​Week 48 Focus — Boundaries
Focus Question: What are the boundaries which help you do your best work?

Description
As a solopreneur, time is one of your greatest resources. As a business owner, especially if you run a remote business, there may be demands on your time and attention throughout the day. For some, we continue to say “yes” even when our plate overflows.
 
Activity
Reflect on the following questions:

• What are the boundaries you need to put into place so you can focus?
• What are the boundaries you need to put into place so you can do your best work?
• What are the boundaries you need to put into place so you can be at your best?

 
Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Our time is precious and cannot be recreated once it is gone.
Take a look at your daily planning, or weekly planning. What time blocks are you earmarking for your most important tasks?

What boundaries do you want to put around when you start, and stop, work?

Download a one-page copy of this week's 52 Weeks of Plan, Do and Track here.

Best wishes, 
Jennifer

Read and download the initial weeks of the 52 weeks of Plan, Do and Track

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 new 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
​

This week’s Weekly Planning Hack gets you to consider the question “What’s the season?”.

Just like weather seasons, there may be different seasons for us throughout the year, and throughout our life span. As I share in this week's Facebook Live, every November I enjoy carving some time out for writing. My November focus has led to the creation of new bodies of work including my 2017 book, Effective Virtual Conversations, and this year, it's supported me in creating time for the Remote Pathways 90 Day Guide for New Remote Professionals. I plan to make this available in 2020. With the support of the virtual community, it's an added push I need to get creative work out.
As you think about your annual rhythms:

What season are you in right now?

What season are you yearning for?

Like the weather seasons there may be different rhythms you may want to follow. For example, longer work days, and shorter work days.

What is the pace of work you are looking forward to?

Enjoy your reflection!
Jennifer

PS - As I mention in this week's Facebook Live the Remote Pathways Podcast is now live. I'd love for you to subscribe and follow. It's a bi-weekly podcast around the people, places and pathways for remote work, which I co-host with Michelle Mullins. Join us on our remote adventures! 
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​Week 47 Focus — Paper & Office Organizing
Focus Question: As you look around your office what do you notice about paper? The office space itself?

Description
Coaching Business Builder’s subtitle is “Putting the pieces together”. Part of an exceptional business is clearing the clutter in order to focus on what’s important. While not a central focus of the book, paper and office organizing is a key part of keeping things moving and growing
 
What are the elements you want to get organized with?
 
Research/Story
Sometimes we can feel like we are sinking in our paperwork.
Here’s a post from the Teams365 blog I wrote back in 2014 about a great organizing tip called RAFTS:
“Today's Check It Off tip is geared to help you clear off your desk, or your drawer! Even in today's digital age, paper clutter, and e-clutter bogs us down as leaders.
Years ago, I ran a program with former HGTV NEAT host, Hellen Buttigieg of WeOrganizeU to support professionals to get more organized. Hellen always shared this acronym of the RAFTS in terms of dealing with paper clutter.
As you look at your paper touch it only once and decide if you are going to:
R- Read it
A- Act on it
F- File it
T- Toss it
OR
S- Shred it
When you go to sort your big piles of paper, you may want to set up five separate baskets/in-trays so you can move it to the respective pile right away and keep moving it along.

I first heard about this tip from Hellen and I know others have written on it. Before you head out this week, block of 15 minutes and tackle that pile of papers!
(Originally published as https://www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams365-234-check-it-off-tip-3-rafts)

Activity
Set your timer for 15 minutes and grab a set of papers. Apply the RAFT formula. You might even want to do this again every day for a week!
 Connection to the Workbook and Planner
If clearing up and decluttering is an area you want to focus on, track your 15-minute blocks using one of the Monthly Trackers.

Download a one-page copy of this week's 52 Weeks of Plan, Do and Track here.

Best wishes, 
Jennifer

Read and download the initial weeks of the 52 weeks of Plan, Do and Track

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 new 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
​

This week’s Weekly Planning Hack gets you thinking about batching your tasks. Perhaps you are a business owner. If writing is a key activity for you, could you earmark one day a week to tackle your writing tasks, or if getting organized is key in the financial area, could you block off a chunk of time (i.e. 90 minutes or more) on one day to tackle to receipts? You might also earmark part of a day (or an entire day) to meetings and calls, and one to work. Consider this and what impact that would have in terms of your levels of satisfaction and FOCUS.
​
When we have to switch tasks that use different parts of our brain – for example, moving from writing which may require synthesis and creativity, to mathematics – numbers and details – there is a certain energy, called “cognitive load” when we switch between tasks. When our brains are taxed or in overwhelm, this cognitive load of switching can be more significant.

