This week’s blog post takes us into another layer of five of the productivity keys PlanDoTrack’s philosophy is grounded in. Taking time along the way to pause is critical for learning. If we go back to the educational model of David Kolb’s ERGA, he asserted that learning happens through a four stage process:

1. Experience: Have an experience – for example, complete a project or hold a team meeting
2. Reflect: Stop and reflect – individually or collectively. This could involve reflecting through questions, reflection
3. Generalize: Take note of the key learning and think about how it can be scaled to other area
4. Apply: Apply the learning to other projects – for example, your next project (even if it’s in a different area) or your next team meeting

One of the key challenges in today’s business context is that we are often moving so fast we don’t have time to stop and pause.

On an individual level, consider the benefit of:

• Tracking your details of the day in a journal or your daily planning system
• Reviewing on a weekly basis your achievements – see the Week in Focus pages of the monthly planning pages at PDT

Areas to consider as you create the PAUSE 

• What did I do today?
• What did I focus on?
• What learning did I have?
• What opportunities are available?
• What insights did I have?
• What do you want your PAUSE to look like?

Enjoy your pause!
​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

Check out these Instagram accounts @coachingbizbuilder & @remotepathways!
Check out upcoming programs on our calendar!

Are you a remote professional? Listen into the Remote Pathways Podcast on your favorite podcast player!

Week 30 Focus – Marketing Review
Focus Question: What’s working and what’s not?

Description
In this week’s focus, we’re taking stock of different marketing approaches – what is working and what is not. We’ve spent several weeks exploring different promotional strategies, including LinkedIn and Instagram.
 
Building a regular practice of doing a review of what’s working, and what’s not, around marketing in your business, can save a lot of time in the long run.
 
Some of the things you will want to consider as you go to do a marketing review are:

1. Note metrics. What things are getting traction? What’s getting read? What’s not?
2. With certain posts, is there a tweak or adjustment you can make?
3. What posts could be repurposed and republished in other ways?
4. What are the items that you could use for redistribution?

Activity
Note the data you are tracking. From a high-level overview what does it indicate?
Looking to each of the marketing items you track, which one is progressing as you would like it to?
If you have multiple posts, which ones are working best?
Which ones are not getting traction as you would like?
Are you tracking the things that you want?
Where is your energy and enjoyment with this process?
​
Connection to the Coaching Business Builder/PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner
Review the metrics you have which may be part of:

• The Monthly Daily Tracker
• Taking Stock – Monthly Reflections (refer to Key Metrics)
• Monthly Content Trackers
• Monthly Content Journals – One Line a Day
• Don’t Just Do It Once! Scaling Content

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
Follow the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series on Instagram

Week 17 Focus – Content Creation
Focus Question: What role does content creation (or distribution) play in your world?

Description
At the heart of many virtual organizations, and service-based businesses is content creation. Whether it is designing a new course, writing a blog post, leveraging a series on Instagram, content creation is key. This is why the CBB and PlanDoTrack, includes the Content Pages. As a reminder, included in the Content Pages Section are:
Monthly Content Trackers – Use this to capture what you are posting every day of the month. Include the streams you are posting on, how many visits, likes, comments or other things in notes. You have space in the bottom right corner to note any themes which you are focusing on for the month. This information becomes a gold-mine for years to come!
The Monthly Content Journal – Use these to capture one word reflections on the day . Perhaps you are doing some research. Maybe focusing on capturing new ideas, thoughts than need an anchor somewhere.
31 Day Challenge – Don’t just do it once. Series create energy and generate community. What could you focus on daily for 30 or 31 days in your business to create a baseline, or spread the world?
Content Collaboration Plan - Who can you collaborate with? What do they do? Who do they serve? What could collaboration look like? Why would you want to collaborate or have a joint venture with them? What can you offer them in return for your partnership?

Activity
Review the different Content Tools available. How could you leverage these in your work, and around your current priorities?

What is the content you have created? Make a list and/or note how you might repurpose or repackage the material for different platforms. For example, if you have a blog post, could it be combined with others to create an article, or be converted into a video.

Review your current content calendars. What’s working? What needs to be developed? When are you scheduling in time to create content?

Need some inspiration? Check out the 31 Days of 1BizStepaDay. You’ll find it over at the CoachingBusinessBuilder website.

Connection to the Workbook and Planner

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

Best wishes, 
Jennifer

Read and download the earlier weeks of the 52 weeks of Plan, Do and Track series

“Journal what you love, what you hate, what's in your head, what's important. Journaling organizes your thoughts; allows you to see things in a concrete way that otherwise you might not see. Focus on what you think you need to…” – Kay Walkingstick

Did you know that for the last few months I have been sharing weekly journaling prompts over at the Teams365 blog? 
 
Dedicating short amounts of time each week to pause and focus on what’s important to you can become an important practice in terms of reflection and learning.
 
For many years I kept a regular journal, documenting my life and experiences while I lived and worked overseas. It was an important vehicle to capture experiences and memories, identify learning and work through insights.
 
For many of us (myself included) life may seem pretty standard, it can be valuable to building reflective pauses on a regular basis. It can also be useful in business to create regular pause points to note what is working, and what is not.            `
 
Here’s a selection of 9 of my favorite weekly journal prompts –









Grab a pen and your journal and I hope that you'll enjoy capturing some thoughts as we usher in spring later today!
​Best,
Jennifer

​

“Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.” – Francis Bacon
 
Making things more visible is key to productivity for some in today’s digitally distracted world. Our brains can only hold a certain amount of information   - usually said to be 5 + or – 2.
​
Think about how well you remember what you thought about doing yesterday at lunch.

Research is also pointing to the fact that we also remember things differently when we grab a pen and paper and write things down, rather than put it in our device.
 
How much energy have you spent this week trying to keep ideas in your head?
​
Dedicating a small notebook to ideas, plans, and resources can be a great memory jogger, and creates a great capsule to reflect back on periods of your life on. I just came across a very small notebook (think smaller than the size of an index card) that accompanied me over 3 months of travel and work in Central America when I was 21. Just seeing it, unlocked a series of memories I had not thought of for years!

What is the practice you want to get into in terms of writing things down?
​
For those that like high level bullet-form ideas, be sure to check out the Monthly Daily Planner – One Line a Day in the PlanDoTrack and Coaching Business Builder Planners. It only takes one minute to jot some ideas down!

Enjoy your writing!
​Jennifer