“When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few, if any of us, can write one thought and think another at a time. Thus, a pencil and paper make excellent concentration tools.” – Michael LeBoeuf

How much are you keeping in your head? What is the cost of keeping too many ideas only up in the head and not captured somewhere? Many of us walk around all day trying to keep things in our head. What are the things you want to be capturing on paper or in an app?

Capture it before it flies away. How many times did you think of something great but didn’t capture it, and couldn’t remember it hour later?

We have limited capacity in terms of what we can carry in our brains, especially in short term memory. Have you heard of the 7 + or – 2 rule? That’s about how much our brains can remember at any given time, hence one of the reasons why phone numbers are only 7 digits in length.

It can be valuable to make our thoughts visible so you can keep it in focus and be reminded of it. In coaching, I usually encourage my clients to decide how they want to keep it visible. This might include a note on a whiteboard, a To Do list on their phone, a note in a journal or a file that on their computer.

Why write it down?
There are many reasons to write things down including the fact that:

• Once we have things written down, especially when it’s all in one place, we may be able to see new patterns and connections, sparking new ideas. 
• Get the little things out of your mind. Like cobwebs, this can start to muddle things up.
• Articulating issues, whether writing or speaking, helps us gain clarity and work through issues.
• Writing it out can help you see connections or clearly put language around something.

What are you going to capture on paper, or computer, today? How are you going to do that?

Enjoy your writing!
​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 34 Focus – Systems in The Business
Focus Question: What’s working and what’s not as it relates to your systems?

Story
Systems help us to replicate things on a consistent basis. They also help us to:

• Scale business
• Be more efficient rather than having to reinvent the wheel multiple times
• Organize – so things take less time

Think about your work, whether you are an entrepreneur, leader or team member. My guess is that you already have a variety of systems in place to help you do things, and that there’s room for growth. Throughout the Coaching Business Builder and PlanDoTrack I cover a variety of systems.
 
Consider these systems for your business:

Activity
Note what’s worked and what hasn’t around the different systems in your work or business.
Do an audit on your systems. Consider:

• Systems to be created
• Systems which are working
• Systems being used in other organizations/parts of the organization which could be adopted
• Best practices around systems in your business

Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Refer to part 3 of the book and what is noted around systems. Part of doing a review is noting metrics and trends. Take a look back at your notes. What do you notice?

​You may want to:
Review the Annual Planners and Quarterly Tools
Review the Monthly Daily Planners – what do you notice?
Use brainstorm lists to capture these ideas around 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

Week 32 Focus – One Percent Rule to Business Development
Focus Question: What are the consistent daily steps you want to undertake?
​
Description
Since 2005 I have been sharing what I call the One Percent Rule to Business Development. I've heard from a lot of entrepreneurs that they like this notion of incremental business action. So here it is!
The 1% rule to business development consists of a series of 8 different stages:
1. Create the Vision: Our vision sets the broad swath of possibility. It gets us thinking about what is possible. It also helps to anchor us when we think about where we want to go and what we want to do. Making our vision detailed and keeping it visible can be important. How are you enshrining your vision?
2. Prepare. During the preparation phase we want to get clear on what the requirements are for our work and projects. We want to know what a successful result looks like. We want to be clear on what resourcing is needed. During the preparation phase we will gather all the information we have so we can pull together a plan.
3. Create an action plan. In my work as a coach, I usually get my clients to create a One-Page Action Plan. The value of the One-Page Plan is that it contains all of the most important information in one page. The One-Pager be placed in a visual location so that you can refer to it quickly AND regularly. What’s on your action plan?
4. Seek out support. What is going to help you achieve the key goals you have set out for yourself? Support can take many forms – financial, technical, people. What do you need to be successful?
5. Take ongoing small steps. As my father, a retired entrepreneur himself, always reminds me that “Rome was not built in a day”. The premise behind the workbook planners is about taking REGULAR, CONSISTENT action. In building a business by ourselves burnout may be a possibility if we move too fast. It can be important to take regular small steps to create the momentum needed for things done quickly.
6. Test, Learn, Retest. In the sixth step were going to test things out. Today's volatility and complexity requires that we experiment regularly.  With the data we receive from the initial test or action we can learn and apply then retest and learn again. This is an iterative process which continues. Throughout the business cycle we may move through different bouts of experimentation. Each cycle creates an opportunity for learning and growth.
7. Learn, Iterate and Act. Each action creates a reaction, which over time creates its own momentum, making it easier to achieve the goal. Along the way learning and feedback will help to shape what we do.
8. Ultimately our goal is achieved. Based on our experience we will further refine the vision that we set out for ourselves, expanding it or modifying it based on our experience. This will further support and shape our actions are we move forward with the next cycle and process.
This cycle may take place in a short amount of time, for example a day or it may be phased over the longer term of a project.
 
