One of the three tenets of PlanDoTrack is Track. As we move into the last week of the month, what are you noticing about the activities you have undertaken this month?

Are they giving you the results that you want?

As you consider your annual, or quarterly goals, what are the major milestones? Milestones are things we can measure or use as markers of our achievement.

So if one of my projects is creating a new course, milestones might be drafting and producing a certain # of modules.

If I want to increase sales and enrollment into a program we offer, what are the major milestones? It might include a certain number of registrations OR a number of marketing messages.

Activity:
Take a look at your top 3 goals this year, or quarter, and identify and write out what the milestones are.

Get granular with what milestone success will look like.

Mark the items and the milestone checklist in your calendar.

Note the trackers that you want to follow around these milestones (it could be calls etc).

A reminder that there are several tracking tools available to you in the PlanDoTrack planner including, Weekly Daily Trackers – with space to track more than 10 areas, consider some of the habits and consistent actions you want to get into this year, or the results you want to track.
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Some of the areas readers have been tracking range from:

• Personal items – Reading time, time spent with loved ones, journaling
• Fitness goals – Time spent walking, at gym, swimming, heart rate, sleep achieved
• Business goals  - Calls made, revenue in, program design time, product design time
• Special project focus – include any part of the design, implementation or delivery

Trackers can be a great way to get habits ingrained. What are the habits you explored in last week’s post?
 
Thanks!
Jenn

Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Author of PlanDoTrack (2019),  Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Pick up a copy of any of her books at Amazon
Book Jennifer for a coaching session to explore productivity, teamwork and business issues.
Contact her by phone at (416)996-8326
Check out the 19 Productivity Tips on-demand program. Explore this video based program at  your own pace, and join Jennifer for bi-weekly calls as part of your course.
Follow the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series on Instagram

Are you a remote professional? Join us at the Remote Pathways podcast as we explore the people, places and pathways to remote work. It's a new podcast I co-host with Michelle Mullins.

​This year, the topic of habits is getting significant focus. Books from authors like James Clear and his Atomic Habits book, along with older ones from writers like Gretchen Rubin – Better than Before, and Charles Duhigg, the Power of Habits, each take a deep dive into the topic.

When I went to write Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack, I wanted to encapsulate some of the practical exercises I had been doing with individuals, teams and groups for many years. As I write in Coaching Business Builder,

“Habits and practices are things we do automatically, sometimes unconsciously, because they have come so ingrained. There are many schools of thought that create a link between habits and success. That habits lead to success.”

As the tagline in the Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack asserts:
Daily Steps + Consistent Action = Momentum

Habits play a key role in shaping our regular actions. Habits are things we do automatically, and if we are able to instill regular go-to activities that can help us move forward, it can support automation of tasks and activities.

Habit development takes place over time. While the commonly held time-frame a decade ago was that habits took about 21 days to form, today we know that many take longer than that. Lally’s research has been influential in expanding that window to approximately 66 days to a new habit. Check out James Clear’s article on this and other research.

Habits are connected to our behaviors and therefore results. It’s our regular behaviors which shape the results we get. As my doctor recently asserted, my regular habit of walking more than 12,500 steps, along with other factors has helped to lower my cholesterol and blood pressure in the last couple of years. While they were not at a danger zone they were in the higher zone.

Another one of the habits I have built in over the last few years has been around work flow. My Mondays and Thursdays are full, long days, which does free up some time on either Wednesday or Thursday for blocks of writing and other creative pursuits. As an author, and writer, finding these times are critical for reflection and creation.

This year, take a look at the goals you have set for yourself. What are the results you are looking for? Increased sales, new programs, building your network? Work backwards and reverse engineer what are the behaviors you are going to need to undertake on a regular basis?
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As you consider your current goals and priorities:

1. What will help you be successful this year?
2. What are the habits that are going to help you?
3. What are the regular activities you want to build into your work?
4. What are the consistent behaviors and actions you want to or need to undertake to move you towards your goals?
5. What could amplify, or magnify, your regular behaviors?
6. What's missing that could make a difference?
7. What consistent flow do you want to get into?

Enjoy your thinking around habits and perhaps you will also pick up a resource.
For more on this topic, check out these posts from other writers:

• 7 Steps to Developing a New Habit – Bryan Tracy 
• Three Steps of Habit Change - James Clear
• Zenhabit’s Cheat Sheet – 29 Ways to Successfully Ingrain a Behavior 

While each author has their own framework, notice what is consistent across them.
 
Enjoy the reflection and action!
Jennifer

We are now at week 51 of the Weekly Planning Hacks which brings us to modelling it. Part of productivity success today is about getting things into action, not just planning. There’s an old saying “Fake it ‘til you make it”. While we don’t want to pretend, getting into action helps us develop the habits needed for success. Until things are installed as a habit, it’s unlikely that they will feel good or natural. Think about the habit of waking early to focus on an important project OR going walking every evening after dinner rain or shine.

