Biz Manual #5 – Consolidation
This post is part of a series that began here. By sharing the daily development of my own business operations manual (BOM) I hope to illustrate how you might approach doing the same in your own business. Please follow along and share what you are doing to document your own systems and the challenges that come up along the way.
I want my BOM to be Information Central for my business – THE go-to book.
So today was all about consolidation.
I gathered up all my loose, random, unorganized lists and transferred that information to its proper place in the manual.
Then I made a little promise to myself that everything goes on my daily sheets or directly into the manual from here on out.
No more orphan lists.
Related posts:
Organized under Uncategorized.
1109 days ago,
JoVE said:
Daily sheets?! Are those just sheets of “everything I did today”?I’m the organization ditz and I’m trying really hard to get a handle on what this whole process will look like for me, when i finally get over my stuck procrastination thing and try to do it.
1109 days ago,
Cairene said:
@JoVE
Yes, my “daily sheets” are essentially “everything I did today.” But there’s more to it than that.
My daily sheet starts with plan for the day with plenty of room for notes about what I actually did (’cause some days just don’t go according to plan).
Plus, I also make very brief notes about what I’m feeling/thinking about what I’m doing. I want to stay awake to my experience and not just go through the motions. I’m continually observing myself to learn what works well for me. That’s where my daily “lessons learned” come from.
Lastly, because my daily sheet is right next to me while I work, it’s a great place to capture fleeting ideas about a blog post or something I need to remember to do before it’s lost and forgotten. Those get transferred to more appropriate to-do lists at the end of the day or week.
Oh, and one more thing:
Wait, some background first. I really dislike journaling. Something like the Artist’s Way Morning Pages turns me into a navel gazing idiot in less than five minutes. I know it’s supposed to be cathartic, but it just stirs the muck up from the bottom and I can’t get a damn thing done afterwords.
So my daily sheets are not only a time management tool, they also function as a journal. And for that reason, in addition to feelings/thoughts and ideas, I also like to make a note at the end of the day about what I felt good about and what I’m grateful for and have a little meditative/prayerful moment around that.
I suppose this sounds like a lot of work, but it’s really not intrusive or time consuming. It’s all very short and messy and organic – seriously, no full sentences. For me, it’s a tool/system that conveniently and efficiently meets many needs in one nice little package. (FYI, it’s a system I teach in the time management class – one people are free to adapt to their own needs, preference and style.)
Oh – and there is no way you are and “organization ditz” if you can manage to pay your bills on time an maintain a filing system!
1102 days ago,
Biz Manual #6 - Staying Awake to What Is Happening Right Now « How THW Gets In Gear said:
[...] when I do it this way? If I did it differently could I avoid that yucky part? And so on. Like my daily sheets, it helps me stay awake to my experience and what is happening in my business. Possibly related [...]
918 days ago,
Gratitude Learned « How THW Gets In Gear said:
[...] my daily sheets are full of little practical tweaks [...]
892 days ago,
Buoyancy « How THW Gets In Gear said:
[...] Goodness knows I would drown trying to run my business without my daily sheets. [...]