Planning and Prioritization are really the Dynamic Duo of Managing Overwhelm. But you can’t really do either without knowing where you are going. That’s why about 25% of the responses related to planning were focused on Knowing the Destination.
We touched on goals in the previous post on Priorities and I’ll slide another PSA in here:
Unless you’re crystal clear on your business goal(s) Overhwelm is not going away anytime soon.
So let’s dive into two ways we can use planning to find some calm in the entrepreneurial chaos.
About 50% of the “Plan” recommendations were about focusing on a particular time frame – quarterly, monthly, daily etc. I gathered all these together under a strategy called Zoom Out & Zoom In. We’re going to use the Zooming strategy together with the Write Everything Down strategy to see how we might think about planning to meet a major goal. Given that I’ve been trapped by COVID for almost a year, today’s example is going to be travel related.
Step 1: Get clear on a specific destination (goal).
I want to visit Denali National Park in Alaska for a week. That would be like a business goal of I want to increase revenue by 25% by getting three new clients at $X. Notice my goal was not I want to go to a national park or I want to go to Alaska. That’s too vague.
Pro tip: How do you know if your goal is specific enough? Try visualizing it. It’s hard to randomly visualize Alaska – it’s huge! But it’s easy to visualize Denali National Park.
Step 2: Zoom Out and Write It All Down.
Write everything you can think of down. Every single thing you need to do or figure out before you get on the plane. Some of the things that might be on the list: hat, hikes, flights, cruises, resorts, when is the best time of year to go, hotels, things to do with kids, sunscreen, hiking shoes, wetsuit, etc.
Pro tip: I like to do this part electronically because I can just cut and paste when it comes to organizing my thoughts. But you do you.
Step 3: Zoom Part Way In. Organize it into projects.
Now that you’ve dumped all your thoughts out of your brain, you can group related items into projects. Each project should have an answer associated with it – basically what you want to know at the end of the project.
Your project list might look like this:
Project 1: Research: best times to go, weather, hotels, activities, flights, cost. Outcome: Pick vacation dates
Project 2: Book Big Items: flights, hotels, key activities Outcome: Confirmed reservations
Project 3: Create lists: packing, pet care while we’re gone, great hikes etc. Outcome: Lists of actions to take or delegate
Step 4: Zoom All the Way In. Prioritize and Put it On the Calendar
The first thing I need to do is fill in the details about when I’m going. So I’m going to start researching as soon as I can. I have some free time Saturday afternoon so I’ll set aside a few hours to work on this. If I don’t finish all my research on Saturday, I’ll look for another block of time until I’ve figured out the best time to visit. Then based on what I learn from my research, I’ll move on to project 2, again setting aside several hours to work on it. The timing of project 2 – booking will likely be determined by how far out I am from the travel dates. And finally, I’ll work though project 3 about 2-3 weeks before we leave.
Since this is a personal project and I’m doing it on the weekend, I don’t have to worry too much about things getting scheduled on top of it. But if it were a work project, I’d schedule a two hour block on my calendar so I’d be free to really focus on all the aspects of my trip and make well thought out decisions.
Now the planning associated with travel is pretty personal. Some people just like to throw some things in a bag and work the rest out when the plane lands. While that can add to the adventure with travel, it only adds to the stress if that’s how you’re running your business.
One of the most likely reasons you’re overwhelmed is that you have things on your list like Start a Podcast or Create a Website. You don’t know what to do first. You don’t have a good idea of how big the project is. You think about it in small pockets of time between phone calls. (am I getting warm?) And it doesn’t get done.
If this big thing is important to your business – if it’s a key initiative that gets you closer to your business goal, then you need to set aside a solid block of uninterrupted time so you can think through it. Once you get a handle on what you’re trying to accomplish, you might decide it doesn’t belong on the list at all. Or if it still makes sense, you’ll have a better idea of how long it will take, what’s involved and how you might break it down into smaller pieces so you can get it done.
MORE MORE MORE:
- Plan is Part 3 in our series The 6 Skill Sets and 2 Mindsets You Need to Manage Entrepreneurial Overwhelm
- If you don’t want to add checking this site to The List, you can get new insights in The Next Leap delivered to your inbox.
Photo credits:
https://unsplash.com/s/photos/debby-hudson
