The One Key Routine to Focus & Productivity
Building your own business is so different from working for someone else. One of the biggest shifts from employee to business owner for me and many of the clients I work with and prospects I speak with is staying focused and productive.
When you are employed, you have your tasks and responsibilities. There are often projects you are part of and you know what you need to do today, tomorrow, next week, and maybe even next month.
What happens when you start your business? When there’s no one telling you what to do and focus on?
Well, things get scattered and hard to manage:
“I’m struggling to focus on my business with all the other responsibilities I have.”
“I need a clear plan and to-do list to ensure I follow through.”
“I want to stay consistent in putting daily effort into my business.”
“I’m looking for clarity and direction.”
“I’m struggling with turning my business goals into consistent actions.”
The list goes on and on.
I get it. I was there once, especially while my business was a side hustle.
I can talk about productivity and staying organized for days, but today I want to focus on one key to staying focused and productive while you are building your business. And this is actually my favoring productivity routine, one that is so powerful, yet overlooked – weekly review and planning.
The One Key Routine to Focus & Productivity
What Do You Need to Achieve Any Goal?
What Do You Need to Achieve Any Goal?
A few weeks ago, I wrote about going back to principles and the know, like, and trust factor behind any marketing and sales tactic.
So, when it comes to achieving a goal, any goal, what is the first principle?
Well, this is another idea I owe to Ryan Levesque and it’s that to achieve any goal you need two things:
Know where you are going (the goal)
Know your next step to get there (action to take now)
I love this because it’s so simple. Two things. I want to reach 150 lbs and my next action is a 5K run before lunch.
I want to 10X my monthly revenue and my next action is to call one of my prospects.
I know what you are thinking: “But, wait, Anna! It’s not that simple. How do I know what my next action is? What am I really supposed to do now, today to get to my goal?”
I’m glad you asked…
One Bite at a Time
…because while the premise of knowing your destination and the next step you need to take is powerful, it’s actually hard to determine your next step purely based on the big hairy audacious goal (a.k.a. BHAG) you have.
This is where the elephant metaphor comes in. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
So, let’s cut that elephant, shall we?
Breaking Your Goals Down
What I do for my goals (both business and personal), help my clients do, and designed Plandore to do is create a BHAG and break it down into smaller pieces.
You start with a BHAG – a goal you want to achieve in 3 years. Then, you determine the annual targets.
If I want to have a million-dollar business in 3 years and I assume 5X growth, then year one I need $40K, year two is $200K, and year three is $1M.
Perfect. $40K looks like chump change compared to $1M. I already feel more confident.
Now that we have $40K for year one, we get into the next part of the cutting process – quarters. Where do I need to be in Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4 respectively?
Well, maybe Q1 is all about setting some foundations and building a list of 100 leads. Q2 is where you want to see your first $5K revenue. Q3 might be doubling it to $10K and Q4 can be another $25K to reach the goal of $40K.
Do you see how easy it gets?
And we are not done yet!
Q1 has 3 months there, giving us another opportunity to cut the proverbial elephant into even smaller pieces.
So, if Q1 is all about getting 100 leads, maybe month one is reaching out to everyone in your network, month two is all about completing 100 market research interviews, and month three is having the 100 leads.
Why I Love the Weekly Review and Planning
And this is where my favorite productivity routine comes in – the weekly review and planning.
Once you know what your goal is for this month, the weekly review and planning allows you to continue cutting that pesky elephant.
This month, you need to contact everyone in your network. So, what do you need to do this week to ensure you achieve your monthly goal? Maybe it’s contacting 20% of people in your network.
What do you need to do to achieve this? Well, maybe you start with listing everyone you know in an excel spreadsheet cause excel is still king. Then, you might order the list starting with people you know well and who know you well (warmest connections). Then, you might decide to prepare a short template for the ask. Then, finally, you start contacting the first 20%.
So, your task for Monday might be to compile a list of everyone in your network.
Magical, isn’t it?
To get to $1M business in 3 years your task today is to compile a list of everyone you know.
I don’t know about you, but I can easily do this. I’ve done it, actually.
Getting Into a Rhythm
One of the reasons I love the weekly review and planning sessions so much is the fact that they give me a chance to pause for a second and look at my business (and life) from a 30,000 feet view. It’s the only time of the week where I get to think about my destination and ask myself if I’m headed in the right direction.
Of course, it also helps me get really clear on what my tasks are this week. What am I focusing on in the next 7 days?
And the review part of the weekly review and planning is so important. Because when you really do it, when you are really honest with reviewing your past week, you start seeing patterns.
I recently noticed a pattern of how when I journal in the morning, I’m so enthusiastic and talk about doing things and improving something but then I don’t do the improvement. One time I had the same improvement written down for 8 or 9 days. What’s the point of journaling about improving something if I don’t do it?
Reviewing also helps you look at numbers and see whether you are progressing as planned. It really gives you a chance to see what’s working, so you can double down on it, what’s not working, so you can get rid of it, and what needs to be changed or added. And, in an age of uncertainty, it allows you to pivot faster.
Last but not least, it allows you to move forward even when you have other responsibilities and demands for your time and attention. This is especially useful when your business is a side hustle.
If you spend a few minutes a week (it takes me less than 30 minutes) to review last week and plan the one ahead, you can realistically see what you can do and when. Even half an hour of work on a Thursday morning while you are commuting on the train to the office makes a difference, especially when it’s the right type of work, the one that moves you closer to achieving your weekly and monthly goals.
Why isn’t everyone doing this? Why aren’t you doing a weekly review and planning session every week?
When You Have a Team
As I mentioned, this is a practice I personally have, and I help my clients implement it as well. And if you start it while you are still a solopreneur, you get to carry it on when you have a team.
We all need to know the direction and our next step. Having a weekly review and planning session with your team allows you to get all the benefits I shared above with everyone on board.
Just imagine this. Everyone on your team, whether it’s one other person or ten or more, knows what they are doing this week. They shared how last week went, what the lessons were, and how this week can be improved. And you, as the business owner, know where your business stands and where it’s going. You also have the peace of mind that your team is clear on priorities for the next week.
This is one of the must-haves when you start hiring (or outsourcing work). Yes, even when you hire the best of the best, you still need to lead them. And having a weekly review and planning session is so important (please don’t confuse this with micromanaging!).
Only One Key Piece of the Puzzle
I did mention that I can talk about productivity for days, so let’s wrap this up.
A weekly review and planning session is only one key piece of the puzzle. I do think it’s one of the most underrated once, though.
Many business owners do annual and quarterly review and planning. Some have monthly sessions as well. But the weekly ones? Based on my experience, very few do it.
You need all of them:
The 3-year BHAG
Annual review and planning
Quarterly review and planning
Monthly review and planning
Weekly review and planning
Daily review and planning
Yes, you read this correctly.
I don’t know who shared it and where I heard about it but there was a story of how a consultant stepped in to help with productivity for a company and the system he implemented was for people to list the top 6 actions for today and start working on the most important one. Once it was done, move to the second one and so on. At the end of the day, they had to create a new list for the next day. It could have the leftovers from today or completely different items.
So, as powerful as regular reviewing and planning are, doing the actual work matters too.
I know I’ll be sharing about this topic in the future but today I want to leave you with this: Schedule a recurring weekly review and planning session for a day and time you know you’ll do it. Mine is Monday morning at 8 a.m.
