Hey , 

Happy Monday! For those of you who attended Expo West, I hope you had a blast. Shoot me an email and let me know what you found most valuable this year, or what didn't meet your expectations. Whether you attended or not, it's time to get down to business and focus on driving results for your business. But how do you stay focused with so many opportunities to pursue?

Today I want to share the daily planning method that changed my life and made me so much more focused and productive. 

PS. Read to the bottom to find out how women-owned businesses can receive free Instacart advertising credits.

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The daily planning method that changed my life

I suffer from shiny object syndrome. I’m prone to get distracted by pursuing new large ideas and by small to-do’s when I’m supposed to be doing something else. At the end of the day, it can leave me feeling like I didn’t accomplish anything.

I learned that the key to feeling more accomplished can be answered by these two questions: 

Question 1: What do I want to accomplish today?

Question 2: Did I complete what I planned to accomplish? 

Feeling accomplished is measured by whether you did what you said you would do. It doesn’t matter what you did with your time, as long as it’s what you planned to do. It’s fine to watch Netflix, sleep on your deck, or mindlessly scroll social media, as long as that’s what you planned for the day.

Alternatively, checking work email, a seemingly productive task, is a distraction if it’s done when you intended to spend time with your family.

Our life priorities have all changed during this time, so it’s a great opportunity to revisit your life goals. Be sure to read my article on how to set goals to align with your values.

Plan

On a weekly basis identify any activities or tasks you’d like to specifically accomplish each week while being realistic with how much time it will take and how much time you have. If you’re used to having 6 productive hours at the office, but now have your kids at home, you might only get 3 productive hours each day. It’s important to set realistic expectations in order to feel accomplished. These activities don’t just have to be work-related. Include any activities that are important to you including family time, hobbies, and any volunteer work. Examples of accomplishments might include:

• Finish reading my new book - 4 hours

• Attend 3 business webinars - 3 hour

• Setup projector in backyard for movie night - 3 hours

• Run 5 miles every day - 8 hours total

Then, use your calendar or todo list to organize those tasks throughout each day of the week. Make sure you time box each activity based on what’s realistic. Arrange each activity on a specified day and time, adding in at least a 30min buffer between activities to account for the unexpected. Have a morning routine that you enjoy like coffee, exercise, or reading the news? Set a consistent wake-up time and block out your morning routine each day.

My favorite tool to manage this process by far is an app called Sunsama. It’s a Todo list + Calendar productivity suite that allows you to easily plan out your day and week. It syncs with google calendar and your email. It also allows you to review what you accomplished each week, and how often tasks get pushed over to the next day. If you’re looking to up your organization level, definitely sign up. Use this link to try out Sunsama

Now that you’ve created a routine for yourself and have goals to accomplish, it's time to measure how you did.

REFLECT AND REFINE

At the end of each week, add 15min to your calendar to reflect on your accomplishments each week. Ask yourself, “When did I follow my schedule and when did I get distracted?” Answering this question requires you to note when you got off track. What I’ll do is add a start and finish time to each of my tasks on Sunsama. Then at the end of the week I can go back and measure my distractions.

Sometimes distractions come from internal triggers, like remembering an e-mail you meant to respond to. Other times distractions come from external triggers, a social media ping, or your kids asking for help with their schoolwork.

Once you understand where your distractions are coming from, make adjustments to account for them.

One internal trigger I have is constantly thinking of ideas or remembering something I forgot to do. My urge is just to stop and do it before I forget, but that’s a mistake. Now instead, I’ll add that idea or task to my to-do list in Sunsama and plan a future time to take care of it. That way I won’t forget it, but it’s also out of my mind.

Maybe something unexpected came up. If you find that unexpected things happen every day, reduce how much you expect to accomplish and plan for more buffer time (ie. flexibility) each day. If you habitually underestimate how long it would take to complete certain tasks, begin with your estimate and then double it. It’s better to accomplish tasks faster than expected.

If you’re getting distracted by members of your household, talk with them to figure out a plan that works. Communicating your expectations and listening to theirs will save everyone lots of frustration. If you need quiet time to work, ask that they don’t disrupt you during a specific time. Listen to their needs as well, and be there when they need you to be.

After reflecting, refine your schedule for the next week and repeat. Follow these steps, and you’ll start to feel more accomplished.

Jordan Buckner

Foodbevy

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Jordan