This is the time of the year to do some analysis and review of your business and your effectiveness in running it. Are you keeping up with the pace of change? The pace of technology? The pace of your marketplace? The pace of your competition? (that’s a head full to take on). As you look to 2013, how much do you and your business have to change to keep pace?
In an article by Gary Ryan Blair he says, any endeavor “is sabotaged or supported by how much control you exercise over the investment, direction, and consumption of your time and, with it, your energy and creativity”.
So let’s consider how time relates to money. The key to each person’s future success lies in the discipline of your actions. What you do is the defining issue, much more important than what you know.
Taking time to work on the business now will pay long term dividends. I’m suggesting that you take time now to review, revise or better yet create new plans. Outline some new tools and tactics for managing, marketing, financing and leading your business and how you are going to balance your time to handle it all.
Haphazard planning of priorities is a result of following established habits in response to circumstances. Habits are actions taken without conscious decision. Your goals and the profitability of your business are too important to leave to chance.
Set priorities:
• A crystallized program of goals provides a sound basis for setting meaningful priorities.
• Get in touch with where you are spending your time; check to see if you are working in high priority, high payoff activities that pay what you are worth.
• Daily identify specific periods of time for activities that produce high payoff, everything else gets worked in around them.
• Set deadlines. They exercise a subtle effect on your attitude.
• If your priorities seem overwhelming, procrastination can set in, break each project or situation into smaller steps.
• Learn to delegate, and get agreement from everyone you need support from, as to what the priorities are.
• Take one half hour per week to plan and regroup, it is the best priority activity you give yourself.
Investing the time to reflect on which strategies worked and which didn’t, and then carefully mapping out your next actions based on this information, will pay dividends. Be realistic about your time, define the roles that you play, along with action steps in order to plan your time reasonably. But remember to give yourself the boundless encouragement, kindly patience and unqualified support that you give to others. Much success in 2013, make it a GREAT Year!!!!
The Challenge: Re-evaluate your priorities and goals, are you making the progress you want to make?
Barbara Eldridge President/ Founder of Mind Masters an organization that provides business owners a proven, repeatable process that keeps you focused on the business of success. She can be reached at 858-467-9091 or visit www.mindmasters.com.
What’s in the works?
Mind Masters 2013 Breakthrough Business Summit
January 7th, 2013
Watch for the announcement for the early bird pricing!