5 simple tips to reach your life and business goals
I went from being a mediocre business owner, to a stellar and more successful business owner in just a few short months. How did I do it? Through these 5 simple tips I was able to organize my life and finally make some leeway on obtaining my goals.
You know those care-free, go-with-the-flow kind of people? Yeah, I’m one of those. Easy going and generally happy. Throw a business in the mix, and it creates some chaos in their normally easy-flowing life. Online business owners are BUSY. It’s wonderful, but it can also be a source of some serious stress. We have messages to attend to, orders to fulfill, supplies to order, finances to track, etc. As an easy going person, this is kind of a disaster if you aren’t scheduling, which brings me to tip #1:
1: Use a Planner & Get Organized
In 2018, I started using a planner. I had to have a legit, large, real-paper planner. My phone calendar wasn’t going to cut it because I needed to SEE all the tasks that were required of me. Some people can use a phone planner, and that’s great! But it just didn’t work for my brain. The problem in 2018 was though, that I was using the planner as mostly a to-do list. I saw what I needed to do, but it definitely was NOT in an organized matter.
Fast forward to 2019 and I quickly realized I needed my planner again to function properly as a business owner and mother. Now I use my planner with more purposeful intent. I created a schedule that would work well with my family and my business, and the most important part: I stuck to the schedule. If I was done working on orders, I was DONE working on orders. If I scheduled in a workout, I followed through and got it done. If I planned Wednesdays to be design days, then Wednesdays were design days. Truly, it was as simple as that. Grab a planner and follow it religiously. Organizing your life will help you reach your goals, which we dive into more in tip #2 below.
2: Prioritize your tasks into 3 categories
Prior to the new year, I was listening to a podcast. The podcaster talked about separating your daily tasks into 3 categories to help you actually achieve your goals. The 3 categories are: A tasks, B tasks, and C tasks.
A tasks pertain purely to your goals. A tasks HAVE to be done. No excuses. My goals included growing my business by getting to 1000 product listings by the end of 2019, and to workout at least 3 times a week. So therefore, my A tasks pertain to having blocks of time for designing, and getting my workouts completed.
B tasks are for tasks that you should do, but doesn’t necessarily pertain to your goals, and have little consequences. My B tasks are helping my kids with their homework on school days, or washing the laundry on Tuesdays.
C tasks are tasks that you’d like to do, but have little to no consequences. A C task would be going out to lunch with friends. I only do C tasks if I’ve already completed my A and B tasks.
Bolden and circle your task priorities in your planner so you can see which are the most important. By following this method, I’ve gotten closer to my goal of 1000 listings (400 out of 1000!), and I’ve missed only 1 workout in 12 weeks.
3: Limit Social Media
Limiting social media may be a no-brainer to achieve, but at least for me, it’s easier said than done. Who doesn’t love vegging out and mindless scrolling through your feeds? When iPhones came out with a “Screen Time” feature, I was kind of shocked at how much time I was wasting on my phone. It was about an hour for instagram, an hour for facebook, a some for youtube too. That’s almost 3 hours a DAY for what? Seeing my friends on the beach and laughing at people fighting in the comment sections? No-good. But it’s also so addicting and satisfying to consume, so how did I went from 1 hour day on instagram, to 15 minutes?
First, I held a social media fast. The leaders in my church challenged the women members to withhold from social media for 10 days. If you haven’t done a fast before, I highly recommend it. You will re-wire your brain into entertaining itself with more worthwhile information, like reading an actual book!
Second, set limits and daily reminders on your phone. iPhones have limit notifications that you can set for individual apps. Instagram also has a screen-time feature that shows how long you spend on it a day.
And third, go through your friends and following lists. Unfollow anyone or any page that does not make you feel happy, edified, entertained, etc. Not only will this help limit your time on social media because you won’t be following as many people or pages, but it will help you feel happier because you won’t be subjecting yourself to pages or people that aren’t providing anything helpful in your life. I literally unfollowed (not unfriended), 99% of my friends on facebook. That may sound weird or harsh, but to be frank and honest, it was the best thing I’ve ever done. Following only my close family, friends, and the pages and groups that I’m interested in has been a real game changer.
4: Create a vision board
Creating a vision board helps keep your goals in the forefront of your mind because you can actually SEE what your goals and aspirations are. Print out images that mimic your future goals and put them somewhere that you see often – like your closet. Tape up motivational quotes or actual revenue numbers that you hope to achieve. Look at your vision board every day to keep your motivation strong.
5: Progress, not perfection
Lastly, remember that you are human. Humans are full of flaws and we make mistakes constantly. So give yourself a little bit of a break when things don’t go as planned – because mark my words, something usually comes up to screw things up. Take a deep breath and keep trying. Even if it’s two steps forward, one step back, you are still making progress.
Whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed and feeling like I am not doing enough – which frankly, is absurd because I am usually doing TOO much – my husband asks me, “Did you try your best today?” The answer is always yes. His reply, “well that what are you freaking out about?” and it puts me right in my place where I need to be. I DO try my best and that’s all that matters. As long as I’m putting one foot in front of the other, I’m making progress. It’s totally ok not to be perfect. All you have to do is simply organize your life to reach your goals. You got this.
