Systems + Streamlining

By Michelle

Today we’re doing something a little different – a case study showcasing a recent client o’mine who is at the starting stage of her business. You’ll get a peek inside the process of the purple lipstick plan service + some extra-juicy insight into places where you can improve your own business systems & plans, right now, today. Ready?

About Erin & {re}made by hand

Erin has three main parts of her business: her blog & community, her Etsy shop, and her editing services.

In her own words:

All three fall under the {re}made by hand name. On the blog, I write about taking advantage of the present to remake yourself from who you are into who you want to be. I sell upcycled accessories (remade out of other things) through Etsy. The editing involves taking the text someone has written, in his or her own voice, and remaking it into something polished and professional that still sounds like its author — something that’s really important in small businesses that depend on the owner’s personality. I’ve done trial editing and have gotten really encouraging feedback and offers of testimonials.

Her blog’s been going since late April, and the Etsy shop was newly launched when we started working together (mid-August). I don’t often get to work with entrepreneurs at the beginning stages of their business – I’m usually coming in after the fact when the business owner is realizing that their current systems & processes are woefully inadequate. I do thrive on fixing chaotic situations, but it was a lot of fun to come in at the beginning and work on a foundation level creating new systems that should work from the get-go and grow with the business.

What she needed

We both agreed that the most helpful areas to focus on for her purple lipstick plan would be:

• Getting a strong foundation in place – working on building systems into her business and services from the get-go
• Creating a plan that would let her launch her editing services in a time frame she felt comfortable with

In her own words:

I’d love help mapping out and tracking all the moving pieces, making sure goals are aligned and planned out, and finding a way to manage everything. I want to start out in a way that ensures customer service, emails, and other vital but easy-to-miss pieces don’t fall through the cracks! I’d also like to be as organized and focused as I can be from the beginning so that I start out on the right foot and don’t have to scramble to correct my systems later.

Creating her plan

Here’s some of what we focused on: 

#1: Planning based on ROI

One of the things we talked about incorporating into Erin’s six month plan is that she was considering taking a paid online certificate program for editing. Her main goal in taking the program would be increasing her credibility.

When you have a surplus (whether it’s of time, money, energy, or kazoos), make sure that you’re thinking about the best way you can spend it for you. (This advice also holds true if you’ve earmarked a certain amount of resources for a certain expense.) With Erin, we talked about other ways she could spend the money that would go towards the certificate program to get the return on investment she wanted; the ROI she was looking for was credibility, as mentioned. Some other places those resources could go to that could have the same return would be website design or branding assistance, for example. When thinking about the next six months, it’s important for her to think about which of these is most likely to get the ROI she wants, while taking her business model and audience/client profile into consideration. 

#2: Marketing

I’m not a marketing expert (nor do I claim to be), but it’s important to dedicate time to it when you’re planning. Wayyy too many business owners & service providers let marketing fall by the wayside, especially if they’re lucky enough to have an initial burst of interest or clients at the beginning of their business. When talking to Erin & working on her plan, we made sure to think of a variety of ways that she could market that would be fun for her and how to build those ways into her day-to-day ways of doing business.

#3: Client follow-up

This kinda-sorta also falls under marketing, but I feel like it deserves its own category. People who have already paid you money and are happy with the results, service, & experience they got are like, a kajillion times more likely to work with you again in the future. (I’m not a statistics expert, don’t give me that look.) It’s a much better use of your time to make sure that your current clients are happy and that your past clients know they can work with you again, than to spend time on getting new people to work with you. So many service providers let this slip through the cracks because it’s easy to assign a lot of emotional baggage to it – “I don’t want to bother people!” (I say service providers, but really this works for selling products too, though your systems for it will look a little different.) 

Seriously. If you gave money to someone and you were ecstatically, pee-your-pants happy with the results, would you be cranky if they said to you “hey, I have this special thing for people who have already worked with me, you can learn more about it here…”? Obviously this only works if you’re doing your best to make sure that all of your past clients & customers are ecstatically, urinatingly happy with their purchase, but I’m going to assume you’re doing that anyways.