Modelling things for yourself and others helps to move the needle. Earlier in this series, I wrote about creating 15-minute timed blocks for tasks you were putting off. Whether it’s writing, cleaning or getting paperwork done, simply setting the timer, and getting it into practice helps. Often “what we are thinking about” is greater than getting it done.

My hope is that in the last year of these posts, you have tried them on and are able to now start modeling it for others.

What do you notice? What can you model and set the bar around with others?

Best wishes,
Jennifer

This week’s Weekly Planning Hack gets to you think about how you can make things more visual. Visuals are processed by the brain faster. What’s important about this?
Visuals can help to:

• Communicate messages faster
• Keep it memorable
• Synthesize many ideas in one image                              
• Visuals can take a number of forms – from illustrations, to icons, to photographs

What are the things you want to keep top of mind this week? How might visuals support you in this?

Consider these ideas:

• Illustration
• ICONS for feedback
• Photographs
• Conversation Sparker

​Enjoy being creative!
​Jennifer

This week’s Planning Hack is about thinking about making something virtual, rather than in-person. As I share in my 2017 book – Effective Virtual Conversations – there are a number of benefits to virtual work including:

• Less time and cost around commuting and travel
• Fewer disruptions in the work space
• More autonomy for staff
• Reduced carbon footprint

For several years now I have included a weekly post around virtual work and conversations over at the Teams365 blog - Read the weekly Effective Virtual Conversations Tips which are published each Monday here.

If you like podcasts I am also the co-host of the Remote Pathways Podcast which focuses on exploring the different ways people work in the remote space - from project managers, to team leaders, entrepreneurs, to sales professionals, remote work is continuing to expand. Take  a listen in and consider subscribing to receive the bi-weekly episodes.

A bulk of the work we do at Potentials Realized is remote, with specialized services for remote workers and teams.
What could be the benefits for you around making something virtual, instead of in person?

Wishing you the best,
​Jennifer

Let's keep the momentum going of the new year! As the tagline for PlanDoTrack goes - Daily Steps + Consistent Action = Momentum. What are you keeping a FOcus on this year?

I've just sent out the January PlanDoTrack newsletter which included a number of key goodies you will likely be interested in. You can read it here.

If you are looking to set some focus and get momentum going I hope you'll Save the date - Monday January 6th from 11 - 11:30 am Eastern -  and oin me in zoom room 270-302-0415 for the 1st PlanDoTrack Community call of the year. The topic is Kicking off 2020 - Focus, Productivity and Creating Your Annual Plan. It will be part tips and part working session so bring your planner and a pen!

If you are a business owner, check out the 1BizStepADay series of daily prompts for January 2020 which I posted over at the Coaching Business Builder blog earlier this week. Be sure to download these daily prompts which are geared to support you into 15 minutes of focused action.
Looking for more support than that and you are a coach? Consider joining me for the 60 Day Coaching Business Builder Accelerator. Registration is open to January 15th. We'll be taking daily action on our business to March 15th. The program includes on-demand content, two weekly group calls, and 9 individual 15 minute calls with me each week for the program. It's geared to get you into action!

The PlanDoTrack 52 Weeks series wrapped up last week - be sure to get your downloads before they disappear. 

I'll be back next week with a new 52 weeks series for remote workers over at the Remote Pathways blog. Hope you'll join us there for this new series.

As a final reminder, Winter 2020 programming begins next week. Programs include:
Coaching Biz Growth Lab - An annual group for coaches wanting support around their coaching business development. Meeting Friday January 10th from 3- 4 pm ET. Our first of 24 bi-weekly calls this year.

Group Coaching Essentials - 8.75 CCEs for coaches wanting to develop and lead their own group coaching programs. Starts Friday JAn 10th at 1015 am ET (3 spots open)

Virtual Facilitation Essentials - for professionals wanting to jazz up their virtual calls and meetings. Join us for learning and practice in the virtual space! Monday January 13th from 1:30 -245 pm ET for  5 weeks. 8.5 CCEs

Mentor Coaching Groups - for coaches working towards their ACC or PCC, or renewing for ACC. 3 months from January 10 - April 18 (calls usually 2nd and 4th Friday from 9 - 10 am ET)

That's it for today - Enjoy your first weekend of 2020!

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Author of PlanDoTrack (2019),  Coaching Business Builder (2018), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013). Pick up a copy of any of her books at Amazon
Book Jennifer for a coaching session to explore productivity, teamwork and business issues.
Contact her by phone at (416)996-8326
Follow the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series on Instagram

As a Fitbit embracer (no paid commercial endorsement here – just my own love of how it’s made me more aware of my lifestyle choices), I’ve become fascinated by the new sleep score provided to me every day when I wake up.

An increasing number of studies are pointing to the importance of sleep as part of our regular routine.

As someone who embraces and requires, early morning time at my desk (I’m usually there by 5 or 5:30 am), I do know that it’s a trade-off-and that my body really does need as close to 7 hours as it can get in order to not only function, but thrive.

Linked to memory, health, immunity, sleep is a key part of high performance. Studies now also show that we can get too much sleep.

What are you doing to incorporate more quality sleep into your regular routine?

Best,
Jennifer