“What doesn’t get measured, doesn’t get done” – Tom Peters Tracking is an often-overlooked component of success. A common saying is that what doesn’t get measured, doesn’t get done OR what does get measured, does get done. What are the metrics you are tracking in your business? For virtual businesses this might include:
For virtual or remote employees this might include:
What are the things you are aiming to adjust or impact? Have a great day! Jennifer Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday or Thursday here. Be sure to like our page to be updated each week! Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
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For many of us, our work revolves around projects – some which last weeks, others which may last months or years. Throughout the Planners in the Coaching Business Builder and Plan Do Track, I invite you to consider the Projects, Tasks and Activities you are focusing on this month. As it relates to projects, these might include projects which are focused in on creating new processes or procedures or designing and running a program. Projects are usually the larger umbrella which houses discrete tasks and activities. Tasks and activities are discrete steps. They might be as small as reviewing a report, or as complex as creating an e-book. You’ll want to consider what level of granularity supports you as a professional. Personally, I find that I may include larger projects first as a task, until I figure out how to break it down into smaller, more discrete pieces. As you consider projects, tasks and activities, you might note every month what you want to:
What’s important to consider around projects you are managing right now? Check out recent posts on the topic of Project Management from: The Teams365 blog for Leaders Coaching Business Builder blog for Coaches Best wishes, Jennifer Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday or Thursday here. Be sure to like our page to be updated each week! Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013) Week 14 Focus – Automation Focus Question: What can you automate in your business? Description There are many tasks in a small business which can be automated. Automation brings the benefits of scaling, supplication maximizing your resources. Think about these items:
Research/Story As much as AI (Artificial Intelligence) is feared, it’s also something which can be leveraged to further level the playing field for small business. Here’s a quick story. Flashback to 2014 and the introduction of offering on-demand video-based programs. Filming, voice over, selecting the graphics could take hours. In 2017, I found Lumen5, a video program which harnesses AI to provide quick creation and rendering of short videos. That platform now enables me to import content I’ve already created (think blog posts and articles) and then have the system convert it to a short video. Total timesaver and a creative tool! Check out the Fall 2018 quarterly planning video here. Check out the Vision video here. (3 minutes) Activity Consider some of the tasks that could be automated in service to your work and business
Connection to the Workbook and Planner Include any automation tasks in your workbook. Consider the systems you might want to automate (Refer to Section 3 - Pages 70 - 75 of Coaching Business Builder, or pages 73 to 80 of PlanDoTrack). 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 For many years in my global career I faced multiple complexities which would get in the way of a regular work day. From regular periods of no electricity, to political and natural disasters which pulled work off course. I learned early in my career the value of two things which continue to help me flourish today – #1 – Focus – Focus when you can, even if it is for a short while. Productivity is not always about the long haul, it can also be about the short burst of focused effort. This is especially true in my world where I am regularly juggling roles, hats, responsibilities and clients. As much as I would love to have huge swaths of time to undertake my work, it’s unlikely. Therefore, focused burst of work, coupled with #2, help me (and the business) keep moving! #2 – Be clear on the top 3 – 5 goals for the day, week and month. My world was the world of contingency planning on steroids, so being clear on what top 3 or 4 to-dos were for the day, or the week, or the month, created a powerful anchor to planning, and also feeling satisfied when EVERYTHING on the list did not get done (which was almost every day). What are your top 3-5 goals TODAY? This week? This quarter? Do you review these regularly throughout the week/month/quarter and adjust accordingly? Best, Jennifer Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday or Thursday here. Be sure to like our page to be updated each week! Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013) Welcome to Q2! What are your top 3-5 priorities this quarter? Where do you have them enshrined or written down? Have you completed your Quarterly Planning Pages? (found on pages 139-148 of PlanDoTrack) As we step into a new month, it is time for a new focus. On Mondays here at the PlanDoTrack blog I will be shifting my focus for the next two months to more of a focus on virtual teams. Whether you are an entrepreneur working with an extended team, or a corporate employee leading a remote team, you’ll find these next 2 months of posts useful. This month also marks the start of our 15th Year Celebrations. It is hard to believe but it was 15 years ago that I founded Potentials Realized. I returned back to Canada on April 1st, 2004, after having spent most of the 90s and early 2000s working across Central and South America, the Caribbean and Europe. An eye infection “gone bad” led to permanent vision impairment in one of my eyes, a significant factor in bringing me “back home to Canada”. While it’s easy to say now that everything turned out well, one of the reasons I’ve shaped such a virtual business has been in part to circumvent my limitations, as much as possible! I am thankful that technology has made the team support even easier today than it was 15 years ago, turning this into a very viable business model. I hope that you will join us throughout the next 12 months for monthly celebrations. I’ll be sharing different case studies of the work accomplished, and each month will have a different spotlight. You can download the 15th anniversary calendar here. And stay tuned at the PlanDoTrack