At 40 I knew it was “time to start my company.” But what company should I start? I started simple and have grown with demand. Everyone is working all the time and no one has time to plan. You also don’t have the time NOT TO. You still have to put in the hours – so you can spend the time working on current projects, or reflecting on what you were doing. It’s still work.
The thing is, no company or no one employee will do this perfectly, and no one actually has the time – you have to just do it. My hunch is that this quarterly planning is going to become the norm due to the internet and business changing so rapidly. Gone are the days of having a 10 year plan, because the change in life alone will make predictability difficult. Not bad to have a 5 or ten year plan, just know there will be lots of course corrections. The Singularity theory says that there will be a time where all knowledge will be known from everywhere instantly. This is where we are headed, people.
Cue the Rabbit Trail
I took a detour down a rabbit trail in this episode! This rabbit trail began with my recent studies of the Industrial Revolution. It dawned on me that railroads offered transportation, thus lending itself to more communication. Much in the same way when cars were invented. Farmers could get their products much further and visit their families and other farmers because the car could Travel further than the standard horse. See, transportation and communication. And now, due largely in part to the pandemic, the internet is the new railroad. The communication and transportation highway. It’s all online, everything.
The Workbox Planning Day is a continual progression of regular reflection, opportunity selection, and course correction:
- Continued regular reflection; Ask yourself
- How has the world changed in the last three years?
- Where is my/the business now?
- Where is it going?
- Are we going in the same direction?
- How are people buying?
- Are we still relevant?
- Opportunity selection
- What projects do you want to get to the finish line in this quarter? No more than 5; but ideally 3.
- Course correction
- I gave the example of our new website. We hadn’t planned on it but it was necessary to keep the business going.
- Once the issue was identified, we course corrected
Takeaway…
Your biggest benefit and your biggest expense in business is the people.
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Lisa Woodruff is the founder & CEO of Organize 365®.
Lisa, along with 87% of America, believes organization is a learnable skill. Yet less than 18% of those same Americans feel they are organized. Through The Productive Home Solution course, Lisa aims to teach Americans young and old the skill of organizing and unlocking their time for what they are uniquely created to do.
As the host of the top-rated Organize 365® Podcast (which has 17 million downloads and counting) Lisa shares strategies for reducing the overwhelm, clearing the mental clutter, and living a productive and organized life. Her sensible and doable organizing tasks appeal to multiple generations. Her candor and relatable personality make you feel as though she is right there beside you; helping you get organized as you laugh and cry together.
Under Lisa’s direction, Organize 365® has conducted academic research establishing the definitions of housework, home organization and the weight of paper in the American home. This ongoing research is making the invisible work at home visible to all. The goal is to eliminate it and free people from the monotonous tasks of daily living; and unlock their time for what they are uniquely created to bring forth in the world.
She is the author of four books including: How ADHD Affects Home Organization and The Paper Solution. Lisa’s understanding of the lived female American experience has helped her to create products & courses like the Sunday Basket®. These products and courses externalize the routine tasks that take up the executive functioning capacity of our brains; freeing us up to think and create again!
