CALLING ALL AMBITIOUS, SELF-STARTING WOMEN OF THE INTERNET LOOKING FOR THEIR DREAM JOB AND A LIFE OF TIME, LOCATION AND FINANCIAL FREEDOM:
For a while now, you have been fantasizing about a job that aligns with your purpose, skillset and passions.
A job where you wake up excited to get to work each morning.
A job where you absolutely love the work you do.
A job where you have control over what you work on.
A job that is future-proof.
A job where you can invest time and energy to create greater and greater stability and financial freedom in your life!
Ladies, let me be clear!
Your Dream Job Does NOT Exist. You Must Create It!
And in your heart you already knew this.
You already knew that the only way to do what you love and have total control over your work, how much you work, where you work, and how much you earn is to start your own business online.
That’s why you follow so many social media accounts filled with Female Entrepreneur Inspo.
That’s why you spend your down time scrolling through Pinterest decorating your future home office.
That’s why you watch videos on YouTube about how to use social media platforms for business or how to create a business plan.
That’s why you were drawn to me and my community where I often share about my own journey through Entrepreneurship, as I’ve been navigating a business for nearly a decade in the ever changing digital space.
I’ve created my upcoming business master course with precisely you in mind, because I have been where you are now, so I know what you need to get started on your journey!
E M P I R E is a new FREE business master course intended to help ambitious women learn what it takes to start a lasting business online that gives them the time, location and financial freedom to live their best lives.
Whether you are a career woman who knows she is too creative for a 9 to 5 job, a working mom who wants to create passive income streams so she can work from home and spend more quality time with her family, or simply an ambitious goal getter who knows she could be earning more with less time and effort if she worked for herself, YOU ARE IN THE RIGHT PLACE TO FINALLY MAKE YOUR DREAM BUSINESS YOUR REALITY!
When I work with students from within my community it is inevitable that they will come to me believing they have one issue to work on for their productivity, and through our time together, I am able to identify that they are actually struggling with something completely different.
This is so common!
Most of us have a hard time clearly understanding where we are struggling with our productivity and because of that, we often seek out information and strategy that when we put it to use, isn’t making a difference to us.
It’s because we are focused on the wrong aspect of our productivity.
For as long as I’ve been making productivity and planning content, one thing I have always wanted to do is create a resource to help my community clearly identify what their productivity issues really are so they can spend more time focusing on what will help them make a true impact in their life.
So, if you feel like you are not as productive as you believe you can be, or you are putting in effort but still struggling to get the outcomes you desire for your life, the Productivity Assessment Workshop is a resource you do not want to miss!
THIS WORKSHOP IS FOR YOU IF:
→ You feel like you aren’t as productive as you would like to be. You know there are strategies and tools to fix this but you aren’t sure where to start.
→ You feel frustrated researching techniques on your own and want to know exactly what you should work on improving.
→ You’re feeling confused. You take a lot of productivity and planning advice you hear but it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference.
→ You feel overwhelmed. You just want to feel more in control of your time and life without having to read every new book and follow every trendy new strategy.
IN THIS WORKSHOP YOU WILL:
✔︎ Assess your productivity based on self-reported feedback, NOT an arbitrary standard.
✔︎ Answer a simple set of 50 questions, 10 for each of 5 productivity categories.
✔︎ Learn the 7 Core Productivity Competencies and how developed you are in each.
✔︎ Clearly identify what areas you need to work on in order to see and feel an improvement in your overall productivity
✔︎ Create a simple action plan for how you will address any areas you feel need improvement.
STOP wasting time working on the wrong elements of productivity and planning.
START getting clear on where you need to develop time and task management skills!
Now isthe perfect time to check in with yourself and see where your baseline productivity score is at by taking the Productivity Assessment!
Once you know where you are at, I can better help support you to improve with targeted strategies and information!
Today I to walk you through how I create my annual business plan for the new year to give you a sense of the process I go through and the tools I use.
Now before we get into the step by step process, I want to take a moment to discuss why business planing is so important and the achievements that are possible when you have a solid plan laid out ahead of time.
If you are an existing member of my community, you already know that planning is super important. Not only does it help you to remember what it is you want to get done, it also helps you get clear on details and generate strategies for how you will accomplish your bigger or longer term goals. Planning ahead gives you the ability to save time and effort because you can take the things you need to do, prioritize them and organize them in a way that makes accomplishing the tasks much more efficient. We waste so much time in our days just deciding what to do next. And if you are jumping from task to task without following a plan, you could be wasting up to 30 minutes of time in between each task that you switch to. Not to mention the procastination and perfectionism that can creep in when you get to work without a plan for what you are doing and why. Without a plan, it’s possible to spend a full day working, without seeing a clear impact or payoff for your effort, which I think has to be the worst feeling in the world!
But thankfully that’s not something I experience anymore. Especially when it comes to my business, I show up to work knowing exactly what I’ll be working on each day, and I can clearly see by the end of the day the fruits of my labor and the momentum I have built with my time and focus.
When you have a plan you get so much more done in less time!
