Timedriver
For quite a while now I’ve been looking for an online appointment maker that could work with different time zones and I finally found Timedriver – it does everything I wanted and at a lower price than I expected. How awesome is that?
The way it works is this: I enter in days and times that I’m available to take appointments, in my own local time. Each ‘appointment book’ is for a different type of appointment – I currently have set up appointment books for 45 minute coaching sessions, 15 minute Laser coaching sessions and 15 minutes quick consult timings.
When a client needs to book an appointment with me I send them the link to the appropriate appointment book. When they open the link, Timedriver detects their default time zone from their computer and so they see the available appointments based on their own local time zone.
Timedriver sends both the client and myself an email when an appointment has been booked and also syncs with my Outlook calendar to book them in. You have no idea how excited I was to find Timedriver. And the best part is that after the free 90 day trial it costs less than US$30 per year!
Dropbox
Dropbox was shown to me by Sean of Psychotactics when I took on managing a project for him. It’s a way to share files with other people without having to email them.
You download the Dropbox application and install it on your desktop. Anything you want to share you save to a folder inside dropbox.
To share a folder with someone you got to the online application and send the person an email invitation to the folder. That person can only see folders that they’ve been invited to – they can’t see anything else in your dropbox.
The other person can then add files to the folder, change and save files, all from their desktop. The first two Gb are free. Great for storing small backups, sharing files, photo’s and audio/video, working with your VA etc.
Create A Project Board
Have you got a million ideas running around your head and need to get nail them down?
Do you know what you’re doing but have so much to do that you don’t know where to start?
Have you got several projects running at the same time and need to schedule your work so they all get the attention they deserve and none are forgotten or neglected?
Are you a Visual learner and need a way to track past, present and future tasks?
If any of these sound like you, then you need a Project Board.
So…. What’s a Project Board? It’s a large piece of cardboard, butchers paper, or similar that you use to plan and track the tasks and timeline for a project. I use Excel for mine, firstly because I find it easy to sort tasks; and secondly because my handwriting is so messy it’s the only way I can read what I have to do. I have clients who hand write it on butchers paper, whatever works best for you is great.
Once you start using a Project Board you’ll never look back. My only complaint with it is that I haven’t worked out a way to put it on my phone yet – but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time.
A Project Board is a simple tool to get your ideas out of your head, to provide structure and a logical sequence for all the tasks involved in a particular project. It provides an at-a-glance update on how something is going, what’s been done and what still needs to be done.
If more than one person is involved in the project then it can include Who is doing What and When.
I start with listing all the tasks required for a project on an Excel spreadsheet. It’s a huge brain dump, where everything you can think of that needs to be done is written down. Larger or complicated tasks need to be broken down into the smallest possible task. Then working backwards from the completion date, I put a date for the task to be done next to each item, and who is to complete it if that’s needed.
My spreadsheet is set out with a row at the top labelling the project and the required completion date, in very large letters.
Then the columns are organised into: Date (for the task to be done), Task, Who by, and Done (or Completed).
When I’ve listed all the tasks and put dates on them I like to leave it for a few days to think about it. There’s always something that I remember later that needs to be included, or a task that I realise has to be broken down into even smaller tasks.
When I’m ready, I use the ‘Sort Data’ function on the spreadsheet to sort the tasks in ascending date order. Have a look at them and make sure that everything is in a logical order. Check to see that there isn’t a task that HAS to have something else completed first. If there is, edit the dates, add in the task if needed, and re-sort the data.
When you’re happy with it, and certain everything is included in the correct order, print it out on the largest sheet of paper you can find. Put it on your wall where you can see it easily.
From here it’s easy to start at the top and work down through the tasks. The ‘Done’ column is there to be ticked off when the task is completed.
If you’ve got more than one project on the go then I prefer to use a separate sheet for each project. If you wanted to, you could include all the tasks together, different coloured fonts for each project, and then sort them all by date. I find this hard to tell how far a single project has progressed, although I know people who use this method.
An alternative to this would be to have a master list with the tasks for all projects and a separate sheet for each project and tick them both off as tasks are completed.
