Long after some people have bailed on their 2017 New Year’s Resolutions, the rest of us are still plodding along in our attempts to reach our 2017 goals. Many of us, myself included, spent long hours in early January figuring them all out. We sat through webinars and read books to help us get it all figured out.
I listened to several webinars and finished reading The 12 Week Year, which I had started in late December. That book helped me to really nail down a shorter time frame, as well as keeping some long-term goals in mind.
So here are my goals for January and how I did with them. I’d love to hear about yours!
- Goal: Buy a new fitness tracker (my old one got lost) – Actual: Not yet, but I’m ordering it today!
- Goal: Walk or hike 10 miles per week in January for a total of at least 40 miles. – Actual: I came in at 25 miles for the month. I knew the weather could interfere and it did! No treadmill, so I’m at the mercy of the temperature and ice/snow/rain. Let’s just say it was a cold wet month! But I don’t think I’ve ever walked 25 miles in a month before! I’m pleased. 🙂
- Goal: Do a Beachbody workout at least 4 times per week. Result: I slacked in this area a little, I’m ashamed to say. I probably averaged 2.
- Goal: Drink Shakeology daily. Actual: Every. Single. Day! And sometimes twice a day. 🙂
- Goal: To eat cleaner (I had specific measurements that are too numerous to list here). Actual: Pretty close to spot on!
- Goal: Launch my new Plus Size Health and Happiness website. Actual: Its launched! Its not finished being built, but it exists and has an opt in on the home page. 🙂
- Goal: To be an emerald level coach with BeachBody. Actual: Didn’t happen (yet).
- Goal: Buy a new hosting account and move my websites to it, and my old hosting accounts. Actual: Done, done and done! Moved from GoDaddy and 1&1 to SiteGround. Yay!
- Goal: Blog 1x per week. Actual: I think I blogged twice after getting my hosting and sites moved/set up.
- Goal: Plan and implement daily recruiting habits. Actual: Took me till the end of the month to get over my fear, but this has been set in motion.
- Goal: Plan and begin process of launching my May virtual summit. Actual: Its in my head and somewhat on paper. This is non-negotiable for the next week, though!
- Goal and Actual: I’ll keep the actual numbers to myself, but I had an income goal for the next 12 weeks, and I have 52% of that already paid or contracted through that time frame.
- Goal: To book 8 virtual summits (in addition to mine) in 2016. I had no time frame on this, and it was impossible to break down into a 12 week goal, so I left it at a year goal…realistically the first half of the year to have them booked (but not necessarily completed) by. Actual: I have booked 5 summits so far for 2017, not including the February one I was already working on last year, and am in talks with someone for another. Plus I have my 2 summits scheduled for May and August.
- Goal: To actually pay all the bills (utilities, etc) in the given month on time. Actual: Came closer than usual! Have a few that are late though.
- Goal: Pay down (extra) on some specific debts. Actual: Not yet.
- Goal: Emergency fund. Actual: Sigh…not yet.
So I guess I did pretty good overall. I certainly feel like I achieved alot. I think goals should be set a little higher than is comfortable/assured anyway. So not reaching them 100% is ok by me, as long as I put steps in place and got at least a little bit of the way there.
Finally I have a major accomplishment that wasn’t even a goal of mine early on. Or if it was, it didn’t have an actual FORM yet, but was just caught up in a notion to get better organized. Step 1 that led to it was the goal planning and working towards those goals. During the last week of January, I suddenly had an epiphany. Now mind you, it wasn’t something that I just magically though up on my own. It was instead all sorts of advice I had heard or read over the last few years that suddenly solidified and fell into place in my head while I was on a long walk one day. It was truly a light bulb moment, or rather the moment that light bulb switch that’s always been there in the dark room is actually flipped! 🙂
I realized that I needed to schedule every minute of my day, not just create a to-do list and my early morning activities and then still be bumped from one thing to the next based on emails, texts and Skype messages. I came home from that walk and sat down and planned it all out over the next few hours. I immediately started to implement it the next day. Its only been a few days, as of this writing, and while there are kinks and I’ve had to move some times around (and can still see more that need moved), its certainly been helpful to me to feel more in control.
The funny thing was that the next day I was listening to the Marketing in Your Car podcast by Russell Brunson and he said the exact same thing! It was one of the early podcasts, probably in the first 5 of them. But I was surprised at the timing of when I heard it.
So now I have a daily schedule (and alarms set on my phone to remind me of when to switch activities) that goes something like this:
- 4:30 am (YES…that’s right! 4:30 in the morning!): Wake up and read personal/professional development.
- 5:00 am: Work on social media marketing and recruiting.
- 6:00 am: Plus Size Health and Happiness biz stuff (at this time that is mostly blogging or working on the website).
- 6:30 am (school days): Take out the dogs and start the task of waking up my 10 year old and prodding him to get ready for school, and getting him to the bus stop on time. I check/mass delete emails from my phone during any down time I have during this time frame. On non-school days I will still take out the dogs when they need to be taken out, but I’ll spend more time on my PSHH biz or other misc things that need taken care of.
- 7:20 (or whenever I get back from the bus): Workout. This is usually a short walk with the dog followed by another workout OR a long walk with the dog. I also listen to a podcast or audiobook at this time.
- After my workout: Fix a Shakeology for myself and hubby, check and delete or respond to emails, shower, etc.
- 8:30: Work on Client A’s projects (This spot is owned by the next client’s summit that’s launching.)
- 9:30: Work on Client B’s project
- 10:00: Snack and check emails
- 10:15: Work on Client C’s project
- 10:45: Work on Client D’s project (this spot belongs to a project that is requiring more time per day than some of the others)
- 11:45: Work on Client E’s project
- 12:15: Lunch and check emails
- 12:30: Work on Client F’s projects (this one varies in length and need by the week, and if needed it bleeds into the next time frame)
- 1:00: Work on Misc projects
- 2:00: Work on my upcoming summit
- 3:25: Retrieve my son from school, followed by a snack, rest, spending time with him, checking emails, etc.
- 4:00: Start on supper
- 4:15 (or whenever I am done with the initial supper prep): Work more on my summit and continue this in between checking on supper, followed by eating supper.
- 6:30 (or after supper and son’s homework): Work on Misc if needed.
- 8:00: Start getting ready for bedtime.
So I am proud to say that I have stuck well to the schedule every day up until about the 10 am point. That’s when things tend to slip and I get off track. But that’s also because I’m still playing catch up on projects from when I was NOT so organized. I think things will fall into place over the coming week or so. I’ve already completed things this week that I would have normally been scrambling to complete.
Now, it needs some tweaking at times, but I’m certainly keeping it flexible. Some days I have to run errands or spend more time on one project or another. But once I really have this worked out and flowing well, I should have far less stress and zero missed deadlines. It will be a win-win for both me and my clients and will result in praises and increased income.
I’d love to hear if this as inspired you or what your goals and daily schedule looks like. Leave a comment below or even send me a message.