Small Progress Each Day Makes For Big Results

As business owners, it can be hard each day to keep your eye on the prize, take the bull by the horns, or insert another cliche here. You're busy - you know, running a business - how can you be expected to see big results? Or even remember your goals? You’re focusing on keeping your company up and running, and that’s more than a full-time job..

In order to keep track of your progress and keep your goals top of mind, it’s extremely useful to use a daily checklist. Successful business owners tap into the power of checklists to keep organized and to track progress.

Successful business owners also know something hugely important - so important that you need to jot this down on a Post It and remind yourself each day: a little progress each day adds up to big results.

Did you write that down? (No, really, we’ll wait.)

As we know now more than ever, emergencies in life and in our business are inevitable; they can be things we project and plan for or total catastrophes that you couldn’t see coming. When this happens, it’s easy to lose sight of things, but it’s in those times that it’s more important than ever to remember: just keep swimming. Keep making small progress towards your long-term goals, even if the progress feels small.

How to make small progress each day

1. Plan your work, then work your plan. 
2. No matter what, tell yourself that you will make progress towards your goals. 
3. And by the way, do you know your goals? You should write those down, too. You can’t take steps towards phantom goals now, can you?
4. Each day builds on the success of the previous day.
5. Be proactive rather than reactive.

You need to work proactively with goals in mind

The alarm goes off. You check your work email before getting out of bed, while you’re eating your breakfast, and when you get to the office. You’re seeing where you left off from the day before, picking up the leftover pieces, scanning emails, picking up the latest emergency, and becoming a victim of your inbox.

Does this sound like a familiar scene? Probably. But this is a deadly routine to fall into.

When our work has no meaning and we’re just falling into this trap, not only do we feel overwhelmed, but we can’t advance our most important projects and goals. This is bad for business, success, and your happiness.

Why this is a problem

We all have project lists and bigger scale business goals. But if we can’t execute our plans, we’ll never achieve our goals. Are you falling victim to this trap: Ask yourself:

Is your daily work defined by your inbox instead of your project list?

Goal setting and planning is frustrating; you can never make progress anyway.

Your daily plan is to knock off your easy items from your task list so you can feel accomplished…

...yet at the end of the day, you’re not sure what exactly you accomplished.

Here’s how to act and move forward instead of falling into the trap of simply reacting: 

• Successful business owners use daily checklists and rituals to drive their day - they tap into this before checking messages and emails.
• Productive business owners begin each day comparing short and long-term goals and weigh them against emergent tasks.

Components of a solid checklist:

• Productive environment: clