My current goal is to make August my best month yet in terms of productivity and time management. And so far, everything is moving along smoothly. Sure, there are a few things I still need to hammer out. But the pieces are falling into place and I'm getting quite a bit done.
How are your goals for August shaping up thus far? I know it's only been a few days, but sometimes, you can get a feel for how things are going to progress by how you start.
While I do have a lot of goals, every one of them is completely achievable if I put in the effort.
Looking at Everything As a Business
One thing that has helped me stay the course this week is looking at everything like I am running a company and am the only employee. Because technically, I am.
All of my blogs and YouTube channels have a specific purpose, and it's not to just make as much money as possible. Most are purely focused on helping one group of people or another. So, in a sense, they are kind of like a business as they provide a service by sharing information to the general public.
Once I get that into my head, it's quite a bit easier to maintain a "work schedule."
Sure, at the moment, all of my side projects only help a handful of people. But those people are relying on me to stay the course and continue my efforts. In fact, there are a lot of fans eagerly awaiting for me to publish my next book.
With all of this in mind, I look at my day and treat it as though I would if I was working any other job in my past. It's a solid, 8 to 5 schedule where I work to improve my clients as well as myself. This means breaking a lot of negative habits I've developed over the years regarding my personal projects while working from home.
As I've said before, I need to take myself as seriously as I do my clients. Technically, I am my own client and need to treat me as such.
Still Playing Catch-up From Covid
One of the more fun parts of this past week is still playing catch-up after having to deal with covid for a week and a half. Given the nature of my biggest client's projects, this is going to take some time. Luckily, they are very understanding and love the work I do.
I'm also trying to get back on the ball when it comes to the blogs and YouTube channel. July was supposed to be my month of awesomeness.
The thing to keep in mind, though, is that you can't get too upset at yourself when things like this happen. Life has a way of tossing unavoidable obstacles in your path. Yes, they'll disrupt your flow and probably decimate your goals for the month. But they are often things you have no control over.
For instance, I can stay mad that my friend gave me covid. Or, I can simply move on and change the goals I wanted for July to August. Things happen, and I refuse to dwell on situations that I am unable to change.
At any rate, this just guarantees that I have enough of a workload to keep me busy all month. As long as I can maintain a good workflow and practice good time management skills, I should annihilate all of my previous monthly records.
Meeting All of My Goals for August
It's only been four days (because today isn't over yet), but I'm meeting all of my goals thus far and look forward to keeping up the goodness. Actually, the only goal I'm not meeting for August at the moment is my weight loss goal. But that's a different story.
I'm feeling so confident about this month that I'm going to go through my previous spreadsheets to see what my best month was for productivity. The idea is to break that record.
I can do this quite easily because I am a dork when it comes to recording my day in a spreadsheet and have everything saved over the past 10 years. I've been keeping track of every minute and every word I write for clients and myself since January of 2012. This has helped me grow into the success that I am today.
Anyway, I'll keep you updated next Friday when I find my best month and what I have to do to shatter that record. In fact, I'm going to look at the spreadsheets as soon as I finish this post.
Needless to say, I'm feeling quite confident today.
Let's Keep it Going!
The point of all this is to show how effective changing your mindset can be when you want something bad enough. For example, one point I made during Tuesday's podcast for CrossingColorado.com was, "you want to lose weight, just not bad enough to do anything about it." That statement works in just about everything in life.
I want August to be my most amazing month yet. And I am going to do something about it. It all starts with having that positive frame of mind and working on self-confidence.
Let's see what we can do to make this an epic month. Don't fret about past issues. Learn from them and keep moving forward.