Becoming efficient in your daily activities is vital to taking your business to the next level. To accomplish this, we must create the proper behaviors that positively impact our minds and create success habits that we can build on. In previous posts, I’ve discussed identifying and completing priorities and setting long-term goals. This week, we link those strategies with daily behaviors.
While these behaviors are meant to be done each day, the worksheet is meant to be filled in weekly. Since these behaviors are something we will repeat each day, we want them to stay as consistent as possible. So, we develop a daily routine that we can tweak each week based on our goals and progress.
I highly encourage you to find an accountability partner to keep you on track. That person does not need to be doing these worksheets themselves, although that would help. The main goal is to have a discussion about your progress and get feedback to improve moving forward.
This sheet has three major sections. The top is dedicated to the overall goals for the week. The middle area is to help identify behaviors that need are hindering your progress. We also want to develop a routine of self-care. Finally, the bottom part addresses the routine, vital behaviors that need to happen every week to move your overall goals forward.
List Your Weekly Goals
Each week, you should list the weekly goals that come from your six-month goal sheet. These are the main things that you need to accomplish that fall outside of your daily routine behaviors but inside of the allotted time for your priorities. Your daily priorities on your daily worksheet should directly push these weekly priorities to completion.
Optimal Times
You should have your most productive time of the day blocked off and reserved for your daily priorities. This time should be when you are most efficient and least likely to be bothered. Try to block off an hour, if possible, for your most important daily tasks.
Most importantly, make these times the same every day. To develop a good habit, you should always develop a standard daily schedule. You can tweak as necessary but the best results come from repetition. Be intentional with your day. If a conflict arises, adjust as necessary, and get back to the routine tomorrow.
To avoid future issues, I like to schedule this time on my Outlook calendar beforehand as “Priority Time”. I then fill in the specific task information as I identify it. This allows my staff to know my schedule and reminds me of my goals when I become sidetracked.
Behavior to Stop
Each week, I try to think back to the previous week’s progress and identify what slowed me down. Was it a momentary, one-time issue? Or, was it a recurring problem that I can avoid? Did I cause it through a behavior that I have?
Reflect on your successes and failures from the previous week and strive to improve.
When I Feel Discouraged
Life happens. We all get discouraged, fail, or get in a bad mood. Not matter what, those feelings cannot derail us from achieving our goals. By filling in this section, you are mentally preparing for that inevitable moment so that, when it occurs, you can get back on track as soon as possible.
“Me” and “Our” Time
So many times, we intend to call someone, go out to dinner, or spend some quality quiet time alone. Only to have it never happen because we are “too busy”. We must schedule this time and make it happen.
“Me” time can be a ten-minute meditation in the morning. It may be time reading a book. Whatever your “me” time is, be sure to take care of yourself and make it happen.
Strong relationships have a positive impact on our results. Making sure that we make the time for the important people in our lives has a lasting impact on us and them. Friends and significant others make getting through tough times easier. Our successes are also that much more valuable as we share them with others.
The Behavior Wheel
This is the area where we note our most important behaviors that need to happen to drive your business forward. These behaviors should change very little over time except to adjust them based on results.
Identify five areas of your life and business where you most need to perform regular actions. It may be developing coaches, social media marketing, personal growth, or another area. The outer ring is for leading behaviors and activities. The middle ring is the result and activity that comes from the previous ring. Finally, the inner ring is the ultimate goal result that we expect.
You may even create a behavior wheel for each specific activity. For instance, you may create one for Facebook activity. You can have 4 sections, such as: posts, videos, group posts, and live sessions. You would then fill in the results you expect or strive for as you take each action.
The goal is to see how your behaviors turn into tangible results. If you keep “working the wheel”, you have no place to go but forward.
The Results
In order to move your business forward, you need to develop success routines and habits. If you truly wish to gain more success, you must find and perform your basic behaviors consistently and increase the efficiency in which you do so.
Find your effective behaviors and ingrain them into your day. Improve your process. Success will follow.