Activity
Using your business or a current project, work through the One Percent Rule. What can action and learning look like around one of your most important goals? Map out the 8 steps of the One Percent Rule.

​Connection to the Workbook and Planner
Refer to the One Percent Rule to Business in Section 1 on page 29 of the Coaching Business Builder, or page 31 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
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 invites you to think about decluttering your digital landscape (or even starting afresh).
​
Recently, decluttering has been a popular topic in everyday lifestyle arenas. From Marie Kondo’s philosophy of “Does it bring you joy?”, to Gretchen Rubin’s focus on “Outer Order, Inner Calm” (the same name as her newest book), we may also want to take a look at our digital landscape, where many of us spend a bulk of our time.
​
Take a look at your digital landscape (which may include phones and computers, and tablets, and hard drives). Ask yourself:

• What is working well?
• What aren’t you using?
• What can be removed?
• What needs to be backed up? After that back up – what do you want to keep? Archive? Spotlight?
• What needs to be deleted?
• What do you need to unsubscribe from?
• What is your vision of a truly satisfying digital landscape on the different devices you own?
• What would minimizing look like for you in terms of devices and content?

Earlier this year I spent some time exploring this topic with a group of business owners. The topic of digital clutter was causing significant angst for several group members, impeding their ability to get work done.

On a scale of 1-10, how important is this topic for you right now?
​
What is the time window you are going to allocate to focus on it?

When will you get it done?

Best of luck!
​Jennifer

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

In this week’s Weekly Planning Hack, I’m exploring some of the varied apps that are available to support you in time management. Many of us have periods where everything is digital. This may be your daily practice OR it may be the way you do things while traveling or on the road for work.

Apps around time management can support many functions including:

• Project Management
• Time Tracking – where your time is going
• Calendaring
• Scheduling
• Contents
• Invoicing
• Learning

Let’s take a look at some of the options under these umbrellas:

Project Management – Two of my favorite project management apps are Trello and Asana. While a little different in focus and look, they are both mobile and desk top friendly. I find I use Trello more for writing and creative projects like program design, while turning to Asana for projects that require collaboration.

Time Tracking – One of the first Weekly Planning Hacks here was around the Pomdoro Technique, a time management function where you use alarms and burst of work. Note what you have available to you through your phone and dedicated apps to track your time through bursts of focus.
There is also an opportunity to track your time through a multitude of apps such as Toggl, Timeline, Tsheets and many others. What do you use? Let us know in the comments below what you use and what you like about it?
 
Learning Apps – As an educator in both formal and informal contexts for many years, there are so many great ways to take “learning with you”. From podcasts to on-demand video-based courses. 

One of the applications I use with my clients is Teachable. You’ll note the Teams365 series of programming continues to grow in scope. The Teams365 Teamwork Foundations course has been joined this year by the 19 Productivity Tips and Time Management program. Having been involved in creating both corporate and public programming for many years I know how valuable it is for students to be able to learn in this flexible format. While it’s not for everyone, when there ‘s an urgent need, nothing beats taking a quick on-demand program.

Invoicing – for those involved in running a business, invoicing and financial apps are critical to keeping a business running and doors open. From PayPal to Quick books, along with other tracking systems, it makes it easy to receive and send money at the press of a button.
 
As you may have noticed, I did not touch on all of these and will be covering some of them in future posts. Stay tuned next week for Time Tracking and Time Tracker Apps.

Best wishes,
Jennifer

​Jennifer Britton - Potentials Realized
Check out the Weekly Planning Hack Facebook Live each Wednesday  here.
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)
Just announced - July's Facilitator Training for PlanDoTrack and the Coaching Business Builder. Are you interested incorporating these resources into your own work. Help me bring the resource out to 20,000 virtual entrepreneurs, remote workers and team leaders by 2020! Early bird rate on to June 21st.

This month's PlanDoTrack Virtual Book Club call focuses in on five virtual business systems which help to create consistency, replication and scalability for virtual and remote businesses, and teams.
Join me as I cover 5 core business systems you will want to explore with your own niche in mind. This call runs for 30 minutes and is one of the monthly Virtual Book Club calls for PlanDoTrack and the Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planners.

Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPCC
Potentials Realized
The next PlanDoTrack Virtual Retreat happens this Thursday May 30th between 10 - 2 pm ET. If you are a solopreneur and are looking for a structured process to do some business planing, consider joining us. Click here to learn more and register.
Phone: 416-996-8326
Check out the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series of daily prompts for your work and business over on  Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder.

​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:

• Invoicing (particularly installment payments and other)
• Subscriptions
• Newsletter distribution
• Content creation and distribution
• Video production

What else can get automated in your business?

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

• Who can help you do this?
• What will it take them to set it up?
• What will automation look like?

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

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:

• Sales and Marketing – Promotion
• Customer and Client Supports
• Registration and Onboarding
• Financial – Budgeting
• Communication 

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