So many of us start a new year with great intentions. We think about our goals and maybe even make some resolutions…but is that enough to get you to where you want to be? I think where most of us go wrong, (myself included,) is not planning enough. How many of us actually sit down and plan our year? Well, this year I’ve fully committed to the planning process! Here are the six steps I’m taking to make 2022 my best year yet.
1. BUSINESS JOURNALING
If you don’t journal then a fresh new year is a great place to start. Working as a legal VA I have so many different thoughts and tasks swimming around in my head. There’s client work I need to do, growing my own business to think about – and that’s before I even add in all my personal tasks and admin. The only way I can probably structure and organise all these different strands is by getting all my thoughts, tasks and ideas onto paper and into a plan.
Even writing this blog is the result of journaling. Back in December, I attended a co-working session. It was really useful, but by the end, I was overflowing with ideas for everything I wanted to do in 2022 and starting to feel overwhelmed by it all. So, I got my journal out and listed everything I’ve been thinking about. Before I knew it, I had an overview of everything that was going on in my business and all the things I wanted to focus on in 2022. I’m going to carry on this process of business journalling throughout 2022 and use it to add structure to my work day.
If you’re new to journaling, my one big tip would be to not get too bogged down in the process. You’re writing things down for yourself – not for other people. So, go into as much or as little detail as you need. You also don’t need to worry about how you’ll make everything happen – it’s fine just to make a note of the idea and think about the execution later.
2. USE A PRODUCTIVITY TOOL LIKE ASANA
Once I’ve got everything down on paper I move it into a productivity tool. For me, that’s Asana. It’s my go-to planning tool and helps me organise everything from projects to parties. If you’re new to the tool and would like some help, I run an Asana Power Hour training session to get you started.
For my 2022 plan, I created a new project called 2022 Plan + Goals. Using the board style, I made headings for Blog, Newsletter, Content, Team, Services, Packages, Capacity, Rate Increase, Investments for 2022 and 2022 Goals.
With all of these in place, I added separate tasks which I will continue to build on over the coming weeks. I work with an associate who helps me with my blogs and newsletter so each task is linked to our shared project with due dates.
3. LEARN FROM THOSE WHO INSPIRE YOU
I’m a great believer in learning from others. If there’s someone I really admire professionally I’m always eager to hear from them how they achieve their goals. In fact, much of the inspiration for my determination to ‘properly’ plan for 2022 came from Aimee Brown – my business coach.
She is literally the most amazing and inspirational businesswoman. She is so in tune with her business and really knows her stuff when it comes to strategising, business planning, growth, organisation, productivity, self-care and loads more.
At the end of 2021, I attended Aimee’s Thrive & Grow workshop. One of the most valuable parts of the workshop and a true lightbulb moment for me was her advice to plan your schedule around your monthly cycle. As a woman, this is so important to realise as there are definitely certain times of the month where we feel more focused and energised than others. So, instead of leaving the timing to chance, I will be making sure that I incorporate this into my planning for 2022.
4. PLANNING & SCHEDULING YOUR WEEK
It may seem obvious, but to have a really successful year, you need to have productive weeks. They’re the building blocks for the year and to make sure your plans pay off you’re going to have to factor time into your week to ensure tasks get done. This is where I have failed miserably in past years. I have all these ideas for the year, but I don’t set aside time within my working week to make them happen. Before you know it, 52 weeks have gone by without making time and those plans for the year go unrealised.
An example of this is blogging and promotion. In the past, I’ve had a long list of blog titles and newsletter ideas. These were topics I wanted to share with my subscribers and blog readers to promote my business. But without scheduling time into my week to sit down and make notes for these for my associate to work them up, they would never get beyond the planning stage.
So, this year I’m going to make sure my weeks are structured to help me achieve my yearly goals….
5. TIME BLOCKING
When it comes to scheduling your weeks, I’m a big fan of time blocking. It’s such a powerful tool, but I also know how hard it can be to stick to it. So this is a HUGE goal for me in 2022.
This year, to make sure my time blocking works, I shall be scheduling appointments and sticking to them! Whenever there’s a task I want to achieve, like writing a blog or creating content, I will set a calendar appointment and reminder for the task. Then, just like I would if I had a meeting reminder pop-up, I will stop whatever I’m doing and focus on the time-blocked task for the hour.
Of course, it’s good to schedule these sorts of tasks around your most creative times. So, I shall be drawing on the advice from Aimee’s goal planning workshop and structuring my creative tasks around my cycles. I’ve planned all my creative tasks around the first week I know my period has finished. It’s the one week I feel like superwoman and get stuff done. The week or so leading up to my period, I find it more challenging to be creative and so in these weeks, I shall focus more on the administrative elements of my work.
If you’re interested in finding out more about this then I’d definitely recommend heading to Aimee’s insta-page [LINK], she has a few posts on there about planning around your cycles.
6. CREATE A VISION BOARD
My final tip for staying on track with what you want to achieve for the year is to make a vision board.
I created mine by searching on Pinterest for anything that inspires me and captures my vision for what I want to achieve this year, which is:
- Continuing to grow and expand my business.
- Working on the outside of our house – We have a lot we want to achieve this year, including a new decking/patio area, improving the front driveway and installing a new gate, as well as cladding and rendering the house and building a wooden porch.
- Continuing with my exercise and fitness and feeling the best I ever have as I turn 40 this year.
- Working towards our goal of going to Australia in 2023 to visit our best friends. We have a lot of work to do with our dogs first as they’ve never stayed in kennel’s before – so this is a huge goal to work on.
- Make more money – after all, we all want that (and it’ll definitely help with our home improvement goals)!
Each time I found an image on Pinterest that I liked, I copied and pasted the photos into Canva to create my final board.
NEXT STEP…STICKING TO THE PLAN!
I feel like I’ve set myself up for 2022 in the best way I can and am proud of the plans I’ve put in place. They have the potential to really help me meet my business and personal goals this year. But, I’m fully aware that at the moment, they’re still just plans. To reap the benefits I know I need more than plans and good intentions. I’m also realistic that sticking to them is going to be hard.
To help myself, throughout the year, I’m going to be very mindful to take time out of my business to really tune back into my goals and visions and ensure that I make the time to reflect month by month. With this continued focus, I hope that I can make these plans a reality! I’ll let you know how I get on as we progress through the year.
FEELING INSPIRED?
Hopefully, this post has got you thinking about ways you can make your own 2022 more productive. If so, you may be interested in these other articles, each full of tips for planning, scheduling and structuring your work life:
HOW TO USE ASANA TO CREATE A VISION BOARD
HOW TO GET SUPER ORGANISED WITH COLOUR CODING
TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS THAT ACTUALLY GET YOU RESULTS
HOW TO MANAGE YOUR CALENDAR LIKE AN ORGANISED PRO
Finally, I’d love to know if you have planned for 2022 and set yourself any goals? If so, do send me an email or reach out on social media!
And if you’re feeling like you need some additional support in 2022 to achieve your business goals, I can help. It’s amazing how much more you can achieve if you outsource the time-consuming administrative tasks that fill up your working week. To discover how I could help you, please get in touch.
