I like to call the week between Christmas and New
Year’s Eve Reflections Week. There are pauses in
the regular work schedule to tie up the loose ends of
the year, relax a little and do some reflecting on
what has happened in the past twelve months.
Your mind’s eye, given the right timing and
environment, will replay the movie of 2006 for you to
see what happened during the year. You may want
to look at your written goals for the year and see
how you did with the job of completion.
If you are like me, you probably have a list of
completed and incomplete projects.
If you accomplished everything on your goal list,
Congratulations! I suspect your perfect achievement
record came about because you never sleep
or you
didn’t get very brave with your goal setting
and
picked easy goals. Neither option is a good choice.
If your reflections on 2006 reveal you want to get
more important things done in your business in 2007,
consider making a small investment in a time
management device used for centuries. No, you
won’t have to invest in an antique tool.
The device I’m talking about is the full year at a
glance wall calendar. You’ve seen this type of
calendar before. It’s one big sheet, lacking pretty
photographs, made out of plain paper or paper
laminated to plastic. It shows the 12 months and 365
precious days of 2007. If you haven’t gotten yours
yet, go get one in the next few days or order it
online. I want you to use one of these huge full year
calendars in 2007. Because, for 2007 to be your
best year yet, you need to be thinking in terms of an
entire year; not tomorrow, next week or next
month. You need to know what’s going to happen
this year.
Hang it on your office wall or in a conspicuous place
for you and everyone who has a connection with
you, to see any time. Here are the planning steps
for you and your new full year calendar:
- Choose your days off and mark them
first.
Remember, boss, the only person who gives a
business owner a day off is the business owner.
- Decide on dates for all events that you
are
responsible for creating and planning. Clinics, camps,
horse shows, events, rodeos, trail rides,
demonstrations, seminars.
- Next, pencil in club meetings, dinner
meetings,
trade shows and seminars, auctions and sales you
won’t be organizing but will be attending If you have
a regular schedule for farrier and veterinary visits,
mark those days as well.
- If your employees will be away or off on
certain
days, code those days too.
- Record all family gatherings, birthday,
weddings,
graduations. Your personal life and business life are
inseparable.
- Make note of any other significant events
scheduled for 2007 on your wall calendar.
The purpose of this exercise is to nurture peace of
mind for you as the business owner as you “brain
dump” dates and times. Creation of a full year
planning calendar is a decluttering process which
frees your personal RAM for solving other
problems.
The benefits of the full year calendar for all to see
are:
- Creates personal commitment by you and
limits
the temptation for procrastination
- Allows your staff and clients the opportunity to
know what to expect from you and to build
respect
for your valuable and precious “free time”.
- Paints a full picture of the year to emphasize the
limited amount of time you have available to
do the
work in your horse business that creates income:
lessons, training, boarding, sales.
You can make 2007 your best year yet after
reflecting on 2006 and projecting the new year of
2007 on a full view planning calendar. Get Planning.