Facebook page for announcements! Now onward to our April Focus….. The focus in April will be around virtual teams and on-boarding new members. In the virtual space, investing time in welcoming and on-boarding new team members is a very important function. This month I’ll be sharing a variety of posts to support virtual teams with the on-boarding process. It’s likely that you may not have a formalized process, or there may be one that is more geared to in-person work. I’ll be referring back to a number of Teams365 posts I have offered in the past, so if you have not yet found that resource, be sure to check out this sibling blog geared for leaders, team members and others over at my main site – Potentials Realized. Best, 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 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 Week 12 Focus – Systems Focus Question: What are the tasks and activities which need to appear seamless in your work, like the same person is doing it, whether the task is completed in Toronto, Las Vegas, London, Auckland, or Shanghai? Description Systems help us scale a business, reducing the time to do things, ensuring tasks are done consistently, and enabling us to accrue information so we can learn, and pass on to others as our team grows. In growing a virtual or coaching business there are five key areas which can be important to focus on. This is an area we continue exploring at both the Teams365 Leadership Lab (for virtual and remote professionals) the Coaching Biz Growth Lab (an annual group focused on coaching business development). If you are a remote or virtual worker, as the team context becomes more fluid with people becoming part of matrix teams where things may be one differently, systems create clarity and efficiency. They also help to capture key institutional learning as organizations grow, making it easier for people to step into roles that others once held. As a business, systems help us automate and scale, reducing the time to complete tasks that may not require as much effort. Common areas which entrepreneurial businesses or virtual workers may find a focus on are:
Activity Review the systems you have available to you in your business or work. What helps streamline? Ensure consistency? Allow you to scale? What are the areas you want to focus more around? Who can help you build your toolkit in these areas? Connection to the Workbook and Planner Refer to Section 3 in the Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack for more on systems. 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 “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 Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday or Thursday here. Be sure to like our page to be updated each week! Author of PlanDoTrack (2019), Effective Virtual Conversations (2017) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013) One of the favorite things I enjoy about the PlanDoTrack and Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planners are the Trackers. I’ve included 12 sets of Monthly Daily Trackers in each publication, so that you can track the most important elements in your work (and life) over the course of a year. Making things visible, and intentionally tracking items, can provide valuable information and data. This can help us with our decision making, and prioritizing. Remote Workers might be tracking:
Virtual Businesses might track:
What are the elements you are tracking? Best wishes, 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 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 planning hack gets you to consider how you can use color coding to support organization and focus. One of the challenges in today’s work is an overload of data. It is said that “color is one of the first things we take in when looking at an image.” Using color to help sort through the myriad of emails, files and to-dos can create a quick sort. This may help us do things faster and also not feel the “cognitive load” of tasks as much. Consider how you might use color to:
To denote different tasks in my monthly daily tracker, the colors say much more than numbers would. Different colored folders for different tasks and projects – Client files are purple, Writing files are usually blue, Speaking files are yellow, Financial files are red. What could you do with color to help you with your organizing and planning? Best wishes, 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 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 Leveraging our time is as much about getting organized, as it is getting clear on what’s important. Against the backdrop of complexity, ongoing change and disruption, getting ruthless with our time management can be so important to many. As a business owner, or remote worker, this is especially true. We can’t get our time back. So, when we go down a rabbit hole (whether it’s doing too much research online, following a shiny red object or thinking we just need to learn “one more thing”), the costs can be tremendous. Not just in NOT getting things done, but in terms of our focus, our motivation and also our profit line! Discernment is about getting clear on what’s important and what’s not. It is about being clear of what’s going to provide impact now, later or never. As a remote worker or virtual business owner, we are do often have greater control over our time. Our colleagues and/or superiors may be hundreds of miles away, or several time zones ahead. As remote workers, it’s not always about how we manage our time, but how we get our results. Those who feel the crunch in getting something over the finish line is usually only us (and those loved ones around us!). With this in mind, what is the cost of not being discerning around where your time goes, or how clear your projects are, or what is a more important priority than another? As we embark on new projects, or start a new week, it can be useful to ask ourselves, and our stakeholders:
What questions do you want to ask as you decide one priority to another? Let us know using the comments below! 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 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 |
AuthorJennifer Britton is the blogger behind the popular Teams365 blog, a daily,blog for team leaders and members since 2014. Her latest publication is the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner. Pick up a copy at Amazon. Pick Up a CopyUpcoming Programs
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