Anyways, Erin and I worked together on creating a client follow up system that she could implement from the beginning, so that there would be minimal emotional baggage attached to it, and so that she could make sure she was doing her best to get repeat clients. Here’s some ideas we tossed around that you could use:

• having special “client only” packages at a reduced rate not available to the public
• creating a service package that was a natural continuation of the work they had already done together
• having an “on retainer” service – people pay $X monthly and get a set amount of hours each month for editing or consulting; this could be done with an hourly rollover from month to month, too
• having free monthly or quarterly teleclasses/webinars/brainstorm chats with past clients (all past clients invited, not 1:1)

I recommended that she use Ming.ly to keep in touch with past clients, which is a lightweight-yet-useful CRM that I also use.

#4: Boundaries & systems for services

It is so effing crucial to create these from the beginning. If you don’t, you’ll end up needing my “I’m burned out as hell and I’m not gonna take it any more” package later on down the road. I can almost guarantee it.

Since Erin was still developing her editing services when we worked together, this is something we built into her plan. I advised her to make sure that when she went through the service creation process that she got as incredibly specific as possible – the maximum number of words each editing package covered, the maximum number of revisions, time spent on the phone or on Skype, and to also know how many hours she could spend on each package and still be making her ideal hourly rate.

Do not let this slip. Just don’t. If you don’t consider these things at the beginning – or even periodically as you continue offering your services – there’s a very good chance you’ll be one of the people I wind up talking to who are so confused as to how they’re working all the time and not making the money they feel like they should, and then we do the math and find out that it’s because they’re making $15/hr with how much time they spend on their average client.

From Erin:

If you’re overwhelmed by your business (whatever stage you’re at) and could use help getting your head above water so you can see where you’re going and maybe take a breath, get yourself a purple lipstick plan. Michelle will impose order on the tangle of your business and give you milestones to shoot for as you move forward. You’ll be able to breathe easier knowing you’re pointed in the direction you want to go and have an outline to show you the next step.

Intrigued? Want to get your own purple lipstick plan?

Read more about it & get yours here or read the rest of Erin’s thoughts here.

Creativity

By Michelle

Continuing the September interviews + giveaways is today’s interview with the lovely Alexandra Franzen. We talk about pricing, entrepreneurial evolution, & clarity – watch the 20 minute long video below:

And! Today’s giveaway is for Alex’s Five Scripts to Fill Your Client Docket. To enter the giveaway, you have one of two options: 

1. Leave a comment and answer these questions: What are you bored of? What are you not bored of? What do you want to be known for?
2. Orrr leave a comment with your bio – created using Alex’s suggestions.

Enter before next Thursday (the 20th)! The winner will be drawn + notified on the 20th.

Productivity & Organization

By Michelle

There is one phrase that, every time I hear it, I silently gnash my teeth and/or make a face (depending on where this conversation is taking place). You’ve probably already guessed what it is based on the post title, right?

“I’m just too busy.”

“I really want to work on this project but I’m just too busy.” “I really wanted to get more done this week but I’m just too busy.” “I’d love to spend more time relaxing, but I’m just too busy.”

Now, you might be thoughtfully holding on to an idea for later use, when you can do it its full justice. You might be planning your year in a leisurely fashion. You might be honoring your energy levels and working to suit them.

But that doesn’t make you “too busy”.

If you’re too busy to do something, then it’s not a priority. Period.

Saying “busy” is one thing. We’re all busy. And most not-ridiculously-lazy people I know tend towards busy-ness – if we don’t know what to do or why, we’re much more likely to fill our time with any old task or project we can, just to feel like we’re doing something. (Thanks, culture of overwork.)

But “too busy”?

Too busy is a mindset. Too busy is not knowing and acknowledging your current energy levels and work load. Too busy is having no idea which tasks are your high priority ones or which ones will get the results you want, so instead, you’re spending too much time on (wait for it) busy work. Too busy is being unsure of where your time is actually going, so instead of using it mindfully, you have this constant low-grade background buzz of busy-ness.

