Achieve all of your business’ New Year’s Resolutions in one day. Manage your public profile, identify your goals, delegate tasks, create assignments, and set up workable systems for the year.
That’s right, an 8-hour block of time is all it takes.
If you start to feel overwhelmed, or feel like you’re getting distracted, put the distraction or another specific task on your to-do list and keep going. Don’t let urgent but unimportant interruptions (such as mail delivery or routine phone calls) sidetrack you.
Grab your coffee, calendar, and computer, and let’s get started.
Hour 1: Manage your public profile
1. Re-record the outdated message on your answering machine or voice mail. Smile when you do, and remind callers that they can text or email you, too. (5 minutes)
2. Go to LinkedIn and check if your profile is 100% complete. If not, add the necessary information. Make sure your current job/position/responsibilities are listed. Make sure your contact information can be easily found on the home page. Update your photo if it is more than 2 years old. Don’t obsess over reading other people’s profiles, responding to messages, or responding to invitations. Get in and get out. (15 minutes)
3. Go to Twitter and look at your background. Does it tell perfect strangers what they should hire you for? You are interesting? Convincing? Amusing? If someone read your last 5 tweets, would they know what you do or just what you ate today? Write 30 tweets in a Word document that discuss or reference your experience. Tweet one now. (Yes, “tweet” is both a noun and a verb.) Find an article that deals with that topic. Tweet that too. Reframe your tweet to two to three more ways to send that day. Use the other 29 Tweets for the rest of the month. (30 minutes)
4. Visit your Facebook profile page. Do you combine your business and personal pages? For! Create a business page now! Add photos of your products, advertisements, or descriptions of the services you provide. Do you already have a business profile? Invite your friends to visit with a link on your personal page. Add something relevant. Words with images get more traction than words without images. Don’t know how to create a business page? Put it on your to-do list for later. (5 minutes)
Take a 5 minute break.
Hour 2: Organize your space and finances
5. Clean your desktop. I’m serious. Get everything except the computer off the desk. Clean the desktop. Add back only the items you’re using today to stay clutter-free. (10 minutes)
6. Put away as many things from your office as you can in 15 minutes. Put items you haven’t used in a while (books, supplies, and those promotional bags you got from your last 5 conferences) in a trash bag to donate.
7. Get another garbage bag. See how much you can get rid of so you don’t have to put it back on your desk. Take the trash to the dumpster. (15 minutes)
8. If you don’t already have an effective system for organizing your expense receipts, it’s time to create one. Try an app called jotnot, which lets you scan receipts and merge them with Dropbox and Evernote. (10 minutes, to download jotnot, dropbox and evernote)
9. Resolve to keep track of your business profits and losses. (Or get someone to do it.) Date it and add it daily. (5 minutes)
Take a 5 minute break and refill the coffee.
Hour 3: Strategic planning in one hour
10. Brainstorm for 5 minutes all the things you need to do for the day and week. Write everything down somewhere so you don’t have to think about it. Include washing the dog and renewing your business plan. (5 minutes)
11. Brainstorm actions to take for your business or to promote it during the year. Get started with networking, career achievements, marketing materials, and social media ideas. These could be “Join a Professional Organization”, “Finish Certification”, “Take a Class”, “Update Resume”, or “Write a Blog”. (10 minutes)
12. Find 5 good marketing ideas for you or your business. Go to an online bookstore and look for marketing books. Read the book reviews, not the books, to get just 5 ideas. (40 minutes)
Hour 4: Comparative Analysis
13. Give your company, department, or yourself a report card. How are you doing in terms of efficiency? Effectiveness? time management? Product placement? For a complete list, see Competitive Analysis Offered by SCORE. (20 minutes)
14. Decide which area of your business you want to improve in the next 29 days. (5 minutes)
15. Make a list of the resources you need to improve that area. Can you get those now? Can you submit a request for that now? Can you talk to others about what to improve? Send an email, sketch some ideas or order what you need. (20 minutes)
16. Look at your competitors’ websites. What do you like? What is calling your attention? Make a list of what you need to improve on your website. Send a note to your website developer. (10 minutes)
Take a break for lunch. Take an energy bar or make a protein shake or make a sandwich. You have a whole year’s worth of resolutions to work on, so stay focused. Take some gummy vitamins, some water, and an apple. You are doing great!
