As we begin to move into the new year, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to accomplish in 2009.

In early 2008, I decided that I would work toward becoming a well-liked, highly regarded, influential maven, a connector of wonderful and varied people doing impactful and interesting things. I committed to move beyond my tendency to be introspective and reclusive, and reach out to develop a social community. I desired to do this because I felt that I needed to facilitate others’ success more actively. I did it because I saw it as a way to deeply enrich my life, both personally and professionally. And, honestly, I did  have a nagging feeling that I “should”. So, I began.

I have made tremendous strides in that arena. I moved SmartWomanGuides.com from a static site to a blog, where I encouraged two way conversation and joint venturing. I have joined a Master Mind group, attended social networking events, become a museum patron, developed a decent network on Twitter, started a radio show, and grew my list. I have met a whole array of amazing people and I am satisfied with my accomplishment toward my goal.

But, there’s another step to my goals analysis. Beyond whether I achieved the goals I set or not, I also like to reflect on how accomplishing those goals made me feel. Did I really forward my business? Did I really find the satisfaction I was seeking? Did I really even need to accomplish those particular goals to be happy? I encourage you, in this current time of outbreath, to ask yourself similar questions.

In my case, my goal of becoming a maven has had benefits that I never even imagined it would. Yes, it has forwarded my business. Yes, it has brought me satisfaction. Yes, it has made me happy. But, one of the surprise benefits is it has helped me see even more clearly my place in this world, in the universe of marketing and entrepreneurship, and the essence of my unique contribution. I needed to see that, truly embrace it. And, it was an unexpected result.

The downside of my blooming mavenship is I’m not very experienced at handling multiple demands on my time. Each offer has its own value, intrinsic to only it, and all are seemingly equally important. How does a maven choose? This is a question I have not answered and is in fact on my dance card for 2009 – how do I successfully manage a growing, ever expanding network effectively? How do I maintain and grow relationships that are worthwhile and authentic? How do I serve my network in the very best possible way? At this point, this is the work ahead for me – I’ll let you know when I figure it out.

As much as I want you to review your year and reward yourself for your successes, I also want you to really be honest about whether the goals you set really gave you what you needed (expected or otherwise). It’s easy to think we want one thing and then when we get it, it’s not really what we wanted. Go deeper into your motivations and ask, as you set resolutions and goals, if the activities that surround your goal are in your highest good. Ask if something new needs to be added, or something old needs to be let go. Be open to change and willing to let the noise fall silent as you explore your purpose and how best to proceed in achieving that purpose.

I thank all of you for being part of my own life and my business. I look forward very much to hearing what you have to say re: your goal setting/achieving experiences. Start or join the conversation below – all are welcome!

Together, we are stronger!
Vicki Flaugher, the original SmartWoman

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1.  Honor your and your family’s natural personal rhythms.

If you don’t do well at math or accounting right after you wake up, don’t do it then. If you would rather talk to people after lunch, fine. If Wednesday is a super distracting and chaotic Soccer and Ballet class day, it’s ok to schedule a day off from work those days. Forcing yourself to do things against your grain will suck the very life out of you and you will resent your new business.

One word of caution here: if you naturally put off scary things (like closing a sale) or know you get bored doing repetitive but crucial tasks (like bookkeeping or web maintenance), you have to get help. Either get help facing and overcoming your fears or be woman enough to hire someone. Not doing them at all probably won’t work. If the issue is serious enough, you should probably reconsider if you’re even in the right business for you or if you should be in business at all. If you’re naturally an outdoor person and you’ve created an all-indoor business,  you are swimming upstream. Be honest with yourself about what you like to do and structure your business activities accordingly.

2.  Set weekly goals rather than daily goals when possible:

Of course, if the train leaves on Tuesday at 2 pm, you’d better be there. No avoiding that deadline. But, by lengthening your goal due dates where you can, you build in flexibility. If you arbitrarily say Tuesday at 2 pm this to-do item must be done, or….or what? You’ve “failed” if you miss the deadline, right? Isn’t that how it feels when you miss a due date, even when it was completely arbitrary? Why do that to yourself? How much energy are you going to have to keep working if you set yourself up to be a failure all the time? Don’t this to your psyche. Working for yourself is challenging enough without approaching your goals this way. It’s better to say this week, I will accomplish this task. You can schedule a specific proposed time to get it done, but the actual goal is more flexible. This allows for you to manage the unexpected and allows you to implement significantly more creativity into your days. It’s just so much more fun and satisfying, so you’re more likely to keep doing it. Keeping at it is the name of the game.

3.  Schedule your work to match with your client’s schedules:

If you have to talk with clients in Hong Kong, you have to talk to them when they’re awake. No getting around that. If your biggest client only works on Tuesday and Thursday morning, that’s when you will have to work too. If most of your clients only take calls to set appointments in the early AM before their day starts spirialing out of control, that’s when you will call, even if it defies your natural personal rhythms. I will repeat again because I feel it is super important – if your work schedule requirements go too heavily against your natural personal rhythms, don’t just try to grin and bear it – hire someone to do that work that loves working during those times. With virtual assistants available worldwide, there is no reason to not at least explore the possibilities. Your clients will know you hate what you’re doing and you won’t be successful at it. Don’t be a scrooge – be a boss. You’re the CEO of your company, so act like one. Solve the problems, don’t just suffer through them. Not loving what you do is a problem. Take action to fix it.

