Building in Accountability
The lazy days of summer are fast approaching, and building in accountability is imperative for small business owners who want to stay consistent. You need to keep moving towards your vision and goals.
Although people easily say that summer is a slower time in business, sometimes what slows down is actually you. The heat, the pool, the late sunsets can all lure you to take it easy, drop what you’re doing, and live a fantasy Facebook summer life.
We all seem to get more done when there’s more to get done. If your business is, in fact, slower in the summer, staying focused can be a challenge. Distractions are amplified when your daily schedule has too many open spaces.
I have yet to work with a small business owner who doesn’t change their schedule in some way during the summer - starting a little earlier and cutting out by early afternoon, taking Fridays and/or Mondays off, or the whole month of July, whatever it might be.
If you have school age children, your mind might convince you that ten weeks off would be nice for you, too. There’s so much fun to be had at playgrounds and swimming holes, and lots of driving and carpooling to camp and playdates. There can be plenty of unstructured time that leaves you less than motivated. Whether you like it or not, having kids of any age around for the summer will impact your schedule.
And, you might actually want to take time for the beach or the pool, and you deserve it. You likely started your business - at least in some little part, for flexibility. Summer is definitely a time when you want to flex those schedule muscles.
Regardless of the time you take off, you’ve worked hard all year - you don’t want to lose traction or momentum during the summer. You might have big things on tap for the fall and you want to have them ready to go. Maybe summer IS a big time of year for YOUR business.
Whatever combination of circumstances describes your work situation, you want to make sure you keep things on track AND enjoy your summer.
Set your summer schedule
Block off holidays, vacations, days or chunks of days you want to take off, and schedule in kids’ activities.
Keep an eye on the weather. If there’s going to be a rainy day or two, work a little more so you can free up time on nicer days.
Rearrange your work days. If you’re going to slip on your bathing suit to head to the beach anyway, no sense in wasting time getting ready for zoom. Get up and start working early. You can power nap on the sand.
Make sure your automated scheduler matches - you don’t want to spend time rescheduling meetings that get booked during times you don’t intend to work.
Set your summer goals, professional and personal
You have 14 weeks between Memorial Day and Labor Day. That leaves 38 weeks to get a little more done so you can do less in the summer. Don’t just take annual goals and divide them equally between the months. Think about what you REALISTICALLY can achieve over the summer. Take a peek at the fall. Are there things you want to have in place, programs you want to launch? What needs to happen over the summer to set you up for fall?
Break those goals down into an executable plan and maintain a task management system to stay on top of your action items. When your tasks are small enough to accomplish easily, you can get a bunch done quickly.
Be aware of what really needs to get done each week. Take the time to plan - an hour spent planning will save you countless hours of spinning your wheels.
And yes, getting a tan can be a goal if you want it to be.
Build in accountability
Find an accountability partner to touch base with daily or weekly, join an accountability group or program, or hire an accountability coach.
Make sure they know what you need to accomplish and won’t hesitate to call you out on it in a loving and respectful way.
What level of support do you need to keep you on track and moving forward?
Schedule a time to talk and we can make a summer success plan for you and your business.
P.S. Ready to stop spinning in place and get to the other side of your goals? Here are several ways I can help:
Download my free weekly planning guide - it will help you become more intentional with your time, develop a clear action plan for your week, and ensure that you are focusing on activities that will move your business forward - Download Now
Join our next CEO Power Planning Session and spend two and a half hours ON your business. During this facilitated workshop, you’ll set and prioritize your next 12-week goals, break them down into an executable action plan and create a resource plan - Join the Wait List
***THE NEXT CLOSE THE GAP STARTS JUNE 14, 2023*** Apply for the next Close the Gap Program and stay on track to achieve your most important goals. 1:1 support and guidance on prioritizing goals, creating a plan and putting structure and routines in place. Then 12 weeks of group support around execution. - Apply today