The thing is, when I look at my actual work load, and things I got done, I realize this: 99% of the time, my days where I feel hectic and busy and zomg-can’t-breathe are not actually any more full of work than days where I sail through it all and feel like an über-productive BAMF at the end of the day. It comes down to two differences: planning & mindset.

Planning:

Most days, I know exactly what to do, in what order. I know what my priorities are for this given week or month or quarter, and my task list is a mix of that and day-to-day work and client work. And my task list is broken down into doable chunks, instead of mini-projects (i.e. I don’t just have “research, outline, and write a blog post” on my planner, I have “write blog post that you outlined on Tuesday”).

(If this is where you tend to struggle, check out the planner bundle, or head on over to the services page and see how I can help.) 

Mindset:

The other thing that makes a huge difference is mindset. On the days when I feel great about my work, I’m taking care of myself. I’m allowing myself room to breathe. I took the time to go through my morning routine and eat an actual breakfast and take breaks throughout the day. These all sound like super-basic things but they are so easy to eff up. (Sometimes I feel like I need to hire someone to stand over my shoulder and say “Okay, time for a break! Get the hell out of that chair and do some yoga, woman!”)

I want you to stop the next time you catch yourself saying, “I’m too busy”, and ask yourself which isn’t working here: planning or mindset. Figure out why you’re feeling too busy and take action – today, now – so that you don’t have to say that to anyone ever again.

Photo credit: Kailash Gyawali

Creativity

By Michelle

It’s no coincidence that the unveiling of Bombchelle coincided with the start of September – it’s my birthday month, y’all! So to continue to share the birthday-month love, I’m going to do a series of interviews + giveaways each week in September culminating with a super-special event on my birthday itself (the 28th). Stay tuned, it’s gonna be grand. And without further ado…

I lurve Amanda. She’s super sweet, super smart, and a total nerd. (These three things are a surefire path to me loving you to bits, in case you’re wondering.) She’s also a design genius, in case you were wondering. So naturally, when I was making my list of people to interview, she was on it. Our interview clocks in at 18 minutes and you definitely want to watch it all the way through to the end for bonus baby cuteness.

And! Giveaway time! One of y’all can win a copy of Amanda’s resource Hacked. Damn it. to bring you the peace of mind of knowing what to do should (gasp, knock on wood) your website ever get hacked. To enter, just leave a comment below with your favorite takeaway from the interview. For extra entries, share this post on Facebook or tweet about it, and then come back and leave me a comment letting me know you did so. Deadline: get your comments in before Thursday the 13th – I’ll draw a winner then and email them! 

Productivity & Organization

By Michelle

I was trying to figure out what it is that makes some people and their dreams magnetic.

You know how it is – some people, they talk and you’re watching them speak about this vision they have, and you can feel the power behind what they’re saying. You think to yourself “This person is going places, yo. And I can’t wait to see that.”

Whereas when others have equally-awesome or equally-big ideas and I listen to them talk, I find myself thinking “Yeah, I get it. Whatever.” At first I thought it was excitement – but no, that’s not quite it. Then I thought maybe it was just a matter of sheer charisma, but I don’t think that’s it either. Excitement and enthusiasm and charisma are great things to have, but they aren’t this mystery ingredient I’m searching for here.

I’m mentally going down a checklist between two people I know in specific, trying to figure out what makes Y’s plans and attitude so attractive to me, but X’s so yawn-inducing. I was thinking about ambition specifically, and thought “But X is ambitious too! They have some really awesome ideas!”

And then it hit me – “Oh yeah. X doesn’t have ambition. They have a pipe dream.” 

Ambition is hot.