In fact, in 2022 alone, thanks to my Business Planning System, I was able to:
• Write and self-publish a best selling book on planning • Create the first season of a Podcast • Film 40+ Youtube videos • Publish 20+ Blog Articles • Create 75+ Instagram Posts • Write 70+ Marketing Emails • Launch 2 New Business Programs • Taught 12 Master Classes, 12 group coaching calls, and 12 more monthly planning classes • Design dozens of new Planning and Productivity Tools • Thrive in my business for the 8th year! • Grew my savings and investment accounts • Deepen my Personal Development • Complete a Coaching Certification Program • Read 25+ books • Establish a Regular Self-Care Routine • Spend plenty of time with people I care about • Plus more things I don’t have the desire to catalogue for the public
Results like this aren’t achieved by accident.
They aren’t the results of luck or good timing.
Achieving your goals and creating the results you want to experience in life is something that takes careful consideration and planning.
So, that is what I am going to show you today, and to be honest, I think you are going to be surprised at how simple this process is.
Now, if you saw my 2023 planner setup video you know that I use a customizable planner system where I keep my business plans combined with my overall life plans and goals.
I have a dedicated section of inserts in my planner that come from the CEO Strategy Planner. The CEO Strategy Planner is a bundle of over 60 business planning inserts designed to help online entrepreneurs and creative business owners turn their big picture business goals into manageable daily tasks.
If you don’t have a copy of the CEO Strategy Planner yet, I’d highly recommend it, but just know that the process I am walking you through today is the process laid out in the CEO Strategy Planner. And if you’d like to see a video of me actually filling in my Business Plans for the year, I will also link you that video as well to watch.
The first part of the CEO Planner is the Executive Summary.
The Executive Summary includes foundational information about your business, your target market and your brand vision. Now, this information may seem really basic, but it’s actually very important that you set these parameters because it’s the framework that you build your business within. One of the major issues I see business owners experience is that they don’t set these parameters for themselves or aren’t clear on them, and then they end up going all over the place with their business.
So, it’s important to decide the following elements of your business.
First, Your business name, so what you call your business or brand, the name customers and followers will come to know you by.
Second, you need to decide your business values, so what values are important for you as you build your business, what are you committed to cultivating through your business and offers.
And the third element of your executive summary is the business manifesto- this is a statement for the purpose and direction of your business, essentially the why for your business and the impact you aim to achieve through your work.
So, that’s the basic identity of the business you are building.
From there you can decide your target market, and the following are the elements of deciding your target market that you need to decide at the state of the year.
First, what your business sells or how it earns income, what’s your plan for that, write it out. Next, who are your customers (this is also known as your ideal customer avatar), these are the people who need what you have to offer and who you will be pursuing through your marketing.
Then, what outcomes do you produce for your customers, so when your ideal customer buys what you are selling, what value are you brining to them, how is working with you benefiting them.
The final target market question you need to decide on and clarify is how do you market to your customers. So, what marketing strategies will you use, which platforms, how frequently will marketing happen, all that needs to be settled and decided at the outside of the year. This is huge because marketing is a key element to sales online, and without these guide-rails, it’s so easy for a business owner to go all over the place with their business and marketing, or fail to develop consistency with their marketing which is just as bad. I’ve seen it happen, unfortunately it happens very often, but getting clear on your target market is going to help you do a better job of marketing and selling for your business.
Next, we have the brand vision and this is meant to be a place where you can map out your business vision for the next 10 years.
So, where do you see your business in the next year, in the next 3 years, 5 years and 10 years? It may not seem important to have this mapped out, and you don’t need to go in depth with this, but it helps to see how your business can be evolving in the future over time. I think it helps you see that you don’t have to build out your perfect business this year, it doesn’t all have to be done immediately- it’s not really possible to do that, but often businesses fail because they try to do too much in a short period of time and it ends up sinking them. So, think about where you business going over time, think about what the logical evolution for your business might be and how you could be adding and layering things into your business over time to create a more sustainable business that lasts.
Now, you might be thinking- Alexis, you’ve been in business for years now, don’t you already have this information written out? Yes that’s true, but every year I like to repopulate this information fresh because it helps me create a clean slate or fresh start feeling with my business. It also helps me to get refocused on what I am building with my business because it’s so easy to get distracted by other things or think you want different things for your business and this executive summary or creative business plan as I call it, helps me choose and decide what direction i want to go for in the year and commit to it.
Next, we get to Yearly Business Planning and the first part of this is the yearly overview.
Here I will first lay out my income target for the year, which I will also break down into quarterly targets. I base this information off of some mathematical equations that I work through during my business goal setting process and all of the information I populate into my yearly business plan from this point on is information that I generated during that goal setting process. If you would like to set your business goals using my process, I will leave a link to the THIS IS YOUR YEAR BUNDLE which is a four part series of workshops that walk you through setting your personal and business goals and mapping them out into action plans across your year.
So, the next part of the yearly business plan is my quarterly objectives which are really more like milestones for my business goals. So I will list out three specific outcomes I want to reach by each quarter of the year.
Then I get to the yearly objective overview. So this is a list of what I am creating this year in four specific categories that I use to track all of my business objectives and tasks.
The four categories are Products or Offers, List Building, Marketing and Development.
