A wall calendar works for your business, for your family schedule, and for your personal life
Sue Lenthe interviewed me for an article in the Northern Colorado Business Report on “Planning for a More Successful New Year.” Perfect timing, since every November I tell all my audiences to plan now for what you want to accomplish for next year. I told Sue that sometimes a very simple tool can get you headed in the right direction.
For instance, in December drop by Citizen printing (at 1309 Webster, on the east side of Ft. Collins just north of Mulberry) and get a free “Planning Calendar.” (please check to see if they are still offering this promotion) Hang this year-at-a-glance calendar where you can see it every day. Get a supply of those round colored dots (garage sale dots or labels) and assign special meaning to each color. Decide what you want to accomplish.
For instance, Linda Sioux Rosen always sends out a personalized photo postcard for the Holiday season. She might put a green dot on December 10th on her calendar, with the notation “mail out cards.” She knows it takes about two weeks for the cards to be printed, so she puts a yellow dot on November 10th, with the notation “card to printer.” But she knows she has to have a special photo taken outside with her Clydesdale draft horse for the card, and the weather is unpredictable, so she puts a red dot on September 10th with the notation “take photos for Holiday card.” See how by starting with her goal and working backwards she’s able to visualize what she needs to do to make it happen–without STRESS?
By using the wall calendar to target dates for marketing campaigns, you get the perspective you need to plan to make it happen. You’ll focus on what you have to do in January to make your client party happen in June! Dots can mark dates, goals, meetings, deadlines, vacation time, birthdays–whatever you wish. The wall calendar works for your business, for your family schedule, and for your personal life as well. It gives you perspective and makes you at least feel like you have a bit of control. No last minute panic or projects done in a hap-hazard way because you were rushed! Amazing, isn’t it, how such a simple FREE tool can make you a more successful business person?
Don’t you agree that some people know how to make ordinary things more fun? Diana McKinney (of Solid Sound Entertainment) had a suggestion for those of us who make ‘to do’ lists on yellow pads, just for the pleasure of crossing off items we’ve accomplished. Diana says, “If you use a highlighter when marking items off your ‘to do’ list, it really does ‘show’ what you have done.” Yes, rather spectacularly!
My friend Laureen Persson the massage therapist would agree. She uses colored sticky notes for her ‘to do’ lists in her little day planner AND colored pens! You should see her on a road trip–her maps are a symphony of different colors for the trip out, the trip back, and optional side jaunts. I suspect that these folks lead colorful lives in many, many ways, eh?