A pipe dream? Not so much. Not to me, anyways. You can dream big? That’s awesome, but I want to know how you’re going to turn it into reality. When you constantly talk about something you’re going to do but you don’t take any actual action towards, you know, doing it, we’re going to get disillusioned. We’re going to think “oh, here they go again, all talk and no action.” Or even “this is a really cool idea, I wish they’d do something with it”. We’ve all seen someone like that, who has a classic case of SOGOTP syndrome. (That would be “shit or get off the pot”. You can thank my backwoods Missouri heritage for usage of that super-classy phrase.) It’s not a good look on anyone, even though we’ve all been there at some point – whether for a business project, a difficult conversation or confrontation, a family trip, or what have you.

There’s one of three endings to this scenario: 

1. You realize you’re being all talk and no action and you actually take some action.
2. You realize you’re being all talk and no action and…keep talking.
3. You realize you’re being all talk and no action, ask yourself “why no action, self?” and then realize you’re afraid, or don’t actually need to do this thing, or whatever.

Worried you’re suffering from SOGOTP syndrome?

Think about the way you talk about your ideas. Do you have no idea what your first concrete step towards that plan is? Do you use a whole hell of a lot of “someday”s and “maybe”s and “one day”s? Do you have steps to take? Do you know what those steps are? Do you have a start date, or at least an end date?

If not, you don’t have ambition. You’ve got a pipe dream. 

PS: There’s no problem with dreaming big without having a detailed plan, at least at the start. And knowing the “what” but not the “how” is at least knowing something. I’m not knocking figuring it out as you go along, but sweetie, you have to take some freakin’ action somewhere along the line. 

Photo credit: ilkin

Reviews

Tools + Resources

By Michelle

ToDoist is one of the more popular task management apps out there, and I finally got around to reviewing it. I’m not really sure what to add here in the notes, as the tool is so simple the video covers it all. It’s got:

• a minimalist interface
• ability to create recurring tasks
• some color coding (but fairly minimal)
• drag & drop functionality

And several more features in the premium version ($29/year), including mobile and email reminders, notes, ability to sync with iCal/G-Cal, a better label system, and task searching.

Would I use ToDoist, paid or free? No, but that’s because it’s not really robust enough for what I do, the color coding is fairly minimal (like I said), and I’m definitely not a fan of the minimalist aesthetic. They do have WeDoist, which is a project management tool meant for teams and might be good for those people who like ToDoist but need something a little more hardcore. Otherwise, if you tend towards the minimalist and want some basic color coding/ability to add recurring tasks, definitely check out ToDoist – you’d probably enjoy it!

Reviews

Tools + Resources

By Michelle

Paprika is unusual among the project/task management tools I’ve reviewed in that it’s text based – there’s a variety of shortcodes that you key in while typing which can turn a word or line into a bullet point, task that can be checked off, tag, deadline, etc. It’s got a very clean, minimalist-esque vibe, without being too plain.

Good for you if:

• You like the idea of a text-based task management tool.
• You either don’t have a team or don’t need to manage a large one – the setup is ideal for people who either work alone or just need to share tasks/notes/files with a VA.
• You occasionally need to share notes/tasks with someone else (i.e. an outside contractor) but don’t necessarily need to permanently integrate that person in to your project management system – Paprika lets you share a specific project with a link.
• You want basic note-keeping and file-storing functions integrated in with your task management.

Not so great for:

• People who are addicted to color – you’d probably find the design boring/unappealing.
• People who need to manage a large team (though it does integrate with Staction, which I have not tried).
• People who need a visual/calendar layout – there isn’t one.
• People who really need to use their task management tool on the go – there’s no mobile app, and I’d think (though I haven’t tested it myself) that text-based use could get clunky on a mobile phone. Possibly not an issue with a tablet, but could be annoying with a smartphone.

What do you think? Is Paprika something you’ll be checking out?

Productivity & Organization

Systems + Streamlining

By Michelle

This is a question I get a lot – and for good reason. Most people get their businesses started going as a side gig, so they have to manage their time & energy for their “day job” and their business at the same time, without letting either suffer; and if you’re running a service based business, once it’s churning along semi-smoothly, you then have to balance your attention between handling client work (which pays the bills now) and taking care of your business (which, if neglected, means you won’t be able to pay the bills in a month or three).

