The first week of July has arrived and it’s something to celebrate!! We’re not just talking Canada Day and Independence Day for our friends south of us, but we’re talking about the fact that second half of the year is here. What does that mean? It’s a great time to check in on your annual business plans and reset those 2019 goals you set back in January. 

No matter where you are at when it comes to achieving those goals you set out back in January, the good news is that you still have 6 months to make some awesome progress. Once your love-of-country celebrations are over (hello, did you check out our Instagram over the long weekend??) you can flip back in your notes to get reacquainted with the plans you set out for 2019. 

Re-evaluate Your 2019 Goals 

January might seem like it was just yesterday, but let’s get real. It was 6 months ago. Things happen. Growth happens. Change happens. Sit down with the plans you made and ask yourself if they still make sense with where you are RIGHT NOW.  Ask yourself these questions for each goal you set: 

• Does this goal match my current business operations? 
• Does this goal align with my values? 
• Will this goal make me money/increase brand awareness/provide business value for me? 

It’s ok if you shifted in your business and you need to adjust your goals. And if you are carrying along on your predicted path, that’s pretty awesome. Just make sure that the goals you’ve been working towards are still in alignment with you. 

Prioritize Your Goals and Time 

The next step is to prioritize your goals and time.  Go back to your refined goals list and mark each as one of the following: Critical, Important, or Desirable. 

A critical goal is something that must be achieved by a certain date. It’s something that HAS to happen in order for business to continue and you are putting all your available time and resources on it. 

An important goal is something that still needs to be done, but it doesn’t have a fixed deadline. You can be working away at it as you go along, but it’s not task number one. 

A desirable goal is one of those nice to haves. It’s something that you can tackle after you have completed your critical and important goals. 

With your goals prioritized, the next exercise is to look at how you are spending your time and resources. 

Audit Your Use of Time & Resources 

Now that you’ve got an idea if your goals still make sense or not, it’s time to look at your progress in them. And by progress, what we really mean is how you are spending your time. If you aren’t spending your time wisely and dedicated to reaching your goals, well…then you’re not really being productive, are you? (Don’t feel bad, we all get a case of the ‘distracted by shiny objects’ every now and then.)  

A time and resource audit is the perfect way for you to get a realist view at how you are spending your time. It’s usually a bit of a shocker when we realize the time we fritter away. Conducting the audit is actually pretty simple.  

This is how you do it: 

• Get a notebook (or make a spreadsheet…whatever works best for you) 
• Along the left side column write out the hours of your workday on every 3rd or 4th line, so say from 9am to 5pm if that’s what you do 
• Along the top row write out the days of the week that you work, assuming Monday to Friday 
• For each hourly block, you are going to record what tasks you completed for the whole week 

At the end of the week, review where you are spending your time. Are you happy with how much time you are spending on various tasks? Or are you spending waaaay too much time doing things that could be done a lot faster if you were working smarter, not harder? Or maybe you’ve got a lot of the shiny-object thing going on.  

On a separate page record what tools or resources you are currently using for each task or task group. Ask yourself if they are saving you time and being effective for you. If you aren’t using any resources, are there any that you could start using? These can be tech tools like calendars, auto responders, social media schedulers, workflow tools, and even contractors that you source work out to. Check out our posts about how to hire a contractor and tips on how to choose automation tools to help you along. 

The last step is to spend some time with your calendar going forward and start to schedule your time, tasks, and resources effectively to align with your prioritized goals. By the time December 2019 rolls around, you’ll be able to look back at the last 6 months and pat yourself on the back for taking action on your goals. 

One last thing about July….don’t forget to schedule a little down time for sunshine, patios, pools, lakes, parks, and whatever else it is you love to do in the summer!