So I will make a list of the new offers I want to create this year and/or any updates to existing products I want to complete.
Then I make a list of all the list building initiatives I want to undertake- so all the projects I want to complete this year to help grow my list, and that is mainly focused on my email list, but it can apply to growing any list technically- for instance your followers on Instagram are a form of your list in my opinion. So, what do you want to complete this year to grow your list, write your ideas out.
The next category is Marketing, where I will list out all the marketing related projects I want to work on- funnels, marketing campaigns, launches, content marketing etc, I list those.
And finally development- what business development do I want to do this year? This can be anything from web development, new technologies, growing a team, and even my own personal development as it applies to helping my business grow. I’m currently in the process of undergoing a Master Life Coaching Certification and I consider that a development project that impacts my business for instance.
Again, I want to reiterate, that the information I am populating in these categories is actually information that I mapped out during my annual business goal planning workshop. So, this is not just information I came up with on the fly, these are specific targets I developed during my business goal setting and planning process, and so it’s not information I’m brainstorming on the fly-I have deliberately chosen each of the projects I list out on this objective overview.
Finally, the last part of my yearly business planning process is that I assign each of those objectives I just listed out across the months of my year so that I know exactly when I will be working on each of the projects I laid out.
One of the reasons you want to do this is so you know what you are working on each month. But another big reason why you want to do this is to ensure you have enough time to do everything you anticipate. And I recommend and follow the rule that I focus on no more than three objectives. So, creating a new product or working on a marketing campaign or designing a new funnel-I can only do a total of three of those projects per month.
So, that is it- that is how I create my annual business plan. I hope this information helps guide you as you create your business plan for 2023. Please please please– don’t just start the year without a plan- take the time to do this essential work and I promise, you will get better results when you lay out a plan like this.
If you need more guidance and step by step instruction on setting your business goals and mapping out these plans, please checkout the THIS IS YOUR YEAR bundle and if you are a paper planner user who wants to organize your business plans and tasks inside your planner, check out my CEO Strategy Planner, it has been a game changer for my business organization and I really couldn’t run my business without it!
I hope it’s been helpful to you to see my process broken out and to understand how I use these yearly business planning inserts from the CEO Strategy Planner. Once I have these plains laid out, I break down my plans more specifically into actions for the current quarter so I have a 90 day plan made, but that is going to have to be a topic for another video so if you want to learn more about how I turn this yearly business plan into a 90 day quarterly action plan, let me know!
If you are a current or aspiring business owner and you are looking to find clarity on your business, in order to get started making better business plans- you need my FREE Business Planning Clarity Journal filled with prompts you can use to get in touch with your inner guidance to create that business plan that helps you reach the success you desire. The Journal is free, click here to download it now!
Watch the Video: How to Create Your 2023 Business Plan
I hope you are having a wonderful start to 2023. One month down, eleven more to go!
This past weekend I sat down to plan February in a live session with the Charmed Life Master Mind.
My monthly planning routine is an essential part of my overall functional planning process and it was great to take some time and walk my master mind sisters through it and answers their questions on how I plan both my life and business in the monthly spreads of the Charmed Life Master Planner.
Here is a recap of the Monthly Functional Planning Routine:
Step One: Perform a monthly review to analyze how the prior month progressed
Step Two:Perform a brain dump to get your thoughts, plans and ideas out of your head and onto paper.
Step Three:Populate your monthly calendar spread with important dates to remember.
Step Four:Keep on track with your goals and projects by filling in your Monthly Tracker with your monthly objectives, weekly actions and daily action items.
Step Five: List all other additional tasks due this month onto the Master Monthly Task List.
Step Six: Assign tasks from your objectives to the weeks of the month you plan to work on them to ensure you have the time set aside to complete all expected work.
So, I definitely want to encourage you to carve out about 30 minutes for yourself, sometime in the next few days, so that you too can map out your monthly plan for February.
If you aren’t in the habit of monthly planning yet, I know it might feel like there is a massive learning curve, but the more times you go through this process month over month, the better you will get at it and the more clarity, confidence and motivation you will feel moving into the fresh month.
Important Dates to Include on Your Monthly Calendar
For a bit of reference, here are some important dates you may want to be aware of for February 2023:
Thursday, February 2nd | Groundhog Day
Saturday, February 4th | JournalingMasterclass inside the Charmed Life Master Mind @ 2pm ET/ 11am PT
Sunday, February 5th | Full Moon in Leo
Tuesday, February 14th | Valentine’s Day
Monday, February 20th | President’s Day, New Moon in Pisces, and Galentine’s Party inside the Charmed Life Master Mind @ 7pm ET/ 4pm PT
Tuesday, February 21st | Mardi Gras
Wednesday, February 22nd | Ash Wednesday
Saturday, February 25th | CEO Power Hour inside the Charmed Life Master Mind @ 11am ET/ 8am PT (This is the monthly planning session!)
I hope you found this information to be a helpful reminder to get you started creating your February Plan!
And, if you’d like to get into my inner circle Charmed Life Master Mind and plan with me on a monthly basis plus get access to dozens of classes, resources and tools to help you create the Master Plan for your balanced and successful life…
✔︎ You have reviewed your progress from 2022, celebrated your wins, made peace with your shortcomings and let go of anything you don’t need to take with you into 2023.
