003: Turn Your Goals Into Reality Using Your Calendar
Aug 02, 2023Episode 3
Shannon Stone
“My calendar does the thinking for me”, I say this to many people, peers, clients and in today’s episode I share with you exactly how I turn my goals into reality using my calendar in five simple steps.
By listening [and taking notes], you’ll learn:
How a Dr Phil episode helped me to get clients really quickly in my business because I treated it like a job until I had the clients I wanted
How to take any meaningful goal and turn it into practical steps that you can take
Why I believe we can get everything done, as long as we do it in the right order
If you’re an efficiency genie like me or you struggle with organisation, this episode is going to lend some helpful advice to help you in all areas of life and business.
“My calendar does the thinking for me”, I say this to many people, peers, clients and in today’s episode I share with you exactly how I turn my goals into reality using my calendar in five simple steps.
By listening [and taking notes], you’ll learn:
How a Dr Phil episode helped me to get clients really quickly in my business because I treated it like a job until I had the clients I wanted
How to take any meaningful goal and turn it into practical steps that you can take
Why I believe we can get everything done, as long as we do it in the right order
If you’re an efficiency genie like me or you struggle with organisation, this episode is going to lend some helpful advice to help you in all areas of life and business.
If you’d like to work together with me as your 1:1 business and marketing consultant, book a call here.
Shannon Stone:
Hey guys, welcome to the podcast.
Shannon Stone:
Today we are talking about one of my most favorite topics, and it's how to turn your goals into reality using your calendar. It's got to be my favorite things all mixed together goals and calendar. I'm going to really geek out on this one, so I hope you take notes for it. I'm going to start this one by telling you a bit of a story and where it really came from. So many, many moons ago, when I was on maternity leave, I was living at home with my parents, and my dad has got to be the biggest Dr Phil fan you would have ever met, and so I've seen more Dr Phil episodes than I would like to actually admit. But on one of these episodes he had a guy on the show who was unemployed and Dr Phil basically like he wasn't impressed. He definitely wasn't impressed with this guy, it was more of his attitude, not the fact that he didn't have a job. And his advice to this guy was look, if you don't have a job, your job is to get a job. So if you want a 40-hour a week, full-time job, that is your job. You're going to spend 40 hours a week trying to find a job until you actually have one. And this was one of those things that you know when something really hits you and it's like whoa, that was incredible and I hadn't started my business at this point, but it really stuck with me Because when I did start my business I actually got clients really quickly.
Shannon Stone:
But I still kept this in mind. If I want five clients, for example, and for argument's sake or math's sake, let's say that would be five hours a week worth of time, five clients, one hour each. So if that's what I wanted, or if that's what someone wanted, then you would at least be needing to spend five hours a week to bring in that client or those clients until you have those clients. So it's your job to get a job. It's your job to spend that time up front until those clients actually show up.
Shannon Stone:
And this is really the intersection of this conversation where you can turn your goals into reality using your calendar. Or, if we say it another way, you can turn your goals into reality using your time. I don't want to say it's maths or science or whatever it is, but it's like simple, it's like logic. So I want to break it down for you, because I am someone who, like I said, I love goals. I love everything goal setting, I'm all about it.
Shannon Stone:
But I have a bit of a process that I use to turn any goal, any meaningful goals. So I've got like a small goal that I'm like, oh yeah, that'll be easy to do, I don't have to add it into my calendar but any meaningful goals. And every year I have two, maybe three really big meaningful goals Revenue being one in business, and then I'll have a personal goal. This year, I've got three really big goals. I've had a revenue goal, which I always set revenue goals. I've got a health goal and I've also got a big purchase that I want to make as well, which revenue does tie into that. So, because they're really meaningful to me, I will do whatever it takes to make them happen, and I actually get really excited about the achieving of the goal and what I need to do, because I think any meaningful goal and I haven't, honestly, I probably haven't always been this, probably mature is the word I would say the in hindsight any meaningful goal, it's like it will change you, it will make you show up for it, and this is where it's like it actually is the journey, not so much the destination or they're equally important. It's the journey and the destination, whereas my old self would have just been like no, no, no, no. I just want the goal, I just want the destination, I just want to achieve the thing. I'll forget about everything else, and I think when we do that, we're not focusing on the steps to achieving it, we just don't achieve it, and I've definitely felt that before. Okay, so I'm going to take you through the five steps that I go through to help me and others to achieve their goals.
