Ah … the first day of school. It doesn’t matter how long it’s been since I’ve headed off to class the day after Labour Day, September still feels like the true beginning of the year. Everything is possible.
And although I can relive the beginning of the school vicariously through my son, I also use this time to start fresh myself. The summer is mostly over; the mornings are cooler, the leaves are starting to turn and I feel less of the urge to take off for a day at the beach.
And even though I begin each January with a new vision, goals and action plan for my business, I often also use the beginning of September as a time to take stock of where I am. Am I still on track or am I falling short? Are my goals still valid or do they still need tweaking?
The beginning of September means there’s still a third of the year left to go. Summer vacation is over and if I put my nose to the grindstone I can still accomplish a lot by Christmas.
Although I have learned the hard way that my goals and vision are not something I can write down and forget, I still need some prompting to really take a hard look at what I’m doing.
Here are some of my personal back to school activities:
1. Review my goals. I need to took at my written goals and ask myself am I on track, are there tasks I’ve neglected, have I completed some goals, are there new priorities that should be added?
2. Review my finances. This is one area of my business that has been a trouble spot for me in the past. I have often trucked along merrily without taking a good hard look at the money side of my business. However, when I do keep my books up to date and focus on the bottom line, I find things very quickly start to look up. It really is a law of attraction thing. Turn your focus to something and you get results. So, I look closely at my financial projections and results. The more I look, the healthier things soon become.
3. Recommit to my action plan. During the summer I created a new work schedule. I commit specific days of the week for specific goals. For example, instead of writing a blog post each day, I commit one day each week to writing blog posts. This had made me much more productive because once I’m in a writing mode, I don’t have to switch gears to do something else. It also means I have to make fewer decisions. I look at the day of the week and know what tasks I need to be working on.
4. Reorganize my office. Yesterday I made my son tidy his homework space, organize his school supplies and backpack. It’s time I did the same. My office isn’t as bad as it’s once been, but it’s not perfect. From my desk I can see a sweater I haven’t worn for two months, some old bills that need filing and a curtain I purchased for my bedroom. These are all on me. However, I’ve had some help with the clutter. My father-in-law bought a bunch of books then passed them on to my husband. My husband decided I would want them (I don’t) and piled them on the couch in my office. Grrr. I have enough problem with my own clutter, I don’t need help from the rest of the family.
5. Get to work. All the planning and goal setting in the world doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t get anything accomplished. So now I’m off to get some work done.
Andrea J. Stenberg
Do you also consider September a new beginning for your business? Please leave a comment and share your thoughts. What will you be doing this week to start the real “new” year?