Hour 5: Business Plan, Cards and Records Update
17. Read your business plan. Okay, find your business plan. Does it still apply? Use a highlighter to show what needs to be updated. Did you ever get to write a business plan in the first place? Write down quick answers to the following questions:
What problems do I solve?
Who do I solve them for?
Where are those people located, both physically and online?
How can I best market to those people?
If you need answers to these questions, email three close friends and see what they think you do. If they don’t know, you might want to invest in a marketing book. (And you REALLY need to write a business plan.) (30 minutes)
18. Look at your business card. Without your glasses. He is good looking? Sure? Easy to read? Does it include your phone number, email, website, and social media? Will it pass the conference test? (I come home from a chamber of commerce event with a stack of business cards. Do I remember who you are in that stack?) Does your card say who you are and what you do? Is it consistent with the image you are trying to convey? Is it memorable? If you need to create a new card, try freelance sites, where people often post what they’re willing to do for $5. (There is real talent there.) Another option is to go through the stack of business cards from your last networking event and contact people with good cards. Ask them who designed them. Restock your wallet, purse, car, or card case with your cards. (15 minutes)
19. Get a big envelope and find all of last year’s receipts and other documents you need to file your taxes. Write TAXES 2012 on the envelope. Get another envelope and write TAXES 2013 on it. Put it in an easily accessible place. (10 minutes)
Hour 6: Get your email in order
20. You can’t waste time deleting hundreds of useless emails a week. Unless the emails are from friends or are of real value (like my monthly e-zine, Leadership, Dogs and Twitter, which, I promise, is only once a month, so please, really, don’t cut me off) you can delete them from your inbox. Check your emails and look for messages from autoresponders and online catalogs that just waste your time. . Drop out. (55 minutes)
Take a 5 minute break to stretch
Hour 7: Goals and Resolutions
21. If you had to “live like you’re dying” as Tim McGraw sings, what would you want to spend your time on? And who would you like to spend time with? Write that time down on your calendar. Make time now for the people and activities that really matter to you. (10 minutes)
22. Make a wish list. Where do you want to go and what do you want to do? play paintball? Do ziplining in Costa Rica? Walk the Great Wall of China? Admire the ruins of Machu Picchu? Who do you want to know? Who should you visit? Assign a date to at least one of your wish list items for this year. (10 minutes)
23. Write down what you need to do to make that wish list item happen this year. Post it somewhere where you will see it all the time. (5 minutes)
24. Brainstorm your business goals for the year. In no particular order, what would you like to accomplish in your business this year? (5 minutes)
25. Who else is affected if you have a big hit? What contributions can you make to those close to you and to your community if you are successful? (5 minutes)
26. Prioritize the list of business goals. Post the one you REALLY want to accomplish this calendar year on the computer, in your wallet, or on the refrigerator. (10 minutes)
27. Write down the steps you will need to take to achieve that main goal. Add to your to-do list. (5 minutes)
28. Add goals and dates to your calendar. (5 minutes)
Hour 8: Leaving a Legacy
29. If something has happened to you, are your affairs in order?
Make a list of everything you have that a beneficiary has, such as life insurance, retirement accounts, and Social Security. Are those beneficiaries still accurate? Is your contact information up to date? (10 minutes)
30. Determine if you need to get your legal documents in order. (5 minutes)
31. Find your will. It’s updated? If not, make an appointment with an estate planning attorney to get you up to speed. (5 minutes)
32. Get a binder and collect all the paperwork someone else would need if you were suddenly disabled. It should include financial, legal, medical, business, and spiritual information.
33. Begin the outline of a Letter of Instruction that tells those close to you who to call, where important paperwork is, and what needs to happen immediately in case it no longer works. Include information about your business, your children, your pets, your volunteer organizations, and anyone else who would be affected if you were to die or become disabled. And make sure this Letter of Instruction is easy to find! (5 minutes)
That’s it! You are organized and focused!