Daily Actions to Help Stay Focused and Grow Your Coaching Business
When it comes to coaching clients, most life coaches have systems to keep their clients focused on their goals and hold them accountable every step of the way. But what about the goals you have for your coaching business?
In order to help someone else improve their life or business, it is imperative that you are focused and organized with your own life and business.
It makes total sense, but because you are required to shift your focus to others, it's easy to let your own needs fall by the wayside. What's more, your to-do list not only includes yourself—you likely have lists of what each client needs to do that day/week/month.
Here we take a look at daily actions you can take to help you keep your goals in mind, market yourself effectively, stay on top of things and most importantly, feel less overwhelmed with your never-ending to-do list.
Get into the right mindset
Before you dive headfirst into your daily tasks, get into a happy, productive mindset. Put on some music that will get you excited for the day, brew a pot of coffee or tea and enjoy a cup, de-clutter your workspace or maybe do some strtching/yoga if you're into that. Starting off your work day this way will help get you into a happy mood. After all, when you are happy it makes your day go that much smoother and you'll accomplish more.
While this may seem like common sense, it's easy to jump right into all the nagging tasks that have likely been on your mind since you woke up. Give yourself a chance to ease into your day and you will be able to really focus on the tasks at hand.
Create a to-do list for the day
Not all of us are the list-making type. Some people may really like to make lists for everything, while others would prefer to just keep a mental note of what needs to be done. However, by physically writing down what you need to do for that day and that day only, you can easily measure your progress and the time it takes for different tasks.
Don't set unrealistic goals. Know when things can be held off until the following day or week and what needs your immediate attention.
You can use good ol' paper to write your list or an app on your phone if you prefer—whatever works best for you and will be easily accessible.
TIP: Prioritize the items on your list to highlight what is most important and get those done first. Take it a step further by setting specific times and lengths for each task if you are feeling ambitious that day.
Start with the creative or more difficult work first
While it may be tempting to do the tougher tasks later on in the day and ease yourself into them, this method actually drains your energy and depletes your focus. If you take the most important task you need to do and tackle it first thing in your day, you will actually get it done and the rest of the day will seem easy in comparison.
It's very much like that famous Mark Twain quote, "If you eat a live frog first thing in the morning, you can go through the rest of your day knowing the worst is behind you."
First thing in the morning is the best time because your mind is clear and you haven't made any commitments for the day—yet. What's more, you build momentum for the day and have a sense of accomplishment. Gina Trapani, author of Upgrade Your Life, suggests choosing you "frog" the night before and write it down on a piece of paper so you'll see it when you get back to your desk or workspace the next morning.
For tasks that require a longer-term commitment, such as writing a book or preparing to host a webinar, using the first-hour rule is a good way to prioritize your time. Thie means you commit to working on that tough task for the first hour of each day.
Create your daily call list
According to financial advisor coach Suzanne Muusers, you should be following up with at least five prospective clients per day to touch base.
"You can use this call to ask if they have any ongoing challenges, to remind them that you have an event coming up, or to find out what is going with them. You can also call past clients to check in with them and possibly suggest starting a new coaching program with you," Suzanne says in her post.
So figure out who you need to reach out to each day and write it down so you don't miss out any.
Remove distractions
With emails constantly pouring into our inbox as well as messages and social media notifications to attend to, we are always multitasking. While this can seem like a productive approach to getting things down, it actually has the opposite effect. In fact, a study at the Universtiy of California suggests that it takes an average of 23 minutes to get refocused on the task at hand after being distracted.
While it is sometimes necessary to check your emails and messages often, block off time to get through other important tasks that require focus, such as writing a blog post or a chapter of your book. It can be tricky to retrain your brain, so start small, with five to ten minutes per day and work your way up.
Take breaks
As an entrepreneur and coach, you may be tempted to use every waking minute to better your business, but studies suggest there are benefits from taking breaks. Not only does it prevent us from getting bored of our current task, it helps us retain information and connect ideas better.
By switching gears and taking your focus away from your work periodically—by having a friendly chat with someone or going for a walk—you come back to it refreshed and ready to continue.
Set aside time for marketing and social media
If marketing is your thing, this will naturally fit into your to-do list because you enjoy this aspect of your coaching business. On the flip side, those who aren't well-versed in the marketing and social media world can find this part of the business a little daunting.
Regardless of the relationship you have with social media, the truth is, in order to grow your business, you have to incorporate it into your day-to-day.
Luckily there are plenty of tools out there to help make it easier on you. Platforms like Hootsuite allow you to easily post updates and share content on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
If you need inspiration and want to keep up with the latest buzz in the industry, BuzzSumo can help you narrow down what type of content is getting shared the most and who the influencers are. Then you can use Scoop.it to gather content to share with your followers.
The possibilities are endless really. But don't let that overwhelm you. These are meant to make your life easier, so if you find that they make you feel the opposite, just keep it simple. Engaging with your followers and posting content relevant to your coaching business should be easy enough, as long as you set aside some time to do it.
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