When you’ve completed the project, don’t throw away your Project Board. Add a page to it, or write on the side, how well it worked, feedback you received, what you learned and what you would do differently next time. File it away somewhere safe, and next time you need to do a similar project you have it already more than half planned.
If you’ve written it on a computer as I do, you can simply add your comments to the file and save it in a particular folder for ‘Completed Projects’. You may never use it again, but if you do then you won’t have to repeat all your work and you’ll have your feedback from the first time around.
This is my way of keeping track of tasks and projects, what do you use? What works best for you?
Goals – Chunking Them Down and Keeping Them Strong
“If you don’t know where you want to go, any road will get you there”
The other day you worked out what it is that you want to achieve and you picked the five goals that will have the biggest effect on your business in the next year. Today we’re going to chunk them down to manageable steps, and look at ways to keep them strong in your mind.
Chunking Down the Goals
Firstly, just writing the goal isn’t going to make it happen. You need to take action, and you need to work out what has to happen first, then the next step, and the next, and so on.
Take your first goal and list out everything you have to do on the way to achieving that goal. Organise that list into a logical sequence, and then work out what has to be done on a month by month and then week by week basis to reach that goal.
Planning your goals this way makes them achievable. Instead of a huge goal in 12 months that looks enormous, now all you have to focus on is this weeks tasks. And then next weeks tasks. No task should be so large that it’s overwhelming – if you have any like that then you need to break it down to the smallest possible task.
Do this for all the goals on your list.
Keep the Dream Alive
So we’ve decided what we want, and we’ve chunked it down into easy tasks. Now what? Well, now we need to focus on the big picture – the end goal – while working on the everyday tasks. If we only focus on the small tasks, that weeks work, then we lose sight of what we’re aiming for and can find it hard to be motivated.
Every day, at least once a day and preferably a couple of times, I want you to sit down for five minutes and visualise yourself at the end of the 12 months, having achieved those five goals.
Two Parts of Visualisation
Firstly I want you to read your goals aloud. With excitement in your voice. Don’t whisper them so no-one else will hear, read them aloud in a strong voice. This uses three of your senses – eyes, mouth and ears – and implants those goals into your subconscious.
Secondly I want you to close your eyes and imagine you’ve achieved your goals:
SEE the end result of those goals, imagine you’re looking at your Sales figures printout and the $$$ at the bottom is the goal you set.
FEEL the pride in having achieved that. Allow yourself to feel the sense of achievement of having a great business.
SEE your business growing further, and being strong and successful. FEEL how that would feel for you.
Just Do It
The visualisation is the part that most people don’t do. They don’t see the point. Sadly, the visualisation is what really keeps them motivated and helps drive them forward towards the end goal. Don’t let this be you.
Practice it. Make the visualisation of your goals a habit. Trust me on this and Just Do It!
Building a House Without a Plan
Let’s pretend. You’re going to build a house. A big house. Your dream house. What’s the first thing you do? Start digging the foundations? Order the bricks? Paint the walls? No, the first thing you do is work out exactly what it’s going to look like when it’s finished and you write (or draw) the plans for how to achieve that. Can you imagine what your house would look like if you simply started building without knowing exactly what you wanted it to be like when it was finished? If you dug the footings and poured the foundation slab without mapping out the layout first?
It amazes me the number of people who run their business without clear-cut, written down goals. They generally start with a vague notion of what it is they want to do – the dream house – but they never plan the specifics. Setting goals for your business is one the most important things you can ever do in order to succeed.
Goals and visions are about what you want to BE, DO and HAVE. It’s who you are, what you do, and what you have – both tangible and intangible.
“If you don’t know where you want to go, any road will get you there”
Plan to spend at least an hour, or more, on setting your goals. Take yourself away somewhere where you’ll be undisturbed and when you’re not trying to look after kids or be distracted by something else that’s going on around you.
Take a largish sheet of paper and do a huge brain dump. Write down everything you want to achieve in your life, both business-wise and personal. You should have around 50+ things written down before you stop. EVERYTHING you ever wanted to be, do or have.
Take another sheet of paper and divide it into four columns. Write the headings up the top: Either 6 month, 1 year, 3 year and Longer, or alternatively 1 year, 3 year, 8-10 year and Longer.
Now take every item you wrote on the first piece of paper and transfer it to the second under one of your headings. Every item should be classified under one of the time frames you’ve listed.
When you’ve finished that, choose the most important 3-5 items from each list. They’ll be the things that leap out at you, that you feel you MUST achieve.
Put your sheet of paper aside for a few days. Look at it occasionally and consider if those things you’re chosen are truly the most important for you. Think about why they’re important, and what they will do for you when you achieve them.
After you’ve considered your goals for a few days and are certain that the one’s you’ve chose are the most important for you, we need to write them in a way that is meaningful and motivational.
Take the paper with your final goals written on it, and a new sheet of paper. We’re going to write out a paragraph for each time frame.
Remember the previous post where we talked about the SMARTIE format? Just to remind you, SMARTIE stands for:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Timed
Inspirational
Emotional
So if I were writing out three goals for the next year, (they’re not my real goals by the way) I could write:
“It’s December 2010 and I’m earning $80,000 a year from my business. I’m loving helping work at home mums grow their business and it’s fantastic to see how happy my clients are when they see their great results. I have well over 2,000 subscribers on my email list and they buy from me regularly. We’re flying out in January for a month’s holiday in Fiji to relax and have fun as a family. I feel happy and fulfilled, knowing that as well as the business I’m strengthening my own family’s unity.”
There are the three goals in there, the earnings, the subscribers and the family holiday. I’ve included all the components of the SMARTIE goals, the paragraph tells me how I feel, what the benefits of these goals are. Family is VERY important to me, so the last sentence is a huge emotional motivator for me.
Your goals and how you write them will be different. You may have read that paragraph and said “So what?” That’s fine. Write your own goals out so they motivate and encourage you. Note that the holiday is still in the future, after the date at the beginning, however it has it’s own time on it.
Write a paragraph for all three time periods, the 1 yr, 3yr and 10yr goals (or 6 month, 1 yr and 3 yr). Rewrite them until they motivate you and make you want to have it RIGHT NOW (you can plant a tree later to replace all the paper you’re using). You should be smiling and feel great when you read them. If you’re not, then add in more emotion and more inspiration. It’s all about ‘why’ you want this goal, what it’s going to do for you.
These goals should be incorporated into your Business Plan. They provide the basis for what action you take in the future – “Will doing xyz help me reach my goal or not?” If not, don’t do it. Ensure your actions support your goals.
Next week we’re going to be looking at how to keep these goals in the front of your mind and how to use your subconscious to work on autopilot to achieve them.
A New Appointment
I’m very pleased to announce that I’ve just been appointed President-Elect for the Canberra Chapter of the International Coach Federation (ICF). I’ve been a member of the ICF for about five years and have been on the Leadership Team for the Canberra Chapter as Events Leader and Membership Leader for the past year.
This appointment was a huge surprise to me, and is a real honour. I’ve got a fantastic group of people in the Leadership Team to work with, and a great President to understudy and learn from.
My learning curve at present is pretty much vertical, which is exciting, challenging and a little scary all at the same time. Good fun!
Managing Work Time Around Kids – Myth or Reality?
Time management around kids… I can hear every mother who reads that laughing hysterically. Because when you’re a mother you know that time management and kids tend to be two things that don’t work all that well together. Every time you think you’ve got your time well planned, the kids manage to throw a spanner in the works and upset all your carefully made plans. And since I posted recently about how time can’t be managed, we’re going to look at how to use the time you have available around your kids.
In that post, I mentioned a few ways to plan your work so you were spending your available time on the highest priority tasks, however that post was based on the assumption that you had undisturbed time. Baby’s asleep, kids at school or pre-school, they’re in bed at night, etc. What do you do when you’ve got kids at home all day though? And by the time your kids are in bed, you’re a physical and mental wreck from dealing with them all day? That’s when you start doing your housework, yes?
I’m fortunate in that my daughter is at school all day, so I have seven and a half hours of peaceful bliss, alone at home, able to work relatively undisturbed all day. Lest you think that I have no idea what it’s like for other mums though, let me tell you that I didn’t always have it this easy. When I started my first business – bookkeeping – I was working three days a week, running a business from home, studying and single mum to a three year old. So when I was at home, so also was my daughter. Working around her taught me a lot, which I’m about to share with you.
1. Prioritise your work so you know what to work on first. As I mentioned in the previous post on Time Can’t be Managed, the most effective action you can take is to work on tasks of high importance.
2. There’s a sewing book that is titled “Five, Ten, Fifteen Minutes to Sew” and the premise is that you divide your sewing into tasks that will take that long to do. When you have five minutes, grab something from the five minute list and so on. This technique is brilliant for work at home mums. For those moments when you don’t have enough time to work on your high priority tasks, know what you need to do that will take only a few minutes. Or can be picked up for a few minutes and then put back down. Filing, writing lists, planning posts, can all be done in short spurts of time.
3. Plan your work around your child’s schedule. There’s no point attempting to work your kids around your business schedule. You’ll drive yourself crazy and end up with cranky kids. Know when your kids are most active, and when they’ll quiet down. Know what tasks you can do while they’re in the room – not high concentration tasks – so you can keep an eye on them while you work. If they’re crawlers, put them in a playpen with some special toys that don’t get used too often. Plan your work around their sleep and waking schedules.
4. Plan the time that you spend with your kids. Make the face-to-face time that you have with them valuable. If you have to go with Quality over Quantity then be sure it’s high quality time. Also, when you’re with your kids BE WITH THEM! Don’t spend your time with them distracted, thinking of work, or only half there. They deserve your time and full attention more than your business does.
5. Older kids can be involved in what you’re doing. Running a business from home is a great way to develop the entrepreneurial mindset in kids. Set them jobs and pay them for it. Shredding, simple filing, tidying, stuffing envelopes, kids from about age eight (depending on the child) are quite capable of simple tasks. Melissa from Business Mums Network has produced a AUD$5 report on Job Lists For Kids if you want to read more about this and get more great ideas.
6. Know your own natural rhythms. Night owl or early bird? Knowing when you do your best work is invaluable. Take a look at yourself over the next few days, when do you find it easiest to do the hard thinking work? When do you work best on tasks that require physical work like packing products? When do you need to do something that requires movement but not thinking such as filing? I know for myself, that hour between 6.00 and 7.00am is my best writing time. I get more done then, and better quality, than at any other time of the day.
7. Include school holidays in your business calendar. Know in advance if you’re going to send them to holiday care, have them home, or at a friends house. Schedule your own work around that, and do as much in advance as you can. Alternatively, I know a couple of work at home moms who simply take the school holidays off work. If you can afford it then this can be a great solution. I cut down my work days during the holidays, so I work less days and shorter days. Find a balance that works for you.
8. Recognise that there are going to be days that just go totally cattawumpus. The kids are sick, the washing machine floods the laundry (and hallway and bedroom – yes, really), your husband has a day off unexpectedly and wants to spend it with you, one of the pets has to go to the vet (happened here yesterday and ruined my entire day). There are going to be days when life just smacks you upside the head. If you had an office job you’d take the day off and forget about work. Just because we work at home, for some reason we try and keep on with business as usual. Give yourself permission to take the day off when you need to.
9. Turn your answering machine on to pick up calls when the kids are around. You’re a professional, it’s just that your office is at home. When the little darlings are crying, playing, or talking, you can’t hear nor concentrate well to talk to a client on the phone. And we all know how as soon as we’re on the phone the kids get louder and try to get our attention. Save your sanity and look professional at the same time. Turn on your answering machine and return calls when you’re alone.
10. Be realistic about how much time you have to work with. I’ve said it before and I have no doubt I’ll say it again many times over. Know how much time you really have to fill with work. If you don’t have enough time then something has to change. Generally work at home moms tend to give up sleeping first, or time with their partners. Both of these have very bad consequences. Sleep attrition makes everyday life so much harder to handle, and divorce is a horrible thing to go through. Your family has to come first, know how much time you have to work with and keep it in sensible perspective to your family.
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Meet Mel:
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The web's business planning expert - just for work at home mums. Together we'll find the time for you to make money.