Yes! Holiday season is upon us! You’ve probably bookmarked a dozen Black Friday sites and eaten several “last pieces” of candy you weren’t supposed to have in the first place. Nothing wrong with either, they’re official starts to the season.
But, what are you doing with this time to move forward?
The country tends to slow down a bit the week of Thanksgiving, allowing us a chance to create space. Space for reflecting, space for resetting, and space for planning. You may not have the luxury of sitting at a desk, running a diffuser, and being uninterrupted all day. You may have to hide in your closet, hunker in a conference room, or move quietly in the office with the lights off (I’ve done all of this) to get some time. But whether it’s 20 minutes, or 2 hours, look on your calendar right now and book a time. Then, use this tip to give yourself a leg up.
Put the “pro” in Progress
If time is limited, don’t wait until your scheduled time to sit down and hope you’re divinely inspired. Start digging up old goals, strategic plans, resolutions, and abandoned project plans to get a better handle on what you want to plan around.
The actual planning will look different depending on the person or organization.
Nonprofits and charities tend to look back and prep for the last big fundraising pushes. I tell clients to look forward. Sure, gather the stories, outcomes (not outputs), achievements and numbers from 2019. By all means, talk about what you’ve done. But start putting together a picture of what lies ahead too. What do donors and funders have to look ahead to? What new opportunities can you jump on? How can supporters help? What partnership possibilities are there? Thanksgiving week is the time to start short term planning for Q1 of 2020 and putting together the blueprints and plans for what all of this looks like.
Nonprofits and charities also tend to have grant funds that need to be spent before the year ends. Rather than spending the money on last minute random items, take the plans and blueprints you put together now to spend impactfully in preparation for next year.
For individuals, we always seem to put the complicated goals and resolutions off until the end of the year don’t we? Thanksgiving week is a great time to look at outstanding goals and think about what you may be stuck on, concerned with, or fearful of. Then, plan around what you need to help with what comes up.
For many, starting a business is something that consistently gets pushed off. People can be become overwhelmed with their questions and get stuck. So planning might look like setting up a meeting to get your questions answered, then having a blueprint put together where you can see high level where you are, what you need, and what’s coming up.
Lastly, for my purpose-driven businesses, Thanksgiving week is a great time to reflect on what worked throughout the year, what didn’t work, what we didn’t get to, and what we might experiment on by the year-end. Planning might be a brainstorm on how to create more positive impact with the business, or finding new funding sources. Or, a blueprint for how we can get back on track with that project we abandoned but really want to start on.
It’s All About the Plan
Once you sit down to start planning, you may have sweets, bored children, Netflix, or something else calling your name. Just in case, I’m sharing a few posts I wrote on putting together plans or getting started to give you a leg up and focus. There are also a few webinars and resources on the free resource page.
Don’t be tempted. Have a plan.
Photo by Charles 🇵🇭 on Unsplash
If you find yourself still needing help, or checking Instagram every 10 minutes, I’m piloting a Custom Blueprint Service this Black Friday. I’ll post a little more about what this looks like tomorrow. But essentially, I take a project, idea, or initiative and get it all laid out on paper. Then, I cover the resources you’ll need, legal concerns, challenges, possible strategy, and what you currently have that will be a big help. With the blueprint, you can see immediately where you are, what you need to do, and how to get started. Be on the lookout for the post and signup, since I’ll do a limited number this round.
In the meanwhile, enjoy the posts!