✔︎ You know what your goals are for 2023 for both your personal life and business.
✔︎ You have a plan laid for what you need to do to make your goals happen and have set aside the time to complete the work.
✔︎ You feel like your life is together. Like the successful, productive and organized person you know you are.
2023 IS YOUR YEAR!
→ You can walk into 2023 with a well organized plan to get things done OR no plan and not enough time for you to finish your to do list.
→ You can have a balanced daily routine with room for all the areas of your life OR feel rushed and overwhelmed day to day pushing aside your personal goals yet again in favor of other priorities.
→ You can live life at an intentional and productive pace OR deprive yourself of sleep, space and self care to cram in every single task for the day.
Which situation would you prefer?
MAKING 2023 YOUR BEST YEAR YET IS YOUR CHOICE!
I know which choice I would prefer, which is why for the past decade I have intentionally dedicated time at the turn of the New Year to set my goals, map my plans and get my life and vision organized!
And guess what?
Because I spend a little time planning my vision for the year, I achieve more with less time and less stress.
I want you to embrace this process as well because I know first hand through my own experiences, as well as working with hundreds of women from my community, that this works!
And I believe you intuitively know this works as well, but you just haven’t found a system and a process that yields consistent results for you.
That’s why it’s time you choose THIS IS YOUR YEAR!
THIS IS YOUR YEAR is my step by step process for outlining your vision, setting the right goals and breaking those goals out into actionable steps you can take throughout the year to achieve those goals and experience your best year!
THIS IS YOUR YEAR is a series of four goal setting workshops, replays of live classes I taught exclusively to my inner circle master mind, that will help you organize and prepare your life and business for a productive year ahead.
The bundle includes the video modules, slides, workbooks, my 2023 You Got Goals Planner, and bonus guided meditations.
I’VE ALSO JUST ADDED A NEW BONUS MODULE TO THE BUNDLE
The 2023 VISION BOARD PARTY Workshop | Learn how to create and use a Vision Board to manifest your goals this year. This video module teaches you the neuroscience of how Vision Boards work, provides the step by step for how to create your own, and explains what to put on your Vision Board based on your unique personality. The video module also includes a Vision Board Builder PDF that you can print and use to add style and intention to your Vision Board!
THIS IS YOUR YEAR IS EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO SET YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS IN 2023!
And I want to remind you that there is nothing wrong with you and your life right now!
You are not lacking.
You are not behind.
You don’t need to change your life based on external expectations or comparisons.
You are completely whole and worthy right now exactly as you are.
If you are like me, I truly crave the feeling of ease and comfort of knowing that I have a plan for the year that allows me time for work and space to play.
I love my life, I experience deep gratitude for it, and at the same time, I want to experience more of what life has to offer me.
There is nothing wrong with being grateful for what you have and at the same time desiring more or even different experiences.
I set personal goals because I want to better myself and create a better life for myself and those around me.
I set business goals because I want to reach and help more women like you identify and experience their potential in life as well.
But those experiences don’t happen by accident.
You need a vision, a direction and a plan to fit them into your life.
7 Ways to Use Your Planner to Manifest Your Best Year!
Today I am sharing 7 ways to use your planner to manifest your best year ever!
If you think your planner is simply a tool for time or task management, you are missing a tremendous opportunity to use your planner to help you manifest and realize the life of your dreams. For years I have been using my planner a little different than the average person might, because a significant portion of my planner is more than just calendars and agenda inserts. I customize my planner to include spiritual elements that truly help me stay in alignment with what I want for the year. So, here are my best tips for how you can set up your planner to help you manifest success this year.
Strategy #1: Make it a mindset shift
My first tip here is that you need to make the mindset shift for yourself that your planner and planning isn’t just about keeping track of what to do and where to be, instead its about setting the intention that your planner is going to be an energetic placeholder for your goals and that whatever you write inside it is like placing an order with god/spirit/or the universe. So that is step one- deciding and setting the intention and shifting your mindset- that your planner is more than mere paper and metal and leather or whatever material it’s made out of- this is now a mystical energy generator that’s holding the power and potential for you to take action on building your dream life.
Strategy #2: Choose your word for the year
The second strategy or activity I want you to do with your planner is to create a word for the year and write it somewhere inside your planner. Your word for the year is meant to be a theme for what you want to manifest this year, and along with the word, think about and list out inside your planner what that word means to you and how you intend for that word to manifest for yourself. If you want, I have a template over on my Instagram account that I was sharing for creating your word of the year- you can totally screen shot that and print it for your planner if you’d like. My word for this year is brilliance and my intention for that word is that i want to manifest more creativity and wonderful ideas for my life and business this year. I also want to manifest brilliance in the form of light and beauty. I want to bring more light to my community and uplift them, and I also want to work on my physical body to make myself look and feel more beautiful and brilliant that way. For example, I literally bought Crest White Strips for the first time in years because I want my teeth to be whiter and more brilliant. So thats an example of how my word of the year is aligned with my intentions and ultimately my actions!
