Numbers Are Life

Do your days rush past in a flurry of activity, only to leave you feeling disheveled at the end and with no sense of accomplishment?

Instead, imagine working through your day more productively and achieving your goals.

I love systems, and continually implement them for clients and myself. I see systems in process all the time – some are great, some not so great.

Implementing systems is fabulous, but some just stop there. There is so much more that can be done for continuous improvement. Let’s see where your systems could work better together:

Are you lacking inspiration or enthusiasm for your business right now? It happens. Sometimes it can all feel like such a drudge that you wonder why you’re in business! It’s totally normal.

Some will say this feeling is leading to a breakdown of sorts, and once this occurs you can look forward to the breakthrough. I tend to believe this. Often running a business can become a drudge when we are totally overwhelmed, have too much to do and no one to help. It’s like a spiraling effect; there doesn’t seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel.

Do you set goals only to feel frustrated and disappointed when they’re not met? This happened to me this quarter. I set some specific bold goals to really move my business forward and did not achieve them. All was not lost though; I achieved my financial goals – smashed them in fact.

But, I’m a bit of a doer, and to not achieve my goals left me feeling a little down on myself.  The reality is I wasn’t slacking off; after all I wouldn’t have achieved my financial goals if that was the case. But my attention was diverted to business foundation matters, resourcing up, establishing new clients and an opportunity that took up such a considerable amount of time that in the end I decided to let it go.

So last week I took a break from my business appointments. And I really mean a break – I made sure nothing was scheduled and I concentrated solely on the systems in my business.

Yes there were still calls to answer, but I took myself away from my desk and set up either on my kitchen table or my local cafe, whichever took my fancy. My goals for my “systems break” were to get a better handle on our new project management system and revisit some processes in the business.

So it’s the middle of February. How’s your year progressing so far? 12% of 2011 has passed already. Yes, 12%! Time literally flies by without taking any notice of what we are doing – it does not pause for us, it consistently ticks by minute after minute. So what have you been doing with those minutes? If you’ve wasted 12% of the year already, what can you do to make sure the remaining 88% is concentrated on business growth?

Are you a morning or evening person? We tend to be one or the other and in fact I’ve found that it can change during different stages of life. Some of us start out being night owls and then as we get older we find ourselves naturally getting up earlier.

The word “delegation” rolls off the tongue so easily but can be so difficult for many of us to do. However, one thing remains true, highly successful business people did not get there alone. We humans are limited in our capabilities and only have so much time available to us. We need sleep, food and rest to function properly. Outsourcing is the answer, but outsourcing will only work if you can delegate effectively.

When I first started my business, things started out well. I was happy to keep the business relatively small when my children were younger. Later on, I decided to grow my business so I put my foot on the gas pedal.  That’s when my problems started!

I often get asked the question, how on earth do you achieve so much in one day? In previous posts I have given tips on how I organise an entire year and work backwards to break that down into weeks. I have also given my tips on batching similar tasks together to increase productivity. Another key factor for my productiveness is scheduling.