Successfully Running a Business: Weekly Reset and How To Stay Organized
Running a business has its challenges, and staying organized and on track with your goals can be one of them. Over my time as a cash based practice owner, I’ve found that I prioritize my clients’ needs and tasks well, but end up putting my business on the back burner just because it doesn’t seem as important.
Prioritizing your business is just as critical as taking care of client tasks. During this post, I am going to walk you through the weekly reset that has helped me continue to be successful as a business owner. While this process isn’t necessarily foolproof, it has helped me tremendously in staying organized and on track with my goals.
The Importance of a Weekly Reset
To start, I think it’s important to emphasize the benefits of a weekly reset or routine that reorients you to your current projects, business tasks, and goals. Each week, I spend one hour dedicated to this process, helping to make a huge difference in my time management and organization. This one hour of time saves me from stressing throughout the week and helps me to get a good overview of what’s to come and ensure important tasks are not getting missed.
Weekly Reset Checklist
Just like anything else, when it comes to routine tasks for my business, I typically develop a checklist to ensure that I take care of everything necessary. The weekly reset routine is no different. During the one hour I dedicate to this task, I simply open my checklist and go through it as it says to do. This saves me from having to remember each step that needs to be taken. With that being said, let’s dive into what is actually on my checklist.
Prioritizing Physical Health
Anyone who truly knows me knows that I am serious about CrossFit. I’ve participated in competitions and make it a point to spend a decent amount of each day in the gym setting. Because this is such a priority for me, the first thing that I take care of is scheduling workouts on my calendar.
This task goes hand in hand with time blocking. You can read the blog post here to learn more about the benefits of time blocking and the process I use for it.
Planning Meals
As you probably noticed, I prioritize my physical health in other ways than just CrossFit. The second task on my weekly reset checklist is to plan out my husband and I’s meals for the week. This helps us to coordinate our meal schedule and put together a grocery list. Having a meal plan helps us to stay on track with our nutritional goals and reduces the amount of time we spend during the week deciding what to eat.
Although both CrossFit and meal planning aren’t necessarily business-specific, these tasks are critical for me to take care of myself. This is something I try to instill in myself and the business coaching students I work with. As a solo practice owner, you are the business, so it’s imperative that you take care of yourself first. From there, everything else will follow.
Business and Personal Budget
The next task I look into is both our personal and business finances. I’ve found that it has become easier to manage personal finances in the same capacity as business finances for congruence of management and ease. At this point in time, I use an app called You Need a Budget, or YNAB, that helps me to keep everything organized in one place.
Learn more about YNAB here.
If you’re a business owner struggling to boost revenue, read the blog post here.
Weekly Review Process
Another crucial part of my weekly reset is the weekly review table. This is where I reflect on the past week and plan for the upcoming week. I ask myself questions like:
What went well last week?
What could be improved?
Did I accomplish my objectives?
What are my objectives for this week?
This review process not only helps me to self-reflect on what went well and what could be done better, but it also helps me to stay accountable and focused on meeting my goals.
Tending to my Digital and Physical Inboxes
Once I’ve got a good grasp on the tasks above, I move into the process of tending to my inboxes. The first step I take is going through my email inbox and looking at any emails that need attention or response. The emails that do require action, I add to a to-do list inside the project management tool called Notion.
Once my digital inbox is taken care of, I move to my physical inbox or mail. I have a file organizer where my mail goes throughout the week. Every Sunday, I look through the mail I’ve accumulated and take care of any paperwork that requires action.
Project Management Notifications
As I mentioned before, the project management tool I use is called Notion. This is where all of my business projects, client projects, and tasks are housed and organized. This is also where my team members work on items and leave comments and questions that I am responsible for responding to. I also check to see if I have any new leads or potential clients that need contact.
Having everything housed in one place and keeping up to date with these notifications on a weekly basis helps me to stay on top of all projects and tasks without them slipping through the cracks.
A New Addition: Rot Days
Recently, my husband and I started incorporating something called “rot days” into our schedule. These are days where we plan to do absolutely nothing. It’s a great mental reset and helps us recharge for the busy weeks ahead. If you feel like your days are always go-go-go, I highly recommend trying a rot day. It’s been incredibly beneficial for us and has helped with both my mental and emotional health as a person and business owner.
Learn how to ensure stress-free time off as a business owner in the blog post here.
Tools I Use for Success
Conclusion
Building in systems and routines as a business owner is crucial for success, not only when working with clients but also when looking to maintain and grow your business. The weekly reset routine has helped me tremendously in the process of taking care of myself on the personal level, business level, and ensuring my clients’ needs are met.
For those of you that are on the fence about starting your own business or are unsure if you’re capable of managing it, my advice is to do it. There are many resources available to help you get started and thrive as a business owner. The most important thing is to remember that even if you don’t have the skills now, you have the opportunity to learn in order to be successful.
If you would like help in getting started as a business owner, specifically a cash based practice owner, learn more about our business coaching program here.
Listen to the episode on my podcast!
