Review and adjust your schedule for the new year

 The last habit I want to touch on this month in preparation for 2021 is the habit of reviewing and adjusting as necessary. Usually, when I teach about reviewing and changing, it’s about your marketing plan, but this time, I want you to look at what worked and what didn’t work in your life this year. Now, we all know things changed drastically in March, so you’re going to want to look at what worked pre-pandemic vs. post-pandemic. There may be some things that were working great pre-pandemic that aren’t options right now, but you don’t want to lose sight of them once things return to more normal. There may be things you started during the pandemic that you’d never considered doing before that are working great that you want to keep long-term.

Go back through your 2020 calendar and look at each month.

• What did you do in your personal life?
• What did your kids do?
• What did you do for work?

How did each month feel?

• Did you feel like you were spending your time, money, and energy where you wanted to spend them?
• Do you wish you’d tried something different?
• Were you happy?
• Were you stressed?

 Let's be honest about stress & 2020 for a moment

Now, let’s talk about where you stressed for a moment. The reality is we probably were all very stressed in March and April as the world changed almost overnight for many of us. My son’s preschool closed for Spring Break on March 6th and didn’t resume until August. My life changed drastically. I went from having full-time childcare to having none for three months, and then very part-time childcare for three months, and then back to school in August but with reduced hours. I had to adjust multiple times this year because he’s young, and I needed to spend more time with him. Those first months of the pandemic were stressful. Many of us struggled with childcare or other pandemic related challenges.

That’s not what I mean when I say were you stressed. Go beyond the stress the pandemic brought with it and look at your workload, schedule, and priorities. Focus more on January & February and then maybe even this timeframe now if your kids are in school again. How did you feel before everything changed? How are you feeling now?

Do you need to change anything about your schedule for 2021?

Can you? I know not everyone can change things. My husband’s company is considered an essential business. Even during the shutdown, he was on-site most of the time. He couldn’t change his schedule to help out at home, so I had to change mine. Figure out what’s going to work for your family and your business.

I’m setting goals for 2021, but my work schedule will be reduced until May because of school hours. I’m not sure yet if they’ll offer a summer program, and I don’t know what the fall will bring when it’s time to enter first grade. So, for now, I’m planning through Memorial Day, and I’ll reassess at the end of Q1 if I know more about the childcare options for me. Plan for what you can and adjust as necessary later.

Review your projects, products, and priorities

If there were projects you worked on this year that didn’t provide you the results you’d hoped for, review them; why do you think they didn’t work? Was it the wrong time? The wrong offer? Did you not get everything done you wanted to do? Etc.

Take LOTS of notes

Make adjustments to your business plan in the same manner. Look at pre-pandemic data and March forward data separately. Decide what you want to work on in 2021. If there’s something that worked great before but didn’t work during the pandemic, note it because as things return to normal, you may want to bring that item back.

We’re winding down now, it’s almost the holidays, and many of us are ready to say good-bye to 2020. Spend a few minutes now before you get caught up in the hustle-bustle of the holidays and review everything from 2020, month by month. What will you keep, what will you let go of this year? Is there something new you want to try? Have this information ready to go for your 2021 planning.