Put It on the Calendar

The end of the year is the perfect time to reflect upon the past year and make plans for the next. If you get out your business and marketing plans (you do have these, right?) and compare “plan” to “actual,” chances are you’ll see a lot of great ideas that never made it off of your “to do” list. Why? Because you never scheduled time to implement them.

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Creating a Plan is Only the First Step
We all have the best intentions when we’re making plans. But creating a plan is just the first step. Once you establish a list of goals you need to commit to implementing your plans. And the best way to ensure that this happens is to schedule it. Literally. Put your plans on your calendar.

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Make the Commitment
Putting things on your calendar turns them into concrete commitments. It also keeps things from “slipping your mind.” If you use an electronic calendar system that includes automatic reminders, take advantage of this feature.

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For example, a corporate officer may plan to maintain their corporate minutes in a timely fashion, but most end up forgetting all about this task and then play “catch up” at the end of the year (if at all). Putting “update corporate minutes” on your calendar for the first Wednesday of every quarter greatly increases the chances that your corporation will write accurate corporate minutes that reflect changes in the business. This practice keeps the corporation in compliance with government agencies.

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Don’t Just Schedule the Final Due Date
While the final due date of a multi-step project should certainly go on your calendar, you also need to schedule in the work. Think of all the tasks involved with a given project and put them on the calendar, too, allowing plenty of time for completion.

 

In short, if you want to ensure that your business and marketing plans get implemented, schedule time to make them happen!

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