How well are you progressing on your 2024 plan?
Back in the beginning of January I wrote an article on how to plan to have a great 2024. Now it’s already more than three months into that plan—that’s over 25% of the year!—and it’s time to check in to see how you are doing.
Why am I checking in with you?
I find that even if people created a great plan in January, they often don’t start working on it right away! That’s because it’s a year long plan, and heck it’s only January, I don’t’ have to start it yet….
But then, before you know it, it’s already February, then March, and that means a whole three months has already gone by.
Before I go any further, let’s recap the 7 points I recommended back in January that you take into account in your yearly plan.
Make SMART goals
Set financial goals
Set some personal goals
Identify areas for learning
Expand your network
Build accountability into your plan
Make a written commitment
If you followed my advice in January and created a written plan, take it out and look at it.
Have you started any of the items on your list?
Are you on track?
Are you behind on some things, but OK on others?
It’s important to think about this now because three months of opportunity have already passed. That’s enough time to set you back if you haven’t made progress on the plan. On the other hand, it’s also a short enough time span that, if you take action now, you can still get back on track.
But the longer you wait, the harder that will be!
How are you doing?
First, let’s see how you are doing on your plan.
To do this, let’s use a simple method: analyzing the percentage of tasks completed.
Go back to the written plan you created in January.
Highlight all the tasks you have completed.
For each item that is completed, score 1 point.
If you’ve only partially completed something, highlight it, but write beside that how completed the task is (.2, .5, etc.)
For items you haven’t started yet, score 0.
Add up all the numbers.
Count all the items in your plan.
Your totals should look something like this.
Completed and partially completed: 4.7
Total of all items in plan: 18
Now come up with a percentage of the plan that is complete by dividing the second number into the first.
Example: 4.7 / 18 = 26%
In this example, 26% is about one-quarter of the total. The trick now is to compare that to the amount of time that has already elapsed in the year. March 31 passed a few weeks ago, and that means we are more than one-quarter of the total time in this year.
So in this example, you’re doing OK and are close to being on track!
Now, this is a simple method, and the numbers are rough, because not all tasks take up the same amount of time. But figure out some way similar to this that let’s you come up with a reasonable “ball-park” estimate of how much of your plan you have completed.
Warning! Don’t go by gut. Too many people think “I’ve done about X amount of my plan”, but they’re often way off. Take the time to actually go through your plan item by item and come up with a carefully thought out number.
But, what if you’re not on track with your plan? I’ve got some tips for that.
Get some accountability
I find lack of accountability to be by far the most common reason that people don’t get very far on their plans. When you work for yourself, you don’t have a boss or colleagues counting on you. You may have clients, but that doesn’t give you the kind of accountability you need to work on building your business. Often, we do what we need to for clients, and put off working on our business development.
So, if you don’t have any accountability—get some now! Get some people on board who will be there for you to help you stay positive, brainstorm new ideas, and remind you when you are falling behind on your plan. This can be a family member, a friend, or a small business support group (like the Free Agent Collective!).
Identify your barriers
Be honest with yourself and try to identify all the reasons you haven’t progressed. Some of them may be things that are beyond your control, such as health problems, financial issues, etc. On the other hand, some may be things that you can do something about, such as procrastination, lack of knowledge, motivation, etc. I call each of these reasons barriers.
Try to be as specific as you can when identifying your barriers. For example, “I don’t feel like it” isn’t very specific. A better answer might be “I don’t feel like doing this because it involves using a computer program that I don’t know very well, and I get frustrated when I try to use it.” is much better—it hones right in on what exactly the problem is.
Identify ways to overcome your barriers
Now that you know what your barriers are, start thinking about ways you can overcome each one. For example, let’s say your barrier is the one used above, “I don’t feel like doing this because it involves using a computer program that I don’t know very well and I get frustrated.” What can you do to overcome that? Should you take a course? Study a book on it? Get someone to help you? Change to a different program?
Think of a way that is going to work for you.
Make a SMART goal to overcome this barrier
Remember what a SMART goal is?
Let’s recap, using our computer program example.
S – specific (e.g. I will call my sister and ask her to show me how to do X, Y, and Z in the computer program.)
M – measurable – (e.g. I will spend one hour learning this with my sister.)
A – achievable (I can call my sister, she will certainly help, and I can commit to one hour of training with her this week.)
R – relevant (e.g. I will get my sister to show me how to do X, Y, and Z, the things that most frustrate me.)
T – has a time limit (e.g. I will spend one hour of training with my sister by this Friday)
Example of finished SMART goal:
“I will ask my sister by end of tomorrow to come over and spend 1 hour with me this week, showing me how to do X, Y, and Z in the computer program”.
Do the same for each of the barriers you have identified. And then take action on those SMART goals!
Update your plan
If you are behind on your plan, it needs some updating. You are going to need to move the uncompleted tasks listed in January-March to the April-December section. That means you will also need to get more done in the time that remains in this year than you had initially planned for. This activity often makes people realize they have to work even harder now to catch up, and that they better not waste any more time!
Check in regularly
Now that you’ve updated your plan, you want to make sure you stick to it more closely than you did for the first 3 months of this year. Don’t wait another three months before looking at it again! Make it a point to check in on your plan every month to make sure you are still on track.
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So, you made an initial plan, and you’ve checked it and updated it…now make that important work count by committing to sticking to your plan more closely for the rest of the year.
Cheers,
Tim
Helping you engineer the business of you
p.s. Want to accelerate your self-employment success? Join our community, the Free Agent Collective.