Time Management

1st month of 2017 is in the books…how are your goals?

Kim · February 1, 2017 · Leave a Comment

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.

What’s your morning routine?

Kim · April 7, 2016 · Leave a Comment

I have always believed in the old mantra “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man (or woman!) healthy, wealthy and wise.” Its been what I repeatedly told myself when, a few years ago, I decided that rising at 3 or 4 am would be the smart thing to do. And I did it for some time. During that year or so I didn’t have the best morning routine, other than getting up early, but I did it and it really increased my business exponentially.

And then I got lazy. I got tired. I got unfocused. I even got depressed. And during all of that, things really went haywire for me. What had started to become a booming business, suddenly became something that overwhelmed me, contributed to the exhaustion, which contributed to the depression, which contributed to the overwhelm…and around it went. And my clients started to disappear. Which didn’t help matters any either!

Last summer I started sleeping in. I did, however, find the motivation to make a major change in my life that really helped my depression and exhaustion, but it threw my routine (and money-situation) into a virtual tilt-a-whirl and took me some time to climb out of.

Fast forward to the late winter and early spring of this year (2016). I gradually renewed my determination to success in every area. I began a slow climb out of a major financial mess that I allowed to happen around me. (You know, this IS going to be a passage in one of those “back when I didn’t have two nickels to rub together…” stories, eventually. lol) I began to focus in on where my business was heading, how to be at the top of my business game, how to improve not only my business but myself.

And that includes focused training and reading. I took a course on premium packages for selling business services. I am taking a digital marketing certification course. I’ve read…alot…both normal reading and audio books. And we aren’t talking novels either.

In the last month things feel like they are starting to come together. I have been reading 6 Months to 6 Figures* by Peter Voogd. I fully intend to read it again, with pen and paper nearby, and slowly work through the exercises included. As it is, when I’m reading now (like at the park, a sporting event or sitting in a waiting room) I have to work through them just in my head. I started reading this book in late February, and at first wasn’t making much time to push through it. But when I did, it was a great read.

Its not just about making money. Its about changing your life. Its about building your business by reworking every aspect of your mindset and routine. Its about creating that freedom lifestyle that we all so deeply desire.

Here’s where the irony of it comes in…

Early last week I saw a post on Facebook by my friend Sunshine Boatright about the #5amClub. I thought, “ha…I do that!” although its been more like 6 am lately and only that because my little boy has to catch the bus a little after 7. I had to laugh at myself after realizing that it didn’t mean “get up before dawn and piddle around the house doing nothing of any real importance, and maybe check email and Facebook.” haha! I followed the hashtag through and figured out what the #5amClub actually is! (This video explains it best…)

So, now the funny part…back to that book I’ve been reading for a while. Turns out the author OFTEN quotes Robin Sharma…that’s the dude in the video above… and while he may not have originated the idea of the #5amClub, he sure has brought it into popular practice among the success-minded, entrepreneurial warriors of the world.

See how that circle came around? Gotta love it.

So what’s your morning routine? Are you a part of the #5amClub? If not, give it a try for a week or so. Or better yet, commit to it for 2 months! Get up, shake it off, drink some water, exercise (as much or as little as your current fitness level will allow), read something useful, delve into a training course you’ve been putting off and absolutely plan your day. If you are a Christian, I urge you to spend that post-workout time in the Word. (The workout time wakes you up and helps you to focus, that’s why I say do it after it.)

You can listen to music during your workout, or listen to a podcast or audio book. Some mornings I do Zumba to inspriational or Christian music, and other days I walk or do yoga-like stuff while listening to a spoken message of some kind.

Oh…and don’t forget to drink your water! That’s almost as important as the rest of it! If you want coffee, great, but please don’t start your day with it. Water is the lifeblood of your body and it is what truly will wake you up. At least a glass or two first thing! (Learned that bit of info from my friend JP Temple! Check out his work!)

I’ll keep you up to date on my #5amClub progress. I’d love to hear from you about yours! Leave a comment below. And if you are looking for support, you can find it in several of the links I left above.

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Some of the links in this blog are *affiliate links*.

Let’s Get ANTI-social! Remove distractions so you can get in your zone.

Kim · January 19, 2015 · 5 Comments

The 15 Day Freedom Blog Challenge for today is to block distractions! Wow, that’s a hard one. Let’s see…my biggest distractions are the husband, the kid, and the dog. I don’t think there’s an app for any of those distractions! LOL

I already use noise-cancelling headphones to get in my zone with Spotify. I spend my days working hard while jamming away to Lecrae, Toby Mac or the Newsboys usually. That helps to block out most of the distractions around me that I can’t otherwise control.

The dog needing to go outside is ok, because that forces me to take a break now and then. When he gets in a “let’s bark at everything” mood the headphones again save the day.

So the one big distraction for me that CAN be controlled beyond that is Facebook. I don’t know how many times I am truly in the zone and all of a sudden I realize I have just wasted 20 minutes on Facebook. Then I’ll stop and ask myself WHY was I even there? Sometimes I remember, sometimes I don’t. Usually its because I wanted to share something cool, or often because I needed to go to Facebook for a client, either to send a message or to log in as them or post something to their business page. Instead I spot the top item on my newsfeed, and I like it or comment on it or scroll down… well you know the rest of that story!

Hmm…so I can probably find a way to prevent myself going to Facebook at all. Heck, I could do like some folks and just delete my whole account. Lol But that’s not a very good solution when you work online, network with business people ON Facebook and manage dozens of FB business pages like I do! So I guess I should just schedule it all for specific times.

In Natalie’s day 4 video today she mentioned a couple of apps that will block access to social media sites for a set period of time that you decide. I am going to check those out.

1^st up is MacFreedom, which works on Windows and Android as well as a Mac. Looks like it blocks ALL of the internet. Well, that’s not going to work for me at all. So their site says Anti-Social does the same thing but only blocks out social media sites. That may just work!

What distractions keep you from being productive during the day? Even if you are like me and have managed to block out most of the distractions, there is likely still something. What is it and what are you going to do about it?