It’s easy to hold all of our ideas as mental notes, but we are far, far more likely to achieve our goals if they’re written down and reviewed regularly, with the actions added to our weekly to-do list.

Initially plotting of the steps needed to achieve our goals becomes much easier if we use a GANTT chart. Time periods can be broken down into weekly blocks, spanning over 13 weeks. Once we have the weekly goals / actions, they can be added to our to-do list and assimilated into our normal workload, rather than feeling like ‘extra’ work.

The trick is to achieving targets is to make the actions bite-sized – too much at once and it can feel overwhelming, let alone trying to find the actual time for strategising, research and then actually planning and following through in a short space of time. I’ve fallen into the trap myself, so I appreciate that going slowly may feel frustrating, but its better than staying static and you can always accelerate your plans if you find you have more time.

Managing time is the hardest part of being self employed; it’s so easy to get caught up in working in the business instead of on it, especially if you are the only person in your business. To help support effective time management, try a weekly diary template to help control how and where you spend your time. You’ll soon be able to see where any time drains are and it will also allow you to build in some time for strategic business planning, without having to do it out of hours. For a really great breakdown of how you’re spending your time, you can use a time tracking tool. There’s plenty of free software that can do this and it will allow you to see exactly where your time goes. Even if all of it is spent very effectively and you’re not falling prey to youtube, facebook or such-like, perhaps it will highlight tasks that you can outsource to someone cost-effective whilst you carry out other, more profitable work.

Regardless of the business size, its easy to get stressed and distracted when you’re worrying about clients, money, suppliers and / or your employees, so taking care of yourself is an absolute priority. This means eating, relaxing and sleeping well and having lunch at roughly the same time every day – we’re all very busy people and this will help keep your energy levels up by not letting your blood sugar drop too much.

It may also mean calling for expert help at the right time. While you don’t want to be spending money on external advice all the time, it is important to recognise that a well-timed call or email to the right person may save a lot of money and worry.

It sounds simple, but simple is rarely easy. Try planning your goals over the next 13 weeks and see how many you can achieve. Most people find their original plan needs tweaking to be more realistic, but it’s better than not planning at all.

“Failing to plan, is planning to fail.” Benjamin Franklin

So, think about what motivates you and as Stephen Covey says,
“Start with the end in mind.” Use whatever you are passionate about – and this may change over time – to really motivate you.

Benjamin Franklin and Stephen Covey are time management experts, who have helped countless companies and individuals through their work, but my favourite quote comes from a different workplace time management expert. Most people who are self employed enjoy it for the sense of freedom and control it gives them, so remember,
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Peter Drucker