This week consider:

• What are the key tasks you want to get done more easily and effortlessly?
• What tasks can you batch to certain days?
• What focus would this create?
• What needs to get deferred?
• What else is important to note?

Enjoy the exploration!
Jennifer

Week 46 Focus — Email Management
Focus Question: What is the state of your inbox?

Description/research
The Front Blog indicates that “The average worker spends 28 percent of their work week on email, more than 11 hours a week! With the average person sending and receiving 124 work emails every day, or 620 emails every week, we're spending an average of 1.1 minutes on each email.” https://frontapp.com/blog/2018/07/20/how-much-time-are-you-spending-on-email/
 
“The average professional spends 28% of the workday reading and answering email, according to a McKinsey analysis. For the average full-time worker in America, that amounts to a staggering 2.6 hours spent, and 120 messages received per day.”
– How to Spend Way Less Time on Email Every Day – Harvard Business Review by Matt Plummer 2019
https://hbr.org/2019/01/how-to-spend-way-less-time-on-email-every-day
 
According to Matt Plummer - The team at Zarvana realized professionals could save more than one hour and 21 minutes per day by addressing these five time suckers. Here’s what Matt Plummer shares in his Harvard Business Review Article (https://hbr.org/2019/01/how-to-spend-way-less-time-on-email-every-day):
 
According to Zarvana our time is spent in five main areas, taking up the following time:
 
“1. Over checking email wastes 21 min/day.
2. Full inboxes waste 27 min/day.
3. Using folder to organize and find emails wastes 14 min/day.
4. Archiving emails into many folders with mouse wastes 11 min/day.
5. Reading and processing irrelevant emails wastes 8 min/day.
(Source Matt Plummer and Zarvana – in HBR article). The article he has written provides a lot of detail around just how much time is spent and what you can do about it. I strongly encourage you to check it out! You will find it at: https://hbr.org/2019/01/how-to-spend-way-less-time-on-email-every-day
 
Activity
This week spend time applying one or two of these “fast fixes” to your inbox, or to the way you process email. While setting up a quick step or rule may take time in the short-term, it can save time in the long-term.

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Consider tracking the amount of time you are spending on email over one or two weeks. Notice how you are replying and what changes could be made.
 
Download a one-page copy of this week's 52 Weeks of Plan, Do and Track here.

Best wishes, 
Jennifer

Read and download the initial weeks of the 52 weeks of Plan, Do and Track

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 new 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
​

This week’s Weekly Planning Hack gets you to think about your relationships and who you have in your web, who can help you with a major project or task that isn’t getting done.
​
We do not operate in isolation and reaching out to others for support and collaboration can be important in getting things done.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about planning first, and writing a book. There may be some people in your network who could help you with this.

For other projects, like the paper management organizing mentioned in week 35, you may need to enroll family members like a spouse or kids to wade your way through the paper.

What is important to note about relationships this week?
​
Each February I often put a spotlight around relationship management issues. In PlanDoTrack, I also zoom into this topic area and invite business owners and remote workers to take stock of the Top 20 people in your network. Knowing who you can reach out to is important, especially in times of urgency.  If you have not yet completed the exercise, be sure to check out the Top 20 Exercise on page 87 of PlanDoTrack.

Enjoy your exploration!
Jennifer

Week 45 Focus — Renewal
Focus Question: What does renewal mean for you?

Description
The fields of sports and business shows us that teams that excel, are great at both “playing hard” and also resting hard.
 
Just as physical renewal is essential after a long race, periods of renewal are key in business to help us remain at our prime. What does renewal mean for you? When is the last time you took time to renew?
 
Decision fatigue, social media burnout, task switching and cognitive overload, take a toll on us as professionals. When things become unbalanced it can also become luggage we bring into our family life.
 
