Three Tips to Ensure Your New Year’s Goals Last Beyond January!
The new year is often the spark we use to set new goals in our business. Time to think about new projects, how to reach new customers, and setting new KPIs. You have big goals for your business in 2022. Did you know that by the second week of February most new year’s goals have fizzled up and died? Most goals don’t last into the seventh week of the year.
But you’re determined to be more successful than most. You meant it when you set those goals. And you’re ready to put in the work to make them last all fifty-two weeks. I have three tips to help you find success with your business goals for 2022, and ensure they last beyond January.
Don’t try to do everything in January
The enthusiasm of setting new goals, all those new ideas, often carries us the first few weeks. We are riding high on new energy. We are so excited that we start on everything! Quickly, we find we’re burned out and we stop working on several of the goals we set.
When we try to do everything all at once, we get burnt out. Imagine trying to do a load of laundry, cook dinner, help the kids with homework, and take a new customer phone call. All. At. The. Same. Time. You’ve probably tried it! And you know it’s exhausting. No one thing gets the attention it truly needs to be done well.
Instead, look at the entire year. Start by writing down all your personal commitments. When is family vacation? What days do you know you won’t be working? When are the other important events, not work related, that are important? Remember, you’re in business for yourself so you can achieve the work-life balance you want. Personal and family events should come first.
Now look at important events in your community, your client’s lives, or specific to your industry. Mark all these days down. You will start seeing where you have more open days. These are the days you want to focus on to work on your goals. Consider the timing of each of your goals. When does it make the most sense to work on them? If your goal is to develop a new website and your calendar is jam packed in January and February with family commitments, then working on your new website may fit better starting in March.
Write a plan
Now that your calendar is outlined with family commitments, business events, and when you’re going to focus on each goal, you need to develop a plan. A plan is the step-by-step guidance of what exactly needs to be done to get you from where you are today to the new reality after achieving your goal.
I break a plan down to three levels. Level one, the various steps that add up to your goal. The steps are the themes that make up your goal. Let’s stick with the new website goal. Three steps that make up this goal are selecting a website host, writing the website copy, and developing the website graphics and images. Next you determine your action items. Every step should have multiple action items. An action item answers the question how do I make the step
happen? For the step selecting a website host, two action items may be (1) research website host options and (2) develop website budget. Sometimes your action items must be done in a specific order. Sometimes, they can be done concurrently.
The final phase of developing your action plan is to write down every task within an action item. A task is the actual thing you are going to do. A task should tell you, if you have 15 minutes free to work on your goal, what could you do. Tasks should be specific and clear. Think of your tasks as your to-do list. Tasks for the action item research website host options could be, (1) ask other
members of my WBL chapter what website host they use, (2) Google search best websites for my industry, (3) make list of important features of a website host.
By breaking down your big goal into steps, action items, and tasks you create a plan that you can easily accomplish. This takes away the overwhelm that often comes with a big goal. The plan tells you exactly what you need to do. Now, the time you set aside to work on your goal will be productive. You won’t be spending 15 minutes just trying to figure out what to do next.
Enlist help
We may think we can do everything on our own. But we can’t. There are two reasons to consider enlisting help. First, what are the tasks you really don’t like doing? Second, what are the tasks you’re not good at? Don’t think only about business tasks. Consider tasks in your personal and home life, too. Enlisting the help from someone else, in either area of your life, frees up time to spend in other areas. Here are a few ideas:
- Hate grocery shopping? Use grocery delivery.
- Hate cleaning? Hire a cleaning service.
- Not great at e-mail marketing? Hire a marketing expert.
- Can’t manage the inbox? Hire a virtual assistant.
And guess what, every one of these businesses exists in Women’s Business League! Reach out to your fellow members and bring on the help that will provide you the time you need to focus on your goals.
Don’t forget, many small tasks add up
You have big ideas and dreams for where your business will go in 2022. You know you can get there. Now that you have a clear plan that spans the entire 12 months, you feel confident you can make consistent progress. You won’t suffer from the mid-February burnout. Even if you only have 15 minutes to work on your goal, that time will be productive. Remember, every small task adds up and gets you closer to achieving that goal!