Shannon Stone:
So, first and foremost, step number one is to have a goal. So what do you want? That is the first thing to figure out. Always, every single time, if you don't know what you want, you don't know what you're going to do to achieve the thing you don't actually know that you want. So you need to know what you want, and for today's conversation, we're going to say that you want more clients. We're going to say say, for example, you want five clients will stick with that. That's what you need to decide, first and foremost, what is your goal? The second thing how will you achieve this goal? And all of this starts on A piece of paper or a Google doc or your journal, whatever your thing is. So you know your goal.
Shannon Stone:
Then the second step is well, what do you need to do to actually achieve this goal? What are the steps you need to take? Now, you might already know this. Already. It's like okay, well, I've had this goal before, so I'm going to repeat the steps that worked every other time I've achieved this goal. I would always put down the things you know to do, and if there are things you don't know how to do, this is where you need to figure out well, what else do you need to do, whether you do some research, whether you talk to an expert, whether you hire someone for a bit of direction.
Shannon Stone:
But the second step is to work out what do you need to do to achieve the goal. So it's the how. If you're like in the world community, I fully praise you, but we want to know the house of our goal, and I really do. I like to work out the house. A lot of people like no, you're not meant to know the how. I like to work out the how, but I also like to be, or should be, and not but, and I also stay open minded to other magic that can happen as well. But I will always work out what do I know I need to do in order to achieve the goal. I love to feel like I don't want to say I'm a control freak, but I love to feel like you know what I've got, this I can figure it out. Or if I don't know, I will figure it out. So work out what those steps are. That's a second the how or what you need to do to achieve the goal. So, once we've got this down on paper, then we want to figure out the when.
Shannon Stone:
When will you do the things you need to do to achieve the goal? So the goal being, you want to get five clients, say you figured out, you need to attend networking events, you need to publish every day on social media and you need to send one email. We'll just say there your three actions you need to do. What you need to do is add these steps into your calendar and I'm going to tell you two ways you can do this and you can pick whichever feels good for you. The first way is you add those three tasks into your calendar. So attend the networking event every week. Maybe that's two hours every week doing your weekly content. Let's say that's one and a half hours and let's say the email is one and a half hours. So all of that equals five hours in total.
Shannon Stone:
When we said at the beginning, your job is to get a job or you have to do, if you want five clients, and that's going to be five hours, you want to be spending at least five hours to bring those clients to you. That's one way to do it, where you just input those tasks into your calendar. The other way that you can do it, which I love doing, maybe it's a manifesting hack at the same time, if you want five clients, add those five client names into your calendar. So client one 10 am on a Wednesday. Client two one pm on a Wednesday. Client three four pm on a Wednesday. So add those five clients in where you actually want to work with them. And then this is still around.
Shannon Stone:
When will you do the things to get the clients? When it's 10 am on a Wednesday, you need to be doing the things that will bring those clients to you. You need to be doing your content attending networking events, finding networking events, following up with people after networking events, producing that content, producing that email, sending it out, maybe looking at the stats, improving it for next time. But in those times when you've said you want those five clients, you need to be actively working on the steps that will bring those clients to you. So, whichever you decide whether you put five clients into your calendar or you put the specific tasks, either or or if you do put the clients into your calendar, make sure you list out what you need to do in that time so you're not just staring at client one in your calendar and just not really knowing what to do. And I will have a tip on that as we go along.
Shannon Stone:
The first thing, we need to know what you want. You need to set that goal. Second is how are you going to achieve this? Third is when are you going to do this? It needs to be in your calendar and add it in your calendar on repeat, because you're going to do this until you achieve the goal. Then the fourth step is to follow through like a mofo. So you follow your calendar as if it's an appointment, as if there was a real person on the other end of that calendar holding you accountable to it. Because in future, very shortly, once you achieve this goal in this case, the goal of the five clients there are going to be people holding you accountable to it. You would never ghost a client I'm sure you wouldn't right. So don't ghost the activities that will bring those clients to you. So you need to follow through or, like I say, follow through like a mofo. That's step number four. Now I do have a bonus step, step number five.