Strategy #3: Set your goals
Strategy three is that you need to set your goals and keep them listed out in your planner. Many people goal plan but they keep their goals elsewhere to reference, but that makes no sense to me. I want my goals front and center in my planner- and in fact my goals are one of the first pages of my planner, because these are things I actually want to happen, not just things it would be nice to get if and when I have the time.
For me, the vast majority of my plans and objectives for the year revolve around these goals and making them happen. And if you’ve been a member of my community for a while, you have likely seen that I am someone who gets a lot accomplished and makes her life happen, and I attribute this to the fact that my goals are the keystone to the way I live and work and move through life. So, set your goals for the year- if you want to set your goals the way I do, you can purchase my THIS IS YOUR YEAR bundle with my You got goals workbook and workshop as well as the CEO Retreat classes where I walk you through my goal setting process for both my life and my business.
Strategy #4: Create a vision board for your planner
Next, strategy number four is to create a vision board for inside your planner. I have a whole video on how to create a vision board for your planner that I’ll leave linked for your reference, but you essentially want to take those goals you set and turn them into images that evoke the feeling of achieving that goal. To do this, I search images online, most come from pinterest but anytime I see an image that evokes a strong emotional reaction for a goal I generally save them to my phone or computer. So, I will assemble all these images and print them out and create a collage with them. This year I ended up created the collage on photoshop and then printing it out on sticker paper and then stuck it to the dedicated vision board spread in my Master Planner. But however you want to do it- as long as you have goals turned into images, and those images make you feel good about the goals- and you put them in a central location in your planner to review daily- you are set. And that reviewing of the vision board daily is an essential part of this strategy as well. We aren’t just going to make the vision board and leave it there- instead we are going to spend a few minutes looking at it everyday as part of our daily planning routine! That’s how we can use the vision board to activate the receiving of the goals in our subconscious.
Strategy #5: Keep lists of affirmations in your planner
Strategy five is to keep lists of affirmations and positive self-talk in your planer as well. So, in my planner I have a divided section called Mindset and in this section I keep lists of affirmations that I’ve written out that inspire me to get in alignment with my goals. Generally, what I do with these lists is after I hang out with my vision board, I turn to these pages and read them out to myself and they make me feel super positive and inspired to create my plan and complete my work each day. If you struggle to keep motivated and inspired, a practice like this of using a vision board and affirmations will help you remain self-motivated consistently.
Strategy #6: Write a list of things you want to manifest each month
Strategy six is, every month, write yourself a list of things you want to happen and things you want to manifest and keep it in your planner. Another section of my planner is my Manifest section, and here I just have some simple notepaper, and what I will do every month is write out a complete list of all the things I’d love to happen and I write them out as though they have happened.
So, I might write “This month I earned $20,000. This month I reached x weight, This month I gained 1 million new followers” And sometimes I switch it up and I will say something like “I am so happy and grateful that this month I was featured in a national magazine.” Or “I quickly and easily gained 1 million new followers this month.” So, for every line I write I am writing in an affirmative that the thing has already happened. I already received it, it’s already done energetically.
This technique is also known as scripting and some people say you should do this every day, but I like to do it like a big wish list at the start of the month and then mentally let it go. I don’t micromanage this list by any means, and it’s okay to me if the things I write down don’t happen in the month- the interesting this is that I sometimes get what I ask for but in a different month. So this becomes like a landing page for what I want and my intentions beyond just achieving my goals because on a day to day basis I may think of new things I want to manifest so this is how I open myself up to receiving it.
Strategy #7: Use your best planner supplies and stationery
Last but not least, strategy seven. I know this is a strategy that you did not see coming but I promise you, it’s so important for your mindset and getting more of what you want this year using your planner. Strategy seven is you need to use all of your best planner supplies and stationery that you’ve been hoarding away and waiting to use for a special occasion. Guess what? Today is the day you are going after you goals and manifesting your best life, so it’s definitely a special occasion kind of a day! Got it! Stop holding onto your favorite pens, highlighters, sticky notes, inspo cards- whatever stationery supplies you’ve been hoarding- you need to use them and know that you are worth it, your plans are worth it and there is always more where that came from! Using those supplies you’ve been saving it going to unlock new levels of productivity and abundance and receiving for you because you are showing up and saying okay, today is worth me investing in, what I’m doing today no matter how big or small is worth the expense or sacrifice of some pretty planner things. I am worth it, my planner is worth it, my goals are worth it, my to do list is worth it!
So, those are seven strategies to manifest your best year ever using your planner. I want to hear which of these strategies you are going to integrate. I recommend them all but I don’t think you necessarily need to do all of them at once. Don’t overwhelm yourself, choose whatever seems the most practical for your life and see how it makes you feel and the results you end up getting when you start doing things a little differently than before.
Watch the Video 7 Ways to Use Your Planner to Manifest Your Best Year
10 Time, Task + Energy Management Strategies to Manage a Long To Do List
The following 10 strategies will help you to organize and manage your to do list so that you are optimizing your work for time, task load and the amount of energy you have in a day!