I’ve been working for myself for just over three years now, and the whole time I’ve been doing it, I’ve had more than one big project taking up my time & energy. First I was freelance writing and writing at Wicked Whimsy at the same time, then freelance writing and working on Let’s Radiate and with associated clients at the same time, and now I’m currently working on my business + handling client work + prepping for the relaunch in September. (Speaking of which, September looked so much further away from the other side of July. Yikes.) 

In that meantime, I’ve tried a myriad of ways to balance these projects without taking too much away from any of them. Some tactics have been more successful than others…and at the moment, I’ve got some that’ve been working well. Can I guarantee it’ll work for you? Nope, but if you’ve had that feeling of too many plates spinning at once (and the really unpleasant feeling when one of them shatters), it can’t hurt to take a look.

What’s worked for me:

• Assigning categories to each day of the week. This way, I get to stay in the same mental ballpark the whole day, without any drastic shifts, which allows me to get into a really good groove. (Which, it is not an exagerration to say, exponentially increases my productivity.) My loose categories are as follows: Mondays are admin days for my business, Tuesdays & Thursdays are client days, Wednesdays are mostly content creation, and Fridays are biz-dev days for my business.
• Aiming for scheduling appointments either at the beginning or towards the end of the work day. Obviously, if mid-day is the only time that works for someone, I can & will schedule an appointment for then; but in general I try to put appointments in either 9 AM or 10 AM time-slots  or after 2 PM. This way I can make sure I have a solid swathe of time to work without being interrupted by appointments for the bulk of my work day. And I try to schedule appointments roughly corresponding with the categories – coaching or consulting for me goes on Fridays or Mondays, client appointments are usually Tuesdays & Thursdays though sometimes Wednesdays.
• Having a color-coded task list/calendar. This is probably the quirkiest item on the list, but having things color coded by client makes it incredibly easy to see at a glance if I’m spending the bulk of my time on one thing and possibly neglecting others. If my task list looks more like a rainbow across the week, I’m doing it right.

What has not worked for me:

• Trying to work on multiple different big projects in one day. For example, splitting up one day between biz-dev & client work. It’s too big of a mindset shift for me and I end up making a lot of progress on one project and doing absolutely nothing on the other one.
• Not making a distinction between work on my business & work in my business. Two entirely different things that require two wildly different mindsets and viewpoints. Working on my business (or your business) requires a really top-level, bird’s eye view; working in my business means taking more of a day-to-day, detail-oriented view. Learning the difference between those two mindsets was huge for me, because it meant I wasn’t wasting time trying to switch directly from one to another. Now, I know that trying to plan those two activities back to back won’t work & ends up more frustrating than anything else.
• Attempting to split equally time-wise. Far more important than time spent is energy spent, and also important is if I’m actually feeling the project. If everything’s going well, I can get more done in 15 minutes than I’ve got done in an hour other times, so I don’t worry about dividing time up equally between important areas any more, I just make sure I’m moving forward on all of them.

What about you? Do you have any specific tricks for working on multiple projects at the same time, without dropping the ball on any of them? Is there anything you do that makes you far more productive that goes against the usual productivity advice?

Photo Credit: Nick Wheeler

Reviews

Tools + Resources

By Michelle

Review Summary & Notes

WeekPlan is based on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, so it uses a lot of terms specific to that system. However, it’s got a really great, intuitive interface, with drag & drop functionality for tasks across days/Someday/Backburner. Adding tasks is quick and easy, and there’s some extra functionality that you don’t usually see in task management tools (a journal, places for you to keep track of your weekly goals, a place for you to write your mission statement, etc.). They don’t have a mobile app but they do say that the mobile site works well on tablets or smartphones (haven’t tested that functionality myself).