Shannon Stone:
If you really want to take this up a notch and like any goal setting, goal achievement thing you ever look at will always speak to this, it's and this is step five you need to track what you're doing, you need accountability for what you're doing and you need to review and improve. You need to track the networking events you're going to, for example. You need to track the performance of the content. You need to track the emails that you're sending out to people. You need accountability for the actions. It's about the goal, obviously, in the five clients, but it comes down to the steps that you take. So you need accountability for those steps that will bring those clients to you. So, however, you can get accountability. Get accountability. Maybe you want to buddy up with a friend, a business friend, and do this together. Maybe you have a coach, maybe you I love public accountability Maybe you post it on your stories. Whatever your thing is, get accountability.
Shannon Stone:
And this third part, the review and improve. I would say this is one of the most important things and, depending on the time sensitivity or what would make most sense for the goal, to give it enough time to see if you do need to improve it. Say, after one month, you follow all these actions in your calendar to a T, then you review it and you start to improve it. It's like, okay, well, the networking events I were going to were great, but I need to properly make sure I follow up with people, I need to make sure I connect with them. I need to send them a message, maybe I need to take some out for coffee, maybe I need to, whatever the thing is, but review and improve based on a time frequency that makes sense. So give yourself enough time for all these steps to produce some evidence to you, but don't not review and improve it at all. Don't just and like it's like these are meaningful goals, right, so don't think you would never have to improve on the steps you're taking. It's like don't just follow the actions either. It's like, if they're not producing a result, change your actions, improve your actions, tweak your actions. What needs to happen until you achieve that goal?
Shannon Stone:
This fifth step in it is the tracking, it is the accountability and it's reviewing and improving. Now, tracking and accountability would either need to happen on a daily or a weekly basis. I probably wouldn't stretch it out any further than that. The reviewing and improving that would happen on a time scale that would make sense for the particular goal, the particular steps that you're doing. So I'll let you kind of have your due diligence there. Okay, now that we've got the five steps down, I wanna provide some extra tidbits, some extra steps not so much steps, but extra things that will help you to follow all of these, because I'm sure you've been given processes before, but sometimes it's like these little nuances that make the difference. So just to recap the steps it's your goal, it's how are you achieving it? When are you going to do those steps? Following through like a mofo? And then the fifth bonus step was track, accountability and review and improve. So they're the five steps.
Shannon Stone:
Now a few extra things I wanted to share with you is that when you've got these things in your calendar, say you've got one and a half hours to create content. That's what we mentioned. How much content are you gonna produce in one and a half hours? For one person it might be 10 posts, for someone else it might be three posts. But I always say, like as a rule of thumb do the best of what you can in the time that you have. So you've got an hour and a half to create content. That's what you said. So do the best of what you can in the time that you have. I think we suffocate ourselves. So I always rule of thumb do the best of what you can in the time that you have. If you wanna produce a weekly email and you've got an hour and a half to do it. Do it in an hour and a half and actually get it done to the point where you'll schedule it and it will be sent out. The best of what you can do in the time that you have, because it's not gonna help anyone, let alone yourself, if it's sitting in a Google Doc not really being shared with the world. Your clients aren't gonna get benefit from it. You're not gonna get any clients. So the best of what you can do in the time that you have if it's two posts that you produce, let it be two posts, but that's better than five posts sitting in draft mode and not really being shared with anyone, or five posts sitting in draft mode that next week you've gotta finish them and last week you didn't get anything out. So the best of what you can do in the time that you have.
Shannon Stone:
The other thing I want to share with you is and all of this is a progression and it's the same for me. It's why I love working with small businesses, because I'm a small business as well. So a lot of the things they go through I go through as well. So say you've got this perfect plan in your calendar, but first week is always a great test for this. It's like, oh my God, it took me so much longer to get anything done, or I had create content in the calendar and it just yeah, it took me a really long time to get it done.
Shannon Stone:
Whatever the thing is, if you're finding things are taking really long to get done, if you're feeling like you're not getting as much done as you want to, or you're feeling like you're staring at a wall, or you're just staring at your calendar not really knowing what to do, and maybe then, like you open up Facebook and then it's like rabbit holes and downhill from there. Don't guilt, trip yourself or anything like that. Bring yourself back to the task. But I always say break the task down even further. So if you've got in your calendar one and a half hours to create content, you need to then break it down even further to the point that makes sense for you to take action. And this will be different for everyone and it'll also be different depending on, I guess, your relationship with that task. If it's content, for example, breaking it down even further can look like how much content do you need to create? What kind of content do you need to create? Are you just doing the captions or are you doing the graphics as well? Really, break it down. Maybe you need to categorize the type of content.
