Are you sick of hearing about New Year Resolutions yet? I know I am! All the expectation and pressure we put on ourselves at this time of year is ridiculous!
We spend the last 10 days of December munching our way through copious amounts of minces pies, cheese and chocolates, not to mention all the alcohol we get through, then as soon as January hits… BOOM! We promise ourselves no more alcohol, no more sugar, no more fatty foods… we tell ourselves that we have to be happier this year, we have to exercise more, we have to spend at least 30 minutes walking… it’s no wonder we feel like failures by mid-month!
So, the good news is this blog post isn’t about goals, or resolutions, or things you need to stop doing.
The following tips are things you can start doing in your coaching business at any time of the year.
These tips will help you stay on top of your admin so you can focus on spending more time doing whatever you want to do!
And instead of calling them resolutions, I’m calling them Aspirations 🙂
Aspiration 1: To not run around like a headless chicken when it comes to year end accounts
We all know how tedious accounts are – and we also know what a pain in the a** it is at the end of the financial year trying to get all the receipts together for the accountant!
A really quick way to overcome this is to take a photo of receipts as soon as you get them, save them into a folder for that month, then you can upload the folder to something like Dropbox or Google Drive and share it with your bookkeeper / accountant.
Try to get into the habit of doing this as soon as you get the receipt – it literally takes a minute and just think of the time you’ll save later on!
Aspiration 2: To keep your focus sharp by having a clutter-free screen
If you’ve ever de-cluttered your home or office you’ll know how uplifting it can be. It’s as though a fog clears from inside your head when you’re in a clutter free space.
So why don’t you try doing it for your laptop and de-clutter your desktop!
All those files and photos that are randomly dotted around your screen? Put them into folders! And I don’t mean have lots of random folders on your desktop instead of files! Try to keep the number of folders to a minimum.
Make sure your desktop background is something that inspires you… something that you actually want to see – this will help stop you from covering the image with hundreds of folders/files!
Set up a clear, concise structure for saving your files and naming folders, and make sure you follow the same structure each time – this will make it easier to find what you’re looking for and you’ll know exactly what’s contained in each one.
Another quick tip is if you’re saving folders of monthly files e.g. invoices. Instead of calling the folders Jan / Feb / Mar etc, type the number of the month before the name i.e. 1. Jan / 2. Feb / 3. Mar – that way they will be sorted in the correct month order within the folder. Little things like this will really make a difference down the line!
Click here for my video showing another quick tip when naming folders.
Aspiration 3: To finally feel okay about your email inbox
I know I bang on about emails constantly but it’s for your own good 🙂
Try not to skim through your inbox or the email itself, you could easily miss important details – instead allocate a set time each day to deal with them and give them the time they deserve.
Put systems in place to help you deal with your inbox. Setting up autoresponders, applying filters/rules, and setting out email templates are just some of the ways to relieve some of the overwhelm you may feel with your emails.
Aspiration 4: To be savvy about your social media
Do you post on a consistent basis to a few platforms where you know your target audience will be?
Or do you post every now and then when you remember, or when you have a spare 5 minutes?
Try to schedule your posts in advance – even if it’s a few posts each week. Use a scheduler like Buffer or Hootsuite or check out this list of another 9 top scheduling tools. Set aside a few hours each month if you can and schedule the next months worth of posts.
Think of themes or topics for your posts so you could have a new one each month and post content relevant to that theme. It really makes a difference when it comes to planning out your content, believe me!
Aspiration 5: To carry on being Wonderwoman (but only where it matters!)
You may be Wonderwoman but remember you don’t have to do it all yourself!
If you have other members in your team then delegate as much as you can. Your main focus should be on your paying clients not playing with an image on Canva to post on Facebook!
Try to automate systems as much as possible. If you know you spend a lot of time each evening chasing appointment confirmations of 1-2-1 bookings then use a scheduler that integrates with your website.
If it just yourself in your business then there are lots of Virtual Assistants out there 🙂 Speak to other business owners to find out who they use – it’s always best to get recommendations from people, and make sure to take a look at testimonials on VA websites before you outsource!
Lastly there is 1 “resolution” that I would recommend doing if you don’t already, and that is to invest in yourself! It could be self-care, learning a new hobby, going on holiday, upskilling or going for more walks in the countryside – whatever it is, please make sure you do it.
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