This’d be great for:

• Solopreneurs
• People who want a task management tool with a focus on personal development
• People who already use a project management tool for them/their team but want something lightweight that will let them view just their tasks
• People who want people who want something like TeuxDeux but with more features
• People who want a place to keep track of their personal goals and tasks
• People who like to see a fairly “zoomed in” view of their tasks and projects (since you can only see a week at a time)

Not so great for:

• People who need to delegate
• People who like to or need to see more than a week’s worth of tasks at a time
• People who like to see an overview of all of their projects in one spot (there’s different workspaces, but not a way to see tasks across all workspaces, AFAIK)
• Anyone who loves color coding as much as I do

Do you use WeekPlan? Whatcha think?

Productivity & Organization

By Michelle

There’s a lot to be said for improv, but it’s not a great long-term strategy for actually getting shit done. Eventually, flying by the seat of your pants no longer works (and can, in fact, cause some pretty chaotic aftermath). When that happens, you’ll want to start creating some kind of plans for your projects – where you want to be in six months or a year, what you’ll do to get there, etc.

The problem then comes in executing those plans. One of the commonest complaints I hear is that people come up with awesome plans and then, somehow, as if by nefarious Death Eater magic, nothing actually gets done from those awesome plans. They put all of this time and energy and effort into planning, and then, six months later, they’re left scratching their heads as to why none of those plans got done.

In general, there are three different reasons that this happens:

Reason #1: Setting goals that you aren’t excited or motivated about.

This is pretty self-explanatory. For whatever reason, we get it in our heads that we need to do something. Usually, because Expert XYZ tells us to, or because we saw a friend or colleague (who might have an entirely different customer base and business model, mind you) try something with great success. So, without sitting down and really thinking hard about if this is something we want to do, we put it on our “to do list” and then…put off doing it for eternity because we have no motivation.

If this is you: This is a psychological obstacle more than anything else, and there isn’t really a simple one-time solution (oh, those simple one-time solutions! how I wish they existed more often!). You just need to work on developing the habit of asking yourself “Why do I think I need to do this? Is this something I actually want to do or just something I feel like I should do?”

Sometimes, these things are tasks that really do need taken care of. (I don’t know very many people who get all hot and bothered about doing their taxes and financial paperwork, for example.) But if you’re not doing it, delegate or outsource it. My general rule of thumb is that if I put off a task three times (barring incidences of severe illness or other disasters), then I either delete it entirely or I outsource it. Simple yet effective.

Reason #2: You set big goals…but don’t keep track of them.

This is what happens to people during New Year’s. You get all revved up, say “I’m going to do this!”, declare it out loud, and then promptly forget about it. Then you aren’t sure what they need to be doing, when, so you get sidetracked and distracted, and don’t stick to your focused plan of action (if you even created it).

If this is you: One place to start is to find ways to keep your goals in front of you after you set them. Here’s some ideas:

• Large wall calendars or a year outline. These can be as intricate as an actual calendar with post-it notes marking milestones and tasks, or as simple as a large whiteboard that has your focus for the year/months written on it.
• A Big Three poster or whiteboard. The concept of “Big Three” comes from the Accidental Creative by Todd Henry. When he uses the phrase, he’s referring to your three “open loops” – projects that need a breakthrough. The idea is that having these reminders of your Big Three in your workspace will keep them at the top of your mind and prompt you to make new connections and keep them moving forward. I think this is a great idea not just for “open loops” but for reminding yourself of your priorities and goals – you could have something as simple as “This year, I will…” or “In August I will…”. Every day when you start work, you can look at your poster and make sure that what you’re doing is moving you towards those things.
• Changing your computer background. Simple! Just come up with a design-y way to convey your top three business priorities (whether that’s awesome typography or something more along the lines of an inspiration board) and change your computer background to it.

Other suggested resources: Making Ideas Happen, Do More Great Work, the Freelancer Planner, this post on giving your projects space

Reason #3: Something is fundamentally broken in your planning process.

There’s three sub-causes here:

Sub-reason #1: Setting unclear goals

This is the still-being-beat-dead-horse of the productivity world, but there’s a reason for that. We know that we’re supposed to make clear, measurable, focused goals and yet we still end up saying things like “I want to make more money than last year!” How much more? 10% more? $10,000 more?