4.  Reward yourself by punching out on time:

Part of setting a work at home schedule is committing to a time when you will quit working for the day as well as how many days or hours you will work each week. In my opinion (and I know you will hear differently from others), hard work is not the secret. Focusing on your unique gifts and on the most important tasks are what’s important. Get out of the worker bee mentality and become a visionary. Visionaries take sabatticals, they go on vision quests, and they give their minds room to roam. That means they take time away from the office, for themselves, for their family, for their health, and for unabashed fun.

We all sincerely desire a life of meaning.  As the old adage goes, no one ever sat on their death bed wishing they had spent more time at the office. And, being off of work isn’t just about going to the next set of household tasks. It’s about resting, rejuvenating, relaxing, and recovering. Reading a novel, not another business education text. Eating good food, working in your gardening, traveling - all the finer things in life that don’t revolve around work. Go to a party in a gorgeous dress and don’t bring any business cards (they hardly fit into a proper evening bag anyway – there’s a reason for that…). Give yourself space to be a full person. You will get more done in smarter ways if you give your brain and body a rest.

I hope these tips work for you. I guess it’s easy to see that I believe in life balance, right? I do.  And, I wish you the best of successs. You’re invited to comment here on how you schedule yourself successfully.

Together, we are stronger!
Vicki Flaugher, the original SmartWoman

To start, what is a “project”? Simply put, it’s a grouping of activities that result in an end result. Getting your kids out the door to school can be a project, as can shopping, or building a website. Planning a wedding is a great real life example of a project (a REALLY big one!) so let’s use that for our case study. Here’s what you need to know:

First, make a complete task list: List everything, and I mean everything, you can think of that needs to be done, small and big. The minister, the church, the reception, the honeymoon flight arrangements, the shoes, the flowers, the dress, your attendants, buying your lacey negligee, etc., etc., etc.

Once you have the list, you can then group the smaller items under bigger ones. For example, the honeymoon would be the main topic and tasks like make flight arrangements, get passports, book the hotel, pack your suitcase would be sub tasks underneath it. By grouping you can not only see it all and be complete, but it also helps you see what you could delegate off. Delegating big chunks of your work is a way to get more done faster. Hiring a wedding planner is a great example of doing this. You hire someone to manage all the task groupings.

Set a proposed budget: This can be a money budget, a time budget, a resource budget, or all of the above. You need to be as accurate as you can. If a caterer normally charges $50 a plate for what you want to have, budgeting $5 per plate is just silly. Sure you might expect some discount, but don’t build your budget based on getting screaming deals that would make your grandmother blush in embarassment. Relationships need to be honored. Your partners are people who are feeding their familes and sending their kids to college just like anyone else. An honest pay for honest work is fair. Violating this will come back to bite you later on. I am not suggesting that you let yourself be taken advantage of, but if you’ve pushed so hard on the front end, you will have no goodwill left on the back end when you need it.

Next, set the preferred desired date for completion: This would be the day of the wedding, when everything needs to be completed. Much like catching a train, once you set the steps in motion for such a big event it’s relatively difficult (and expensive) to adjust the date, so either things get done on time or they don’t get done. You will be able to readily see, once you do the next step, if this desired date is reasonable. If it is, you can set the final date. If not, you either change the date, or alter the list of tasks you expect to have completed by that date. There’s no getting around this and it’s important to be realistic. Being late to the chapel just simply isn’t an option.

From this first proposed desired date, we back out all of the needed tasks: What I mean by that is, if it takes 10 weeks for your custom designer dress to be made, fitted, and ready, then you have to have that dress decision made no later than 10 weeks from the wedding date. If it takes 3 week to schedule the cake tasting and 3 more weeks for the cake to be ready, then you have to allow a minimum of 6 weeks from the wedding date for that task to be done.

Add some slack: When a task is crucial, it’s foolish to play things to the wire. Don’t overpad, but allowing 10-15% time allowance for the unexpected to happen is a good idea, because the unexpected will. No amount of diva bridezilla behavior is going to change anything when a hurricane shuts down the dress factory that is making your dress. Even if you’re accustomed to pushing to get your way, time is stubborn and has a way of pushing back. Adding some slack to your plan helps out.

Set priorities: Now, you take the task list and identify the drop dead, must have items. You are not getting married if the groom and minister doesn’t show or if you don’t get the marriage license. Those are must haves. The bubble machine with matching clown is not. Identifying must haves vs. nice to haves helps if you have to go to plan B or if you have to make an unexpected adjustment. It also keeps you focused and on time and on track. And, no, everything is not priority one. Give up that idea. It’s simply not true.

Setting priorities also includes identifying items that depend on another. For example, you can’t expect your bouquets to show up on wedding day if you never visited the florist (well, unless you were smart enough to tell someone else to handle it…). These dependencies are crucial, because if the first thing doesn’t get done on time, it cascades down the schedule to everything that depends on it. Be sure you are aware of these relationships so you can make adjustments as needed.

Implement, Adjust, and Enjoy: As you go through your plan, joyfully check off your completes. As you have schedule pushout in your completions, make the needed adjustments, always looking to see if something high in priority is in jeopardy of not getting done. Even though in this example it might be hard to stay flexible, in most cases, you can do that. Keeping your eyes on the true purpose of the project in the first place – in this case to marry the person you love – is the way to not only enjoy the result but also to enjoy the journey. You might only get married once but most projects will include people you want to work with again. Respect, realistic expectations, kind yet firm actions, and a sense of humor will go a long way to making this project and all the future ones successful.

Together, we are stronger.
Vicki Flaugher, the original SmartWoman