Strategy #1: Schedule Tasks
As you evaluate your to do list, identify which tasks need to be completed at or by a certain time and make sure you have clearly set aside that time for them. It’s not necessarily more productive to schedule all of your tasks for specific time frames, but it is important to do when due dates are involved with a task. For any work that needs to be done at a specific time (ex. meeting) what is the prep work you need to do in order to be ready at that time? Also schedule that work in ahead of your scheduled task.
Strategy #2: ID + Block Time for Projects
If you are working off a long to do list for the day or week, ultimately some of those tasks will belong to the same project. So, identify those items first so you are clear that this is one of the main objectives you are working on, and you can also take a moment to ensure that you aren’t missing any important tasks that go along with this project as well. Then block off specific time to work on that project and those tasks together- this will ensure you can go deep on the project and do it well
Strategy #3: Set Your Top 3
Setting your daily Top 3 is a planning strategy I recommend to ensure you are prioritizing your work and key tasks. Which three tasks on your to do list are the most important to complete today? Things which, if they don’t get done, it will cause issues or delays. Clearly ID these three priority tasks and get them done as soon as possible in your day
Strategy #4: Use the 80/20 Rule
The 80/20 rule is a task management principle that explains how only 20% of our tasks lead to 80% of the results we get. This means that there are some tasks we can do each day that have a bigger impact than others, so to save ourselves time and energy, we should ID and complete those few key tasks before worrying about the 80% of tasks that have nominal effects on our results. Hopefully, your top 3 list is comprised of these tasks, but any additional can be listed out on your daily to do list to be completed as soon as possible as well
Strategy #5: Batch Your Tasks
Some tasks on your list will likely be very similar to each other and to optimize your workflow, it would be a good idea to batch these tasks, which means you work on them together at the same time so you are doing the same general activity over and over. Examples: Creating posts for social media, running reports, making phone calls. When batching your tasks, ask yourself if there are any other similar tasks you can add into this process, even if they aren’t on your list for the current day or week, you may be able to spend a little more time working on them now, and save yourself even more time in the future.
Strategy #6: 3D’s: Delegate, Defer + Delete
Remember, you are not responsible for doing all of the work on your to-do list! Which tasks can you delegate to someone else? Which can you defer for another time that might be more optimal for working on the task? Which tasks can you simply delete off your list because they aren’t a result driver?
Strategy #7: Manage Habits
Some of the tasks on your list may actually be habits you are working on, so don’t simply leave them on your to do list to be done whenever, pause and figure out where in your daily routine these habits make the most sense to be accomplished. When a habit sits on your to do list, it’s just another thing to do, but when you assign it to a place in your daily routine, it has a purpose in your life.
Strategy #8: Mindset Check
Our mindset is a major factor in determining how much work we are able to act on each day and how productive our day ends up becoming. So, ask yourself, which tasks on your list will you feel much better once they are accomplished? These tasks may be things we should consider prioritizing because often doing a difficult thing first gives us mental relief and removed roadblocks to our productivity. Yes, you are going to have to do the things that intimidate you, but once you do them you will feel unstoppable!
Strategy #9: Energy Audit
Your personal energy level is going to be a major factor in how much work you can accomplish in a day, so check in with your energy level to understand which tasks you can reasonably expect to complete today. Also consider what time of day your energy is highest and lowest. It would be a good idea to schedule more energy intense activities during your peak energy times, and allow yourself to work on lower intensity work during times when you know your energy will be waining.
Strategy #10: Create Your Workflow
Once you have organized and evaluated your to do list according to the previous nine strategies, decide the most logical order for you to use to work on this list. This may mean that everything doesn’t get done today and you are intentionally moving tasks to the next day or another week, but all of this is part of creating a good plan that sets reasonable expectations and avoids creating overwhelm.
How to Use These Strategies
When it comes to creating a to-do list, I prefer to create lists for the month, and then choose items from that list to apply to my week. This prevents me from keeping too long of a list and it also helps to drill down to the context of my current months priorities. Once you have your monthly to do list, I recommend using the 10 strategies to filter the tasks you need to do for the current week and identify the tasks for you to do each day. If planning ahead for the week works for you, great! But if you find you set your task list for a day and then things don’t get done and need to be transferred to the next day, this becomes a problem if you have pre-planned your week. So, unless things are scheduled for a specific day on purpose, don’t feel the need to fill in every day of the week ahead of time.
Using these recommendations, you are going to start to see that you begin to plan more strategically and intentionally, and stop taking on too many tasks that aren’t necessary. The hard truth for most of us is that we put too many tasks on our list and then fail to prioritize them, so that we are always expecting not to get everything done and when we continue to push tasks off day after day, we accept it. But you can teach yourself to recognize priority tasks. You can learn how to block off time to do deep work. You can practice batching tasks and checking in with your mindset and energy to determine what is reasonable for you.
So give these strategies a try- understand that there is a learning curve with this, but the more you execute on these strategies the more you will integrate and utilize them.
Having a successful year is not about waiting for motivation and inspiration to strike. It’s about creating systems and environments that cultivate momentum and accountability. – Alexis C Giostra @MissTrenchcoat
Hello my Charmed Ones and welcome back to my channel for the first video of 2023! My 2023 Annual Reset Routine.
