Small Business Central Blog from C-Suite Advisors

Do you know Chris Brogan? He’s one of the current gurus of social media, and has some very entertaining and interesting observations about marketing. If you’re looking for practical marketing tips to permit you some online success, you might try subscribing to his e-newsletter here.

His latest newsletter includes a story that resonates with me, “Simple Goals on Paper.” (I couldn’t find this on his website, or I’d have provided the link here.) The story starts with Chris confessing to a less-then-productive yet very “busy” day. (Not that any of US have ever had one…) Then he tells how he turned things around to help keep himself focused. Here is his process:

Step 1: I looked at my bigger goals for the remainder of 2009, and what I plan to do for the first half of 2010.

Step 2: I wrote down three things to accomplish today that would move those goals forward, and I kept them in front of me ALL DAY. I took breaks, but I never deviated from the goals in front of me.

Step 3: I added in two goals that were related to current events, but not tied to my bigger goals, and left those for “if I have time.”

Step 4: I killed every distraction that wasn’t these goals, including closing my email client, shutting off Twitter, and at a few points, even disconnecting from the internet entirely.

Step 5: I reviewed my progress on the day. From there, I re-reviewed my next two months and the first half of 2010, and then set out goals for the next few days.

It’s the combination of the three perspectives: near term goals, my next several months, and then things that need doing immediately, that gave me my edge in getting my work done. Without those perspectives in place, and that piece of paper staring at me, I’d have accomplished a lot less.

That takes a lot of discipline and desire. But Chris swears it works. And I believe him!

written by Nancy Chorpenning