By - Sandi Webster

Four Simple Things to Kick Off 2023!

We are already in the third week of 2023. If you haven’t started working on your 2023 plan, you’re already behind! Here are four ways to get 2023 kicked off and plan for success ahead:

  1. Do one thing toward your goal. Write down one thing per quarter that you would like to accomplish. Goals can be vast and daunting, but if you break them down into manageable, actionable parts, it’s easier to accomplish. For example, one of my goals this year is to create a speaker reel. For January, I will be gathering clips and photos of speaking engagements that I’ve done so that, next month, I can give them to my assistant to start working on a reel.
  2. Start using your calendar to track your progress. This is a time management technique that improves your productivity. Last year, I started to color-code my calendar to show the status of my activities.
    • Green means “completed.”
    • Yellow means I started the task and is now “in progress.”
    • Red means “Not Done.”
    • Blue means “Busy.”

The colors make it easy to tell how my day is going visually, and when I look at my week, I know the challenges I need to carry over to another week.

3. Set aside one hour per day for analytics. We never take the time to analyze past projects to know what worked or where we can do better. Scheduling time to work on your goals and get them done. Did we meet or surpass our goals last year? What learnings did we get? What action(s) did we do differently that made your goals happen? If you do this at the end of your day

4. Schedule a vacation or time off work. If you want to take a break or some time off, select a week and add it to your calendar. Better yet, go to TravelZoo and book a vacation package! If you do it at the beginning of the year, you can let everyone know you will be unavailable that week. It also gives you something to look forward to for months. Last year, I booked to go to The Maldives in January 2023, and I’m writing this blog from there!

Creating a process doesn’t make meeting your goals seem as daunting. Now, you can look forward to facing 2023 with a renewed desire to get things done!