If you are watching this video around the time it goes live, we are at the start of a new year and nothing says fresh start inspiration and motivation like resetting your planning system. Your planner can be an amazing tool for your success and quality of life this year if you treat it like a system that helps you manage your focus and effort.
So, there is a brief routine I recommend you follow to get your planner reset for the new year that follows along with the Yearly Functional Planning Routine that you can find inside my bookThe Functional Planning Handbook.
Here is a recap of the routine for your reference:
◼ CHOOSE AND SETUP YOUR FUNCTIONAL PLANNER
◼ SET ANNUAL GOALS
◼ BREAK LONGER TERM GOALS INTO QUARTERLYMILESTONES
◼ DEFINE OBJECTIVES TO REACH EACH GOAL
◼ POPULATE YOUR PLANNER WITH KNOWN TASKS,EVENTS AND DUE DATES
Q1 PLANNING ITEMS
◼ POPULATE PROJECT PLANS FOR OBJECTIVES
◼ ALLOCATE TASKS FROM PROJECT PLANS TO MONTHLY MASTER TASK LISTS
Grab a coffee and your planner, and let’s get started with the 2023 Reset.
STOP BUYING PRE-PRINTED PLANNER INSERTS AND DO THIS INSTEAD TO SAVE MONEY AND TIME IN 2023!
It’s nearly 2023 planner people! Make use of advances in planner technology and start using Print On Demand Planner Inserts (aka Print at Home or Printables) to create your perfect Functional Planning System!
Here are 4 Major Reasons Why You Should Be Using Printables:
1 | Instant Delivery: No waiting for delivery and no shipping fees! You get your files immediately and can begin printing and planning with them before you could ever hope to see a shipping confirmation hit your email from any shop. Plus you can shop and assemble your planner from the comfort of your own home, no need to burn gas hopping from store to store searching for inserts.
2 | Choose Your Paper Quality: You get to choose the quality of paper you use for your inserts. So, if you have a specific preference of paper weight, texture and color, that works for you or your favorite pen and ink, you can use it to print your inserts and get exactly what you like.
3 | Use Any Binding Method: Printable inserts are a blank slate for you to use with any binding method you prefer, and if you decide to switch methods, for instance from rings to discs, you can simply print and punch new copies of the inserts. No needing to buy your inserts again because the holes don’t match.
4 | Unlimited Printing: Print on demand means you print as much as you need and can print multiples to your hearts content. So, the next time you spill coffee on your planner, or otherwise ruin your inserts (they are paper after all and easily damaged) you can simply reprint the inserts you need without having to purchase more.
Yes, print at home means you need to have a printer, punch and paper trimmer for best results- but those upfront costs are mitigated over time and you may have most of these tools at home already.
So, if you are a planner at heart and enjoy using a customizable planning system that you can adjust to fit your needs, print at home inserts are the way to go for the best value, experience and reliability in your planning routine!
Don’t know where to start with Print At Home Inserts? Not all printables are created equally!
The BEST Place to start on your printable planner insert journey is THECHARMEDSHOP.COM!
My printables are designed using professional grade print design software that optimize inserts for printing with less ink waste and are based on research backed productivity and time management strategy.
Stop wasting money on pre-printed inserts that are poorly designed and overpriced, and make the switch to Print On Demand inserts from The Charmed Shop as part of your 2023 New Year’s Resolutions!
Any questions?
Leave me a comment and I’d be glad to help you find your next favorite planning insert or tool!
It’s that time of year again!! The holiday season is approaching and it’s time to shop for gifts for the special people in your life. I love giving gifts- it’s one of my love languages and so I love creating gift guides with new and creative ideas to help you find something unique and functional for the people on your list.
I have created a new gift guide specifically geared towards planning and productivity presents that you can give to a planner lover, co-worker, or female entrepreneur you are buying for this year. Or of course, you could forward this gift guide on to the people who are buying for you this year if you see some things you like and resonate with.
These gifts are priced across the board- some are more of a splurge and some are stocking stuffer price. Most of them are $50 or less so they are pretty reasonable gifts.
I love a good facial roller tool and this five in one option is a great way to make the most of multiple tools to help de-puff, sculpt and sooth your face. Use this massager to relax your muscles, apply serums and tone your face through lymphatic drainage massage. This is a great tool to use morning or night, or anytime you want to relax and pamper yourself.
Stop drinking your daily coffee or tea from clunky old mugs and elevate your daily experience with this set of 6 cups with saucers and stirrers. It’s a beautiful set with classic and luxurious lines that will bring some extra elegance and refinement to your workday. Just add your favorite biscotti or croissant!
This chic leather cover can be used to protect your choice of planner or notebook in a compact and secure housing. I love the way a zip cover keeps it’s contents protected, especially on the go and I am particularly enamored with this dark green teal color. This is a gift that makes a major impact on your style, planning and productivity.
An acrylic dry erase board is a perfect accessory for your kitchen, home organization station or office. Use it for notes, announcements, meal planning or reminders.
This adorable cube desk timer is the perfect productivity tool to help keep you on track and working in short bursts or blocks of time. Set the timer before you start a task to track how long it takes for planning purposes, and use the timer to set aside time to get started on a project or task you’ve been putting off.
