September is the time of year when our email boxes are overflowing with tips on being motivated, organised and productive. After a long break in August, if you have settled with the French way of life, it is time to re-organise your family’s activities and get back to work.
From my own point of view, the fact that kids are going back to school means that my productivity and free time has sky-rocketed without any effort! It is more a question of refocusing on key objectives and resetting a daily or autumn routine.
In this article, I’m sharing some practical tips on how to review your objectives and reorganising your daily routine.
1 - Catching-up with your yearly objectives
You might work on a calendar year or school year, for which you are setting some yearly business and/or personal objectives. I tend to prefer the calendar year, and September just marks the last quarter of the year, so it is more a question of checking what has been done so far, then identifying those goals that I want to focus on.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself:
- What were your initial objectives?
- What are you proud to have achieved so far?
- Have some goals become obsolete or not a priority anymore?
- Which goals do you want to focus on for this last quarter?
- Which goals will have the biggest impact on your business or your wellbeing?
For the remainder of 2021, I am focusing on finalising my new online course My French Business, as well as getting involved and supporting a local non-profit association on fighting poverty and precariousness.
Getting back into action:
- Choose a maximum of 2 or 3 goals to focus on.
- Break them down into a list of small actions.
- Which ones can you start working on?
- Spread these actions until mid-December.
- Put blinders on to ignore other distractions.
2 - Resetting a daily routine
Setting a daily routine helps tremendously to be more motivated and get into action. It also helps to focus on what makes you happy and what is important to you, rather than go through an endless list of to-dos.
It is easier to match certain types of activity based on your energy level. For instance, I enjoy working on new things and being creative and my brain is sharper for this in the morning. I therefore keep the mornings for business development, writing articles, developing courses and marketing, while keeping the afternoon for customer calls, business registrations and customer service.
Things to look at to set your ideal routine:
- Think of a typical day and week.
- Identify when you are at your most creative. Are you a morning, afternoon or evening person?
- When are you in a more automatic mood and going for basic tasks?
- Time-block your agenda with your creative time to work for your business development projects (strategy, writing, communication, design, creating new products). Then time-block for more basic or repetitive tasks.
- If you have children, family commitments, or are employed, block the time that is actually available for your activity. It could be just one hour here or 2 hours in the evening. What can you fit in, based on your business priorities and your energy level?
- Look at your weekly agenda, does it reflect your top 3 goals? If not, re-arrange your agenda accordingly.
Add fun to your routine every day, by planning small activities that will put you into a good mood. Do you need some time to exercise, go for a walk with your dog (that’s me!), some time to read, catch up with a friend for a coffee?
What are your goals for the end of the year and which are your favorite routines?
Share your best tips with me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
