My wife and I are heading to San Diego on a vacation in a few days. I can't tell you how glad I am that I plan enough to delegate and set expectations so to leave without stress. As a matter of fact, my days leading up are not even different from typical days throughout the year. I have time to write about it!
People that know me will ask how we do it. I run a personal branding business with on and offline products and services; charity work for local kids; my wife is in the height of pumping products out the door for wedding clients and I just started a radio show called Startup Story Radio that airs in a month (July 7) and every week from there, among other things. So how do we do it?
It is easy. Know what you want and go get it. Set a game plan - I don't mean over-analyze and plan to plan. You can't turn a ship that is not moving. So set some significant goals and a mission knowing change is the only constant.
Change is an important concept. As a matter of fact, there is a whole host of people that argue planning is overrated or not necessary - they don't plan in business and/or career pointing out change as the reason. Well, change does happen and well thought out plans get thrown out all the time. Planners will argue that setting a direction is important to know when and why you are going off plan. Why is a place of learning and adjusting. Otherwise, others are setting your direction and things do just happen and you are out of control. This may equal stress, especially before vacations!
Details:
- Set goals for the year that includes everything important to you
- Break down to monthly objectives for review - are you on track?
- At the end of each day, spend two minutes outlining tomorrow so you can sleep well.
- Review your day over breakfast - eat a great breakfast every day!
- Surround yourself with great people for support and delegation
- Acquire mentors and advisors to make sure you are not too close to yourself, hold you accountable and train.
A few minutes a day and great people will allow vacations and balance - ENJOY!
Planning is definitely a big factor in allowing you to do all of those things. I would also argue that time management is equally important. Also, setting priorities on all of things that you do allows you to figure out the right order to do everything. Like you, I am involved in lots of things, which can get overwhelming. I try to priortize and plan the best that I can. However, sometimes it doesn't always work out the way you planned. Either way, being organized is a plus.
Posted by: Jason Jacobsohn | June 11, 2007 7:36 PM | Permalink to Comment