How to create an effective Weekly Plan

It’s necessary for business owners or people employed in leadership and key roles to plan effectively. A simple way to achieve this is to complement the work you schedule each day with a weekly planning regime. To take the time to reflect and strategize and set the course for next week to ensure you’re working towards achieving your key targeted outcomes. If you’re not doing this then maybe you feel you’re too busy or don’t need to do it, but with all due respect, I think that’s just excuses for not having a weekly planning process.

Underachieving sucks!!!

Underachieve: To perform below expectations or achieve less than expected, especially by others

Just like it was yesterday, I remember the very first time I underachieved. I forget how old I was but I was on a school excursion and all I had to do was to swim the length of the local swimming pool to earn The Herald swim certificate. I wasn’t a great swimmer but I was confident enough I could swim the required distance because all my friends were able to do it. About halfway into the swim I was struggling to stay in stroke and I still recall the sense of frustration and disappointment when the teacher told me to “get out of the pool, you won’t be getting The Herald today.” This childhood memory didn’t scar me, but the feelings of frustration or disappointment have been similar throughout my life whenever I have underachieved.

5 ways to lead a team dispersed across remote locations

Many workplaces today have dispersed teams where strategies to attract and retain top talent includes having a flexible work environment where workers are able to work from home. And the majority of workers feel more effective working in this manner as a recent survey highlighted that 91% of remote workers reported they’re more productive working remotely (Source: What leaders need to know about remote workers from TINYpulse who specialise in employee engagement).

2 myths that impact how you work with email

I don’t like the idea of 1 size fits all. I can understand how 1 size could apply to many but we’re too unique as individuals for it to be applied to everyone. For instance, I doubt a 1 size fits all baseball cap is the right size an entire family. It will fit some members of the family, but it’s probably too small for someone’s head (ok that’s me!!!), while being too big for someone else.

Get rid of the wish list

In the work environment I’m not a fan of what I refer to as the wish list. To me the wish list are the things you know might need to be done but don’t have sufficient conviction to action them. These are the items that might even make it to your to do list but you prioritise other work over them. To get more done each day and each week you need to get rid of the wish list.

Why your schedule fails and what to do about it

In order to lead others, you need to be able to manage yourself. Whether you’re a manager or not, many business people fail at managing themselves when it comes to successfully locking in their schedule and actioning the tasks on it. There’s a multitude of reasons but the 2 biggest are:

  • The schedule’s unrealistic
  • You’re not committed to the schedule

The 6 benefits of a weekly plan

I don’t get it why so many busy business people in their work environment don’t have a cadence of a weekly plan. It’s not like they don’t have the time to do it (although that’s the usual excuse) because it can be as simple as a 10 – 15 minute activity. It has to be more fundamental that they either don’t see the value in it, have the discipline to do it each week or have the confidence to plan and execute it.

Do you perform well when it counts the most?

Game 1 of the first week of the 2016 AFL finals kicked off in exciting fashion with the Western Bulldogs upsetting the West Coast Eagles. Game 2 was even more thrilling with a kick after the siren deciding the outcome of the Geelong and Hawthorn game. Coaches say there’s greater intensity in finals and it’s always interesting to see storylines unfold and how players and teams perform at the most important part of the season.  

Are you scalable and sustainable?

Success is difficult to attain in business, sport and even our personal lives. There seems to be competition for our time and attention in everything we do. I was watching TV when the latest NAB more than money campaign said: “on average only 50% of new businesses actually succeed.” The statement hit me right between the eyes because I’ve recently been thinking about what it takes to be both scalable and sustainable.