Shannon Stone:
It's like, okay, I'm going to do five posts in my one and a half hours. Post number one is going to be something I worked on with the client this week. Post two is a tip that I really want to share. Post three is this so you break it down even further to the detail, that will allow you to take action. Like I said, this will be different for everyone, but it's a really great tactic I use, whether it's myself or clients aren't moving forward. It's like we're not going to load up more things to do and we're also not going to guilt trip ourselves for not doing it. We're actually going to stick with the right task of creating content in this case, but we're going to break it down even further. So use that, not just in this scenario of turning your goals into reality using your calendar, but in all tasks that you do. You might just need to break them down even further. Okay, two other things I want to share with you.
Shannon Stone:
The second last thing is why I love this whole approach. I love and I remember being in the mastermind and on our group mastermind call and I shared this with the mastermind is almost like on a whim. I think someone else was asking a question around how to set up their calendar or it was a similar kind of conversation and I've been doing this approach for years so I just shared. I was like my calendar is all set up and I love that. I don't need to think about what I need to do, I just need to follow the calendar, which is great for especially the parents, especially for everyone honestly. But I know as a mom, as a single mom myself, it's like time is scarce. But I know time is scarce for everyone, right the more that I don't have to question what I need to do, when I need to do and all those other things. I just have to follow my calendar and in that review and improve, piece or breaking the task down even further.
Shannon Stone:
I know I've got the flexibility to change, to adjust things as I need to, but I love that my calendar is all set up there because I just follow it. I don't have to think about it all the time or what am I going to do on Monday morning? It's there, ready to go. You, of course, can add new things to it. It's your calendar, it's your life. But that's one of the reasons why I love doing this, because if I want to turn my goal into a reality and I've broken it down and I've added it to the calendar and I'm following it like a mofo then I'm going to achieve that goal.
Shannon Stone:
So I thought I would share that with you, because if you're wondering, well, why should I do this? It sounds like a lot of work. You will actually get a lot of freedom by following this, and people will say and my last tip will hopefully run true to this but you will get freedom by having a system like this. You will be so surprised how much stuff you get done and how much quicker you'll achieve a goal by having a process like this. So it's not taking away from your freedom, it's actually providing freedom for you. Okay, the last thing I want to share with you is this we can get everything done if we just do it in the right order and if this, this is so morbid, but if there was anything to be printed, there'd be a few things that would be printed on my headstone when that day may come, but this would be one of them. We can get everything done if we just do it in the right order. Now, I've been saying this forever. My daughter knows it for sure.
Shannon Stone:
We do the most important things first, and Stephen Covey has this theory or analogy or this idea which you may or may not have heard, but it's big rocks, small rocks, sand and water. So the big rocks are your biggest priorities, projects and tasks, so you always do those first and foremost. So at the beginning, when I said the goal that is meaningful to you, I'm imagining this to be a big rock. It's really important to you and so breaking it down this is why you need to follow the calendar like a mofo, because this is important to you. So your big rocks are the things you do first and foremost, and the small rocks are the things you do after that, and then the sand is what you do after that, and then the water is what you do after that. Now I'm sharing the analogy backwards, but imagine you had a jar. If you added those four components big rocks, more rocks, sand and water in just odd order, maybe you'll do like one big rock and then once more rock, and like a bunch of sand and then a bunch of water and then some more big rocks, like you did it in in a very ad hoc kind of way, you wouldn't be able to fit the same same ingredients into a jar, had you? If you have a second jar and you put the big rocks in small rocks in second, the sand third and the water last, you would fit all of it in. The order in which you do things is actually really important, because it does dictate how you fit things in and it ultimately dictates what you're able to achieve. This is why I share that you can turn your goals into reality using your calendar.
Shannon Stone:
I hope you listen to this one back if you didn't take notes, or listen to it again anyway, and I hope you use this to help achieve some goals in your life. I will leave it at that for today. I hope you have an amazing day and I'll talk to you soon.
