Reach Your Goals Faster without Filling Every Hour of Your Day

What the heck? Did you know that the average person has more than 40 hours of work on their to do list at any given time? Now, listen, if you are working to reach goals, if you have ambition and motivation like I know you do, you probably have way more than 40 hours of work on your to do list right now. Plus, on top of that, things are going to come up. You're going to have to go to an unexpected doctor's appointment. You're going to have to go to an unexpected dentist appointment or maybe the orthodontist. I've been doing a lot of those lately with the kids. A vacation is going to come up that you want to go on. A work project isn't going to go exactly as planned, and it's going to take you longer and spill over into all the things that to do list could be quite out of control. And the plans that we are building for this year could quickly start. Like, wait, what, what. What's happening? But you've got this. You've got this. No matter what comes up, I want you to be ready for it. You're going to be ready for rainy days, and you're going to stay ready for rainy days using the process I'm going to share with you in this video because we want to maximize your success and we want to make sure that you reaching your goals is as inevitable and as it can possibly be. And to do that, you're going to have to stay close to your goals. We're going to have to keep those goals front and center, make sure we're prioritizing and we're shifting in alignment with staying on track with those goals. But also we're going to design your week so that you have checkpoints, so that you know if things start to get off track, you're going to be ahead of the game. You're going to be ready, you're going to have margin. So let's break this down. First up, as we think about staying on track to. To reach your goals, number one, I want to invite you to not fill up your calendar 100%. Instead, I want to think. I want you to think about only filling your calendar to 60 to 80% of capacity. Why is this? Why don't I want you to fill every minute in your calendar? Because things are going to come up. Things might take longer than you expected. A friend may come into town. You're like, well, I got this big project. I don't know. But it's really. You're only going to be here for a couple hours. Oh my gosh. You want to be able to shift some things around and have space and time for the unexpected without everything crumbling. So with that in mind, if you have 40 hours a week available for working time. Let me actually just do that math real quick. 40 hours times 0.8. I like to double check it. Yes, that's 32. And. Okay, here we go. Let's say you've got 40 hours available for work in any given week. Now, this is just an example. Maybe you only work 24 hours a week like I do. Maybe you have a full time job, you work 40 hours a week, but you have 20 hours available for your side hustle. Right? This is going to look different for each one of us. And of course, there is some strategy behind how many hours you may want to be working and how you may break this down. But that's for another conversation. For now, I want you to identify how many hours you have available for work. And let's go with 40 hours a week, because that's, that's common. That's pretty average. So then if you're going to only book in activity for 60 to 80% of that, that means that you're going to only have work that fills 24 to 32 hours per day, week. Now what about the rest of that time? If you max out and fill up your calendar to 80%, what do you do with the other eight hours a week? You give yourself margin. You give yourself room for magic to unfold. You give yourself room for the unexpected. And you give yourself room if things aren't totally smooth sailing so that you have time and space, space to correct and adjust and then get back on track to where you actually want to be going. So the first strategy and the first invitation I make to you is to identify how much time you have available for work and commit to only filling it to 60 or 80% this year. And maybe you want to go in right now and block that other 20 to 40%. So, so it doesn't fill up unexpectedly with calls and meetings and people booking meetings with you unexpectedly. Number two, I want to invite you to block 20 minutes on Monday and 20 minutes on Friday to check in with your goals in the modern CEO. This is Monday CEO time and this is Friday CEO time. If you're using this in your personal life, you may call it something else, like sunrise Monday and sunset time. I also refer to it. I go, we got a lot. You can call this anything, call it whatever you want, but I want you to have Monday CEO time and a Friday CEO time block for 20 minutes, where you look at on Monday, what do I need to do this week? Based on the plan that we built in the last video, what do I need to do this week to make sure I stay on track with that goal? Do I need to help anyone with that? Or do I need to help anyone help me reach these goals or do I need to ask for help from anyone to make sure I can get these things done this week? And lastly, mark time on your calendar to ensure that you have the space to get those things done. This should not take you more than 20 minutes because you built the plan and because you also have that Friday block. And in that Friday 20 minute block, you're going to look back on the week and identify am I on track with my plan? Am I not on track with my plan? What do I need to pull forward into next week? And what do I need to do next week to make sure I stay on track with this plan? In addition, do I need to reach out to anyone for some help? And on Friday, you're looking at your calendar for next week and making sure there are no double bookings, making sure that you have space to execute those things that you need to complete. Maybe there is some carryover. So you need more time than you planned on or more time than you expected. Where is that time coming from? Do you need to move some things around? Also in that Friday time, I pause and do what I call our