Time has been odd over the last year.
Weekends and weekdays blurred.
Annual events that normally would mark the passage of time were canceled or postponed to later in the year.
For a while, it was hard to forecast plans more than a few weeks or possibly a few months out.
Our time horizon got really short.
There was one way though that I was clear that time had passed.
My kids.
At the start of the pandemic, they were 2.25 and 4.25 years old.
They’ve grown up so much in the last year.
It feels like every three months they have new skills and new abilities.
The other thing that has helped me experience the passage of time was my quarterly goals.
As I have for years, I started 2020 with specific major and minor goals for Q1 and a sense of what I might work on later in the year.
All of that got disrupted in a big way, so I had to be a lot more nimble as I moved through 2020 trying out new ways of moving my business forward.
At the end of 2020, I made a decision to alter my quarterly goal setting – which was a big deal for me since quarterly goals have been so helpful for making big strides.
Starting in 2021, I switched from quarterly goals to 12-week sprints.
On the surface, that sounds like the same thing but the key difference is there are now 4 weeks in between each 12-week sprint.
Before, there was never any point during the year when I wasn’t supposed to be laser-focused on a set of goals.
There was never any space to figure out what adjustments had to be made to my business strategies because I was always just moving from one quarter to the next.
With this new system, I still create a strategic plan for what I want to accomplish in 12 weeks and do my best to push any new ideas to later in the year so I don’t get distracted.
The magic is that I now have downtime in between my 12-week sprints for reflection and assessment, rest and rejuvenation, learning and growth, and strategic planning.
I have been working with my systems and processes coach, Mary Williams, to help me make the most of April in between my sprints.
With her help, I feel focused and ready to kick off another 12-week sprint next week.
Your Challenge For This Week
Ready to try this out for yourself? This is how I used the downtime in between sprints:
Week 1 – spend some time on reflection and assessment to get clear on what happened in the last sprint.
How did you do with your sprint goals? What adjustments do you need to make to achieve any that you didn’t meet?
Week 2 – the focus is on rest and rejuvenation – in other words, take time off from work!
Week 3 – is for “just in case” learning – catch up on replays, podcasts, and other content that wasn’t highly relevant, aka “just in time” learning, during the sprint.
Week 4 – take what you learned from your assessment, from taking downtime, and from all that random but interesting content, and figure out your strategic goals for the next sprint.
Try this and let me know how it goes!
Business Growth Strategist & Business Coach
As a relationship-based business growth strategist, I work directly with a limited number of self-employed professionals, aka solopreneurs.
WHO YOU ARE:
You want to have a greater impact and increased income. The problem is that there are so many options for how to build your business that you can feel stuck, overwhelmed, and like you’re running out of time.
The reason options are overwhelming is that you’re looking at them as a series of disconnected steps, when to make the most of your time, you need a strategy that connects only the most important and highest impact ones.
You know that if you try to do everything, you’ll accomplish nothing. This means, to achieve your goal, you have to invest in a strategy to put time on your side.
What’s Included:
As a relationship-based business growth strategist, I will work with you to design a year-long plan that consists of three 12-week sprints, each followed by 4 weeks of reflection/assessment, rejuvenation/vacation, and strategic planning. This will allow you to sequence your goals, create momentum, and leverage your limited time.
We can build your plan through a half-day strategy session, a coaching engagement, or a mastermind program.
These are not right for everyone; they’re personalized offerings and are priced accordingly.
What might you work on?
In my coaching work with entrepreneurs and solopreneurs, we focus on the areas where you’d like to grow, which may include:
- Creating a strong sales conversation framework
- Building your referral network
- Lead generation through a relationships
- Growing your visibility in your industry
- Increasing your ability to attract the right kind of clients
- Identifying and launching a minimally viable offer
- Breaking through whatever bottleneck is holding you back from getting the results you want and deserve
- Becoming a published author and marketing your book successfully
- Improving your virtual presentation skills
Learn more about the different ways we can work together – deep dive 3-hour session, private 1:1 coaching, and masterminds. I’m excited to support you in reaching or exceeding your goals.
Stay Connected:
- Connect with me on LinkedIn to see the content I share.
- New to my website? Start here
- Listen to my On the Schmooze podcast – weekly since July 2016.
