How to ditch feeling scattered and get clarity on growing your business

What is clarity in business?

You may be seeking clearer direction, to sidestep the overwhelm, and feel confidence that you are spending your time on the high priority tasks – that’s clarity.

Feeling overwhelmed by your task list, yet have a sense that there is a better way to work?

Let’s explore some of the benefits and techniques for improving how you work.

The benefits of having clarity are:

• Tending to the high priority tasks first
• You have firm foundations for how you share your business profile
• The business vision directs the day-to-day activities
• Less important tasks have been identified and put to the side
• You know your business numbers, what’s working, and what needs your attention
• Support is within your reach, when you need it, the right person is there

Here are five straightforward ways to get more clarity in your business:

1. Set up your foundations

If you’re a solo business owner or creative, then getting your foundations to align with your agenda is key. Without these, it’s easy to float, dither, and get side-tracked.

• Define your values (more on this in the next Blog). Your values      can become your Marshall (the guide for your craft or Mission)
• Outline your purpose. Describe what impact you want to have, and who it will affect.
• Vision: Where do you want to get to? Set your goal posts.
• Mission: What is the change you want to make now?

2. Plan your vision

Without a vision, it’s much easier to get off track.

1. Where do you want to be in a year? Jot down the key markers of where you want to get to.

2. Break it down into quarters. What needs to come first, to enable the others to happen?

3. Drill down into a monthly plan. HOW will these things      happen? For each section:

• 1 x vision/goal. E.g., What is the top priority for the month? Build website, grow audience, etc.

• 3-4 activities to action the goal. What needs to happen? Is it planning the steps, research, marketing, tech support, or something else?

• 1-3 positive beliefs to support the activity. “This can be… (insert your tone, is it fun, quirky, humorous, light?)”
• “I will attract…” 
• I have what I need to…”

4. Review each month at the end and transfer all incomplete activities. Bring that clarity into the next month.

5. Review each quarter. How are you tracking? Are any of these no longer relevant? What needs to come next and what needs to pause? Refresh the upcoming quarter and go again!

3. Clear the clutter

To stay on track, at times we need to get the ‘daily task list’ out of our way.

1. Try 10 mins, once a week.
2. Brain dump everything you want to start/remember/resolve.
3. Percolate. Then simmer/reduce these ideas down, keep them short! You may want to filter these into the urgent/non-urgent and important/not important lists.
4. How can you highlight just the high priority activities? What can you do to add energy to them, so it is zingy content when you read it?

• For instance, is it using colourful pens/on your digital organiser? 
• Sticky notes or poster paper? 
• Is it an enjoyable app you enjoy using daily?

*If you get stuck, pause and restart in a FUN way. 

For example, I love a quiet space and a cup of tea; then I cut squares of paper, use coloured markers to catch ideas, and then rearrange them over a desk or the floor!

4. Track and Review

     If you don’t have clarity on what is working, what’s holding you back and where you are falling short, it can be hard to keep your mojo.

I get it. Tracking and review can sound so BORING *and not on the high priority list. Yet it is a vital activity that informs your future tasks, projects, and visions. 

• How can you create a productivity review, to take less than 30 minutes, once a month?

E.g., Set a regular time in the calendar, create a list or spreadsheet?

• What tools can you access to automate the tracking and review?

Is it an online organiser? Can you connect them with digital tools?

• When you have done it, what comes next? Reflection? Celebration? Revision of your planning?

*The key to getting boring tasks done, is to get creative and imagine how you can make it fun, colourful, with a reward at the end!

5. Get support

While it is possible for you to design clarity on your own, there are other options too. You could approach a friend, a mentor, a coach or get involved in a business group or group coaching. This can help you stay accountable to your own timelines. With a trusted sounding board by your side, you can refine and amplify your content so that it zings with the essence (or Values) that you want to share with your community.

If you’re looking for a coach, I’d love to support you on your clarity journey. 

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