Check up and a tune up

April is a great time to take stock of how your year is travelling. By the end of the month we'll be 1/3 of the way through the year. The combination of school holidays, Easter and Anzac Day gives you the chance to reflect, recharge and refresh your batteries.

I find it useful to do a quick review in April, asking myself 3 questions: 

1. What do I need to be doing more of?

2. What do I need to doing less of?

3. What's the one small thing I could do that would make a big difference to my life?

I like to apply these questions to my business as well as my personal life.

 1. What do I need to be doing more of?

This could involve more quality 1 on 1's with your team. What about scheduling a 20 minute weekly catch up at the same time each week? What about sharpening up your decision making? Have you been avoiding making hard decisions since the start of the year? This can be draining. Why not make some of those tough decisions by the end of April? What about phone calls? 1 more outbound call each day to new and existing clients gives you 20 more calls per month. Try an extra 5 per day and you’ve made an extra 100 in a month. What about exercise? How are you getting on with those goals you set yourself at the start of the year? No need to wait until the end of the year to restart. Set yourself some new SMART goals, making the most of the beautiful spring weather.

2. What do I need to do less of?

You might want to review your own approach to Social Media. Are you losing a valuable 30 minutes for no real benefit? What about meetings? Are you attending too many meetings that you'd be better off avoiding? What about putting a stop to checking work emails first thing in the morning or last thing at night? How about procrastinating? Less stalling and more action.

3. What's the one small thing that I could do that would make a big difference to my business or my life?

Could you allocate the first 30 minutes of your working day purely to your team? Could you avoid emailing people who are within walking distance of your desk? Could you get off the bus 3 stops earlier and enjoy the 15 minute walk to work. Take the stairs every day as opposed to the lift? Could you find 5 minutes a day to meditate, helping you to reset and refocus? Could you make a conscious effort to either add something healthy to your diet or remove something unhealthy. As a starting point, why not try it for 30 days? I worked with a guy in 2017 who as part of a 30 day challenge stopped drinking Coke. I saw him last week and he informed me that he hasn't drunk Coke for 18 months. He's never felt better.

Sometimes it's just one small change that can make a very big difference to your life. 

Posted in Leadership; Tagged Leadership, Habits; Posted 10 April 2019 by Steve Herzberg