As solopreneurs, keeping ourselves “at our prime” is key as the business relies on you. Without you there, it’s unlikely that it can keep going for long. Therefore, renewal should take a priority.
 
Here are some different ways to consider renewal:

• Taking vacation time on a regular basis
• Scheduling time away from our work (i.e. conferences, meetings with colleagues)
• Enjoying a compressed 4-day work week at different parts of the year so you can enjoy a longer weekend
• Having clear boundaries around “when you are ON” and “when you are OFF”
• Swimming/running/hiking/going to the gym over lunchtime on a regular basis
• Going on a retreat

What will help you renew?
 
Activity
Consider your skill base right now. What is one skill area you could become more effective in to boost your impact as a people leader?

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Take a look at your calendar. What have you done to build in renewal periods on a WEEKLY, MONTHLY and QUARTERLY basis?

Download a one-page copy of this week's 52 Weeks of Plan, Do and Track here.

Best wishes, 
Jennifer

Read and download the initial weeks of the 52 weeks of Plan, Do and Track

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 new 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
​

Looking to the long haul, long term or big picture can really support us when we go to plan, schedule and execute. Looking to the long haul, can be applied at all three stages of PlanDoTrack.

Consider these:
Planning –
How often are you taking time to review or reconnect with your annual vision? Do you have an annual vision? If you haven’t created your vision for this year, check out the questions on page 101 of PlanDoTrack or 99 of Coaching Business Builder. Do you have strategic goals in your work or business for the next 3 – 5 years? As you look at your vision and/or strategic issues, what do you notice? Along another vein, as you consider your longer-term planning, consider jumping up to the 30,000-foot view, as if you were in an airplane. As you look out at the landscape below (and far ahead on the horizon) what do you notice?

Take time to review your long-term plans and visions this week, make additions to your weekly and monthly plans accordingly.

Doing –
Consider the tasks you are working on right now. How are they supporting long term action and impact? How are current actions supporting your longer-term vision? If current actions are not supporting long-term vision steps, what do you want to build into your schedule? Keeping in mind Consistent Action + Daily Steps = Momentum, what 15 minutes could you earmark for longer term DAILY Action? Does anything (i.e. TV Time) need to go or be condensed so you have time to do this? What else will support you in action around your long-term goals? Schedule this in now.
​
Tracking –
As you review your metrics (financials, monthly trackers etc.), what do you notice about trends? How do these metrics connect with your bigger vision and longer term goals?

What changes you do you want to make based on what you see?

What do you want to keep doing, and/or magnify?
​
Enjoy the exploration!
Jennifer

Week 44 Focus — Circadian Rhythm
Focus Question: Consider the rhythm of your day. When can you do your best work? Around what tasks?

​Description
When are you at your best?
 
There has been a lot of research done on our natural body rhythms. The study of chronobiology explores our natural rhythms. While some of us are “early birds” and love to get things done in the early hours of the morning as the world wakes up, others may find they get their “next wind” in the evening.
 
What do you notice about when you are at your best for completing different tasks?
 
There may be different times of the day when it is good for you to complete different tasks such as:

• Complete finances and accounting work
• Engaging in writing projects
• Reviewing reports
• Hold one-on-one or coaching calls
• Undertake performance conversations with your team

While not everyone may have the opportunity to adjust their schedule, remote work can make this an even more important issue for many. Undertaking tasks when we are more inclined to have the focus we need, may allow us to get more done, more quickly.
 
Activity
In an ideal state, what would your ideal day or week of work look like? WHAT would you do WHEN?

Make a list of the different tasks you need to complete in the next 1-3 weeks. What time of the day might you be best placed to complete them in?

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Consider using the time trackers (Monthly Planning Tools) to track when in the month you are completing core tasks, but also the time of day. Instead of tracking by one color per activity, you may consider tracking by M, A, N – Morning (M), Afternoon (A), Night (N).

After tracking your time of day rhythms (could be a week or more), what do you notice?
​
What adjustments could support you in maximizing your work routine?

Download a one-page copy of this week's 52 Weeks of Plan, Do and Track here.

Best wishes, 
Jennifer

Read and download the initial weeks of the 52 weeks of Plan, Do and Track

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 program design, productivity, teamwork and business issues.
Contact her by phone at (416)996-8326
Check out the new 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
​