As a Mompreneur, planning is essential for the productivity and structure that is required for a successful business and a happy family. Therefore, your planning process must embody that structure. Here is the planning process that I follow to ensure I remain consistent, structured and productive.
Set The Stage
You have to set the stage for your planning. Get a clean quiet space. When your space is cluttered, and you know you don’t have a free mind, planning will be very difficult and it would not be as effective. My office space at home is always clean. I don’t allow my children to enter unless it’s absolutely necessary. I love to keep this space clean so that I can think, write and just be focused. Take a moment and exhale. Set your intentions in your mind. Gather your tools and let’s go to the next step.
Do a Brain Dump
This is where you just dump all of the ideas, dates and important stuff in your planner. Everything that you can think of at the top of your head should go in the planner. Start with birthdays, anniversaries and other milestone dates. Take a day to do that. For us mompreneurs, there are many different important areas in our lives that we can record.
Set a Date
I suggest you start monthly on the last Saturday or Sunday of the previous month. So if you are entering January, then you should plan on the last Saturday or Sunday of December. Start reviewing your goals from the previous period.
Start writing some goals in your notes section. Look over your calendar and see if all those important meetings and dates from that brain dump are accounted for. If you are using this planner as a tool to help you to remain more consistent, then you don’t want to have important dates like your anniversary or your child’s birthday missing.
List bigger projects first.
Eat the Elephant
The best way to eat an elephant is to start with one small bite. When you think about the time it takes to plan, it may seem so overwhelming. Planning should not be overwhelming, so we are taking it one step at a time.
Start with your year, then you can come down to your quarter, then your month, and then your week. So you break it down. Try to plan these different areas according to their name. So, what I mean is to do your yearly planning at least the month before the year ends. The same with your quarterly, monthly and weekly planning.
Be as specific as possible. The more you get clear on exactly what needs to be done, the better it will be for you because it would remove the extra brain work for you.
Rearrange things until you are comfortable. Don’t go setting these huge goals that you cannot accomplish. Be mindful of what you can handle.
Remove Distractions
Whatever we write in our planner is more likely to happen than something we type into our computer. There is a certain type of exchange that takes place when we write. Try not to use technology when you start planning. Our phones and our computers tend to distract us in a major way. Plan in a quiet environment that is tech free. Someone can call you in the middle of planning, then an email comes in, and you are just going to jump to that
Too. Then you will want to reply to that email, and then it ends up being a call that you have to make from that email and………………. you know how it goes right? You may forget that you are planning in the first place!
Take the time to think about what you want to achieve; what you want for your life, for your business, for your family, relationships or your finances.
Actually USE It!
Go the extra mile and give yourself some colour therapy. Make your planner colorful. Use the tools that I gave in my previous blog. Some love to buy a planner and then say, “Oh my gosh, it’s so pretty!”, and don’t use it. But your planner is here to be used! Keep it where you can see it. This is the only way that you are going to use it daily or more often. When it is out of sight and tucked away you may forget that you have a planner. You’ll be powerful when there are intentional goals that are actually written within.
Write EVERYTHING Down
You should always write anything that comes to your mind in your things that you have to do, that sometimes you think you will remember, but after a while you may forget all the tasks you had to perform. If someone calls you with a note or number to write down, you are more likely to remember when and where you wrote it. You will even recall exactly which side of the page you wrote it. Remember, your planner is not your phone or Google Calendar. It is not going to automatically remind you of things that are that you wrote.
Make Planning Fun
Have fun with it. Don’t make it a task that becomes so regimental that you resent using it. Use colors, highlighters and stickers. Use different things that inspire you and make it a book full of passion, dreams, vision and goals.
“Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about sticking with that plan”.
My very own planner is for mompreneurs called The Ultimate Mompreneur Planner. It is your essential partner for planning your eventful life and successful business in 2021. The planner is undated and tabbed. It will help you to plan and review your weekly, monthly, quarterly and your yearly goals. You can get your copy HERE.
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