reflect and rise exercise, where I reflect on areas of my life that are important to me. I reflect on my family, I reflect on my wellness. I reflect on my personal and my business financials. I reflect on my businesses. Businesses is a separate category from me, from my clients and my client relationships. And then I also look at my soul fuel. Did I get enough soul fuel in for the week? Am I feeling nourished in my soul? And the last category that I look at is just generally, how am I generally feeling? All of these things might be good, I just feel a little off. What is that? Let me dig into that. Or all of these things are terrible, but I feel great. Why is that? What's happening there? So I also on Friday complete a life or a holistic reflection, just a checkpoint. How am I doing? And then your Friday, because you look back and you're looking ahead to next week. Your week, your next week just started on Friday. So you can have some ease in the weekend or if you've got to work, you know what you need to get done. You're focused, you're clear. Because you have a plan and you checked in with that plan and you created space and time for that. And on Friday, you may spend a little bit more time than Monday. Still. This is about a 20 minute exercise because again, you've already laid the foundation. And Monday, you might not even need that full 20 minutes. It might just be five or 10 minutes because you did most of that planning, that advanced work to get yourself into implementation mode on Friday. So it is done. You are ahead of the game, my friend, and you're going to stay ahead of the game all year because you're going to have this cycle in place. Monday, Friday, Monday, Friday, Monday, Friday. Now, granted, this may take a minute for you to get in this cycle. Everything that we've reviewed so far is a one time thing. You create that goal card, you're going to move it around, you prioritize so you know how you're going to get to your destination. And you mapped out the action steps. You, you know where we're stopping, when what is happening, when what comes first, second, third. You mapped that out. This is something that people often say to me, like, ooh, ooh, I keep forgetting I have it on my calendar, but I'm ignoring it. Ignore it at your peril. But also no stress, no guilt, no shame. Put it on your calendar and eventually you're like, maybe I should actually do this Friday CEO time. Maybe I should actually plan my week ahead so I don't feel like I'm scrambling throughout the week or wondering what's going on. And you might even get to the 90 days and be like, well, that didn't work. Try it. That didn't work. But did I really work this plan? Did I really check in regularly? This is so dang simple. But the impact that it can have on your business and your life is exponential. So, so give it a try. Monday, Friday, just give yourself 20 minutes to go through those areas of reflection and checking in and setting yourself up for success and resetting your calendar for the week ahead. And you will be thinking to yourself every day when you sit down to work and they're like, oh, I got this. Yes, you do. And then the last area I want you to think about to set yourself up for success in the year ahead is to consider what are we going to do when motivation isn't there, when I get sick, when I'm just, I'm not feeling it. Build that list of things that you can and do to support yourself now. So when that moment comes up, you already know, will you? I Call this the rainy day plan, because it's not going to be sunshine and roses all of the time. So when there is a rainy day, what are you gonna do? Are you gonna reach out to someone? Are you gonna take a break? Are you gonna go grab coffee? Are you gonna shift your physical space? Sometimes just shifting the space that I am in. Going to a coffee shop to work has exponential impact, blocking distractions. Maybe you just realize, oh, my gosh, I'm getting so many notifications. I'm focused on all of those notifications and not focused on my plan and on my goal right now. So bring it back. Maybe you need to shuffle some action items around. Oh, my gosh, I'm a little bit behind on this. Or I've got some new data, so those things need to change. Or not feeling this and it's not happening, and I am procrastinating it. Okay, let's shift. Let's get you back in that state of action and flow. One other item that I tuck in my rainy day kit is to just stand with my arms wide open. Stand with your arms wide open and shift your physical energy and your physical being as well. Maybe I'll take a bath or a shower. Maybe I'll go outside and get some movement in. Maybe you'll take a nap, meditate. Maybe you'll journal and add any number of other things to this rainy day kit that you have ready to go. When things are not going exactly how you expected and you're not feeling how you want to be feeling because it's going to happen. We are human. This is natural. So give yourself grace and give yourself a hug. Go get a hug from someone. Feel the hug that I will send you at any given time throughout the year when you hit these roadblocks and these obstacles. And then when you're ready, let's get back in action. Let's reset things in a way that feels good and beautiful for you so that you can bring these goals to life in the year ahead. With that, we walked through three steps to help you stay on track to make meeting your goals inevitable. This year, I want to invite you to join me in the next episode where I'm going to break down my goals for the year and take you behind the scenes on what I have planned for the year and why I'm thinking about things the way I am and why I have structured things the way that I have. With that, pack up your rainy day kit. Mark your Monday and your Friday so that you have your CEO time or your sunrise, sunset time. And block time on your calendar. And try not to schedule yourself to 100% this year, but give yourself some buffer so you have margin for magic to unfold. I will see you in our next episode. Happy New Year. And let's keep on bringing these plans to life.