September is here! Oh, how I love September. What is it about September that I love so much? The start of September and the little signs of Fall bring me back to the days of going back to school. I loved going back to school. I loved to learn and I loved getting back into my schedule. I loved the social aspect of school and thrived in a routine. How can we take this idea of being excited about going back to school and put it into being excited about Fall and going “Back to Business”?
Figure out your Schedule and Routine
Summer is amazing with the kids home from school and vacations and time spent with family. I know I enjoyed my summer and I had a lot of fun things going on. But it is also nice to get back into a regular work routine.
Figure out what worked for you in the past and what needed some tweaking. There are a lot of resources for setting schedules and routines. I really enjoyed this blog post about time management. Although I don’t apply her techniques to a tee, I do like to set out a schedule at the beginning of the workday to outline what things I will get done by what time.
Figure out what works for you and write it down! We have talked about goal setting before, and although this is different, it is important to write your schedule down.
Do you work five days a week? What things do you need to get done every day? What things do you need to do every week? What day do you run the payroll on? Do you have a list of these things?
We love using Google Calendar and I even like writing down a physical list at the start of the day and crossing things off as I go. I know, so un-millennial of me, right? There’s just something to be said about crossing something off a list.
Set Some Goals
By now you know that we really love setting goals. But to me, setting goals in September is different than setting goals in January. I guess it’s the mentality of Fall and going back to school, but it really feels like a fresh start to me. It’s a great time to tackle some goals that may have been pushed to the wayside as summer happened.
What kinds of things do you want to do fine-tune this Fall and what kinds of things do you want to improve upon?
Part of setting goals is also reflecting on what you have accomplished so far. Make sure you take the time to give yourself credit and not be too hard on yourself. Remember, goal setting should be a positive experience, not one that makes you feel guilty.
One thing that you might want to look at and reflect on as you do this exercise is where your revenue and net profit numbers are compared to last year or the last few years. By looking at your financials, you can see how your business is doing and identify what things are really working for you.
Let’s crush this Fall together! So let’s make the most of it!
Happy September from the Beyond Team!
Updated 11/30/2020