Do you find yourself looking around at all those amazing successful entrepreneurs out there, other businesses and people in the networks your in and feeling shitty because you feel like you’re the only one who doesn’t seem to be able to smash the goals that you do set and earn a consistent income? I’ve been there and I know you’re wondering what you’re doing wrong, do here’s my top tips to smashing those goals in 2021.

1. Connect at an emotional level

There’s some a whole range of reasons that they are successful, but one of the key things is that they are connecting to their goals on an emotional level. At this point you’re probably thinking, yeah, well, my goal to ear six figures a year would make me feel good. But that isn’t enough. You need to dg really deep into that why so you know exactly why it would make you feel great.

If you’re kids have been through the phase of ‘but why?’ then you will have no problem with this task. Just keep asking yourself and write down or voice note your whys.

2. Set boundaries

You’ve heard the phrase ‘you’ve got to slow down to speed up’, well this is really true. Working constantly, thinking about your business constantly and scrolling on social media in every moment that you have your phone in your hand doing ‘research’ (aka comparing yourself to others) is not healthy. We need to rest our brains and our bodies and recharge. Stepping away means we can come back with a fresh focus and drive for our business and our tasks.

3. Plan your Life.

Plan out your holidays. Put in the time you want to be off. Just block it out. Then you know when your rest periods are. You aren’t deciding if you feel like you’ve achieved enough or have ‘earned’ a break this way (because you’ll never take one otherwise).

Next plan out your ideal week. Plan out the hours that you want to work, drop in your client facing work slots and then look at what’s left. This is where you are going to do only THE MOST IMPORTANT TASKS that will move your business forwards. So, creating your website and logo can definitely take a back seat to activities that result in actual conversations. Because this is where you’re going to grow your business.

4. Hydrate and eat

I have always been shite at hydrating and would be so frantic and ‘busy’ that I didn’t even stop when my bladder was bursting let alone stop to eat. I set myself the task last autumn to start hydrating more to help me become more productive. Now, I’m not a gadget fanatic, but I saw this when with one of my clients and it is a game changed. It’s a little gadget that clips onto your water bottle and it flashes at you when you haven’t hydrated enough. And then it keeps flashing more and more frequently and intensely until you drink. It has totally changed my habits around hydration. The link for it is here. LINK https://www.ulla.io/

Ok, so I’m the worse. Since having kids I’ve lived on waaaay too much sugar to try and help me get through the days after interrupted nights sleep. Yep, logic always said eat well, but when you just can’t be fecked as you’re tired, I would grab the crap. If you actually stock up (if you don’t want to batch cook/prepare) at the start of the week though AND build in regular breaks during your day, you will be less likely to grab the crap as you’re hunger pangs haven’t taken over all willpower you have around food. Putting the right stuff into your body definitely does help with focus and productivity.

5. Put the blinkers on

Put your phone on silent, turn off the notifications and use a focus or the Pomodoro app on your phone. Then work like crazy during those blocks of time on only 1 task at a time. It takes the brain 23 minutes and 15 seconds to return to a task after interruption. So, if you’re writing a blog and decide to quickly check your Facebook feed, messages, emails…whatever, it will take you nearly 256 minutes to be able to get your brain ‘back in the zone’ of productivity. If you’re a working mum and only have the school hours to run your business in and DON’T want to be working evenings (because let’s face it, we are ready for bed before the kids usually right?!), then working efficiently and effectively in the time you have is going to be key. If getting started is a tough one for you then why not download my free guide here.

6. Plan your day the day before.

It’s scientifically proven that if you plan your tasks out the day before (it can take like 2 minutes once you’re into the swing of it) you’re brain is subconsciously working on those things overnight so you are ready to tackle them the next day. I love the pomodoro technique or 25 minute blocks and I look at my tasks and estimate how long they will take. I know that excluding my lunch break I have 8 ½ pomodoro blocks in a day. So I don’t set myself more than that. I also have a timer on my phone for lunch breaks and for 2:30pm so I can start my shut down routine. This is part of my mental ‘clocking off’ routine and helps me as I celebrate my wins for the day (tadah list) and mentally wrap up my work day so I’m not distracted by work when I collect the kids from school.

8. Be accountable

Whether you choose to invest in a coach who will hold you accountable, or you find yourself an accountability buddy who you check in with daily (just a what’s app will do), you are waaaay more likely to achieve your goals as if you aren’t doing the tasks on your list your accountability buddy will call you out. The reason clients make such faster progress when working with a coach is not only in the fact that they are working to tackle a specific area with you that needs developing, but they are holding you accountable and should be calling you out if you aren’t doing things! So decide what is right for you. If you are looking for an accountability partner, why not pop over to my free Facebook group Money Making Mums and drop in a question to see if there’s someone to partner with.

9. Celebrate your wins.

Review and celebrate. Not only quarterly, I do a daily review and celebration as I go through my to do list each day. I reflect on my day and then my week and look at what went well and why and what I could have improved on and the learnings from that. When things are going well, we want to become aware of it so we can repeat that immediately, and things that aren’t going well we want to review what we could do differently to improve on those as we don’t want to waste our precious time and energy on things that aren’t helping us or our business.

10. Turn off the Tech.

Tech is our biggest friend and worse enemy all at the same time. Personally, I’d love to throw my phone away most of the time. The biggest drain on our time can be our phones. With alerts from what’s app, messages, messenger, email notifications, Facebook, Instagram, Linked in, YouTube and more…it’s no wonder we struggle to be productive. Remember, every alert and notification you look at when you’re working it’s just eating another 23 minutes and 15 seconds off your work day…if your day is 5 hours like mine, ask whether you can really afford that. So turn off your notifications on your phone and PC and be fucking intentional. Yes, most of us run our businesses on line these days so need to be in touch on Social Media and other digital platforms, but we can choose when we will do this and time block it into your day. Set your email, autoresponder and Facebook messenger responder for your biz page to say you only check your messages once or twice a day at these times. I was chatting to someone the other day and she said she gets 20-30 messages in an evening from clients about what they can and can’t eat (it’s a detox programme). Now I’d suggest that in that case, have the responder but look at ways to minimise the number of messages. Set up an FAQs section on her website of Facebook page she can send people to.  Tech can also make you feel miserable. You compare yourself to everyone else out there and it bloody eats away at your soul. Absolutely use it for business if that’s the marketing approach you are using, but really do be more intentional with it for sure.

If you want to really get moving this year and start taking action, why not book in for a free strategy call. You will come away with the clarity of what steps you need to take to achieve your goals.