These Beats Fit Pro Wireless Bluetooth EarPods have been my go to for both work and play. The noise cancelation technology helps me to stay productive while I work and listen to my favorite lo-fi jams. They are wonderful for working out and physical activities, and I love to wear them while I listen to a meditation or relax in the bathtub. Plus the color palette on the Beats x Kim Kardashian collection are gorgeous!
I think my number one most used planning and note taking accessory, aside from a pen, has to be dual tip highlighters. I use them to highlight dates and information, to create check boxes for tasks and to block off time in my daily schedule. I love this set of neural and pastel highlighters because they create a relaxing tone inside your planner as opposed to traditional neon highlighters that look like strobe lighting and often give me a headache looking at it for too long.
If you are looking for an affordable and chic notebook or bullet journal, the CEO Journal has everything you need to organize and plan in one simple bound book. The undated pages allow you to select the date and organize information with the help of a square grid. The pages are numbered for you to keep an index if you’d like to track important spreads or information. And yes, it does fit nicely into the Pebbled Leather Zip cover linked above!
If you are an iced coffee or tea fan and have not heard about the HyperChiller yet, I am about to blow your mind. Fill the dual chambers of this unit with water, let it freeze in your freezer and then whatever hot or boiling liquid you pour into the chiller will cool down in one to two minutes. No more watering down hot beverages to get them cool. This is one of my favorite kitchen gadgets, no wires, no batteries or electricity needed. Just water, your freezer and a hot beverage to chill down.
I love this marble desk pad- I don’t think I could work at a desk without one of these desk pads anymore because they act as decoration, a mousepad and a soft place to rest your hands. I have a few of these desk pads with different patterns on them and I switch them out for the seasons to give my home office and desk a new vibe.
As someone who works from home, I have a lot of productivity tools that I tote around the house with me whenever I decide to work from outside my office. I love these little jelly baskets because the large size fits my laptop, planner, notebook, phone, headphones, pens, highlighters and more so I can take my home office into any room of my house. I call it my mobile office basket and if you work from home, either full time or even part time, you will love having a simple tote like this to use to corral your things securely instead of trying to carry everything by hand yourself.
If you are looking to get the most from your planner system, you absolutely need to learn the Functional Planning Methodology and this book is the official handbook that covers everything you need to know to set up, organize and use your planner to manage your life, plus tips on how to stay motivated and productive through the day.
I love filling my home with candles, but as a pet owner, it isn’t always the safest to have candles burning throughout my home. So, using a candle warmer is a must and these warmer lamps are the perfect blend of style and function to give you some extra home decor, and a safe way to use your candles without lighting them.
If you want to be a more productive and successful person, you absolutely need to start a journaling practice. I think getting your thoughts out of your head and into paper is so important, and especially keeping track of your thoughts and self-talk are a major factor in what you manifest and bring to fruition in your life. This journal will help you manifest more money and abundance into your life through a daily journaling practice where you get clear on what you want, your own value and your plan for making things happen in your life.
These remote controlled flameless LED candles are the perfect addition to your bedroom, home office or bathroom. They are a safe way to create mood lighting and help you get cozy at home, helping you to relax and destress from a busy day.
If you are a planner and productivity lover I know you have a thing for pretty pens. This set of neutral matte gel pens is very aesthetic and certain to help you create a planning or journaling routine that fits your energy and vibe. Why use ugly pens when you can use a chic option like these?
I don’t personally use a desktop computer with a separate monitor, but I have seen so many videos and examples of people using these monitor memo boards and I think they make an awesome accessory for your home or office. You can attach this set of memo boards to the side of your monitor to organize sticky notes or to use as a dry erase. And I bet you could use these on other surfaces besides your monitor. You could affix these to the sides of a mirror in your bathroom, your refrigerator or cabinets in your kitchen- anywhere you need to organize notes and some information- these adhesive memo boards would work!
I know these self-adhesive business card pockets seem so random for a gift guide, but they are actually one of my new favorite planner supplies. My planner cover doesn’t have a ton of business card holders built in, and so I have been sticking these pockets onto dashboards on my planner to organize business cards. I don’t use mine for business cards, instead I use them for planning/journaling cards to decorate my planner and to add a little more inspiration.
As someone who is more into using my planner for function than decoration, I don’t use very many accessories in my planner. However, another one of my planner must haves are this set of neural transparent tabs. I use these to mark pages in my planner for reference and also to write out a note or reminder for my planner before it is set in stone. I love the colors in this set and that it includes pointed and squared edge options. I also use these tabs when reading in physical books or to notate documents I am reviewing or editing.
I know it might seem odd to see an acrylic makeup and skincare organizer on this gift guide, but there are a few reasons I wanted to include this. First of all, getting ready in the morning or getting un-ready at the end of the day is an essential part of your daily routine and having your necessities organized and visible like this helps you to remember to do this important self care each day. Also- I think this organizer would also be awesome to use in your office to store stationery and planner supplies. Think of this as a beautiful display case for your office with all your favorite stationery organized inside.
I hope you have enjoyed this gift guide and that it gave you some great inspiration for this holiday season!
