What is Your Power Hour?

2018 is a thing of the past and it is wheels up for 2019! But if are like me and took time with family and friends over the holidays, getting back into the swing of things in the new year can be rough. I sat down on January 3rd (my first full day back) and it was all I could do to stay focused and on task. So it has been back to basics for me these first few days of 2019:
​
Calendar Maintenance
To Do List
Daily POWER HOUR​
In the past two years, my business has grown. I have gained more clients and grown from what was once a part time gig into a full time business. THIS is a good thing. However just like many people, I have to balance my growing portfolio of clients with my life. Having my office at home is an awesome thing, but it does require some man-made ‘separation of church and state’ if you know what I mean. Many people have asked me how do I keep track of all my clients and my family to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks.

Calendar maintenance is a must. Luckily, I enjoy keeping a calendar and have never found it to be a burden. I use both a paper calendar as well as an online one. I use them both for reference and only make a commitment after seeing both.

My paper planner is my personal guide to everything Jenny and my business. With just a glance, I know how busy my upcoming day is and about how many hours I will be billing.
During the day, I keep my online calendar open on my both my iMac and phone. It is also invaluable for sending calendar invites to other people for meetings. Recently, to help with scheduling I added Calendly which allows people to schedule during openings on my calendar. Each of my calendars compliment each other and have their purpose. They keep me on track and are my hourly reference for what comes next in the business and for my family.

My To Do list as I said is in my paper calendar. It is my daily and weekly guide to what needs to be done. It is not necessarily in the order of when things should get done, but my daily tasks can all be found there. I write everything on this list and I am not ashamed to say if I do something that is not on the list, I still write it in later. Why? Not because I want to look super busy cool, but rather because it helps me reference when I did something. I like to know when I performed a task or what was added to my day; it is a record.

This brings me to my POWER HOUR. Yes, I need to write this in all caps because it is that important. My PH (less obnoxious?) is the same time each day in the morning when I reflect on how my day ended yesterday and take a look at my To Do list for today. I literally have a list with all of my clients on it. I go down client by client and think about what is needed for each of them. Most of the times, they are already on my To Do list, but sometimes by doing this a recurring task will pop up that I did not have written down. Or, by thinking about what happened yesterday, I will realize that I did not complete something and it needs to be done as soon as possible. My daily PH is my guarantee that I will not forget or neglect a client. And though it is called an hour, it rarely takes that full amount of time.
​
I encourage you to find your POWER HOUR this year, so that nothing or no one falls through the cracks in 2019. Wishing everyone a new year filled with success and growth!

Jenny Boyles works for Freedom Makers as both the marketing manager and a Freedom Maker for clients. In addition to her work for Freedom Makers, she owns her own virtual assistant business out of Charleston, South Carolina.