Once you have an actual number to work from, you can start figuring out what different ways can get you there – $10,000 more could be 300 more products sold, or 100 seats of a $97 class sold, or ten of your $1,000 service packages, or it could be any combination of the above, based on your other plans for the year.

And then, once you know the different routes that can get you to your end goal, you can start working on action steps for those routes, based on what’s worked for you before. If you know you want to get ten more $1,000 clients this year, and you know that you usually pick up one new client every time you run a teleclass, then you can make plans to start running free teleclasses every month. If you know you sold 20 products last time you guest posted on Blog X, then guest posting should be a part of your strategy. And so on. (Money is an easy example here, but this holds true for any metric.)

Sub-reason #2: Setting big goals and then not breaking them down

This is a big one. A goal is a great thing to have, but it’s only a starting point when it comes to taking action. (Click to tweet.)

If you know that you want to get a book deal or land that particular client, but you don’t actually break down the action steps required to achieve that end result, then the project is just going to sit there like a lump on a log and stare at you, inducing guilt-trips. You need to have a place to start – and not just a place to start, but a place to go after that, and after that.

Everyone does this sometimes; we mean to break a project down into action steps but we really end up breaking it down into mini-projects. I actually just realized this the other day with my fall promotional schedule – I had on my task list to “Research 3-4 places to guest post & submit posts”, which really should have been broken down into researching places to guest post, deciding 3-4 places to guest post, brainstorming posts, writing posts, editing posts, and submitting posts.

My preferred method to help with this is to make a huge action list all at once, in the beginning stages of the project, and then effectively put on blinders so that I’m only looking at a small piece at a time (to prevent overwhelm). Whether that’s storing the master action list somewhere else or planning it out using a project management tool and then only choosing to look at the tasks for this week, it’s surprisingly effective.

Other resources: The difference between a project and a next action, Action Method II

Sub-reason #3: Setting goals and then taking not focused or not well-thought-out action

When you create a plan to get you towards an end goal, you need to specifically ask yourself why each step in that plan exists. This somewhat ties back in with the motivation piece – we absorb these ideas about what will work and what won’t based on what’s worked for other people, but the problem is that:

• what works for other people won’t necessarily work for us since we’re all special snowflakes
• oftentimes, the people who are telling you something will work have a stake in telling you that (i.e. they’re selling you a solution)

Which is not to say that all people selling a solution are snake oil salesmen or don’t know what they’re talking about, of course. But you have to take that into consideration when you make your plans. A rather extreme example of this might be someone saying “I want to increase my profit by 25% in Q2” (side note: good measurable goal! go you, fictional person!) and then they create a plan that focuses entirely on increasing their Facebook “likes” by 50%.

However, if there’s no reason that increased Facebook fans would actually lead to that corresponding increase in profit – if they don’t already have an engaged Facebook community, if their ideal customers/clients aren’t active on Facebook, if they aren’t already experiencing a high conversion rate from their Facebook fans – then one of two things will happen:

1. They’ll recognize subconsciously that this probably won’t work out, and thus feel no motivation to work on it
2. They’ll get halfway through their plan and realize that it’s doing jack-all to increase their profits. Then, get frustrated and give up…putting them back at square one. Actually, at square -1, since now they’ve wasted time, effort, and energy on a bad plan.

If this is you: Every time you draw up plans for a project, ask yourself why each step is there. Is it based on your past measurable results, or because someone told you that was the way to go? If you have a team, you can make this part of your team planning process.

(As a side note, there’s nothing wrong with going with your gut. But it’s vital to separate out your gut instincts, vs. plans based on past results, vs. expert advice, and it’s best to do this during the planning process.)

If you consistently struggle with Reason #3 or any of its sub-reasons, check out the Freelancer Planner – it’s designed to solve exactly those problems.

Out of the three reasons – what planning pitfall do you typically fall into? And…what are you going to do differently now that you know what your planning kryptonite is? 

Photo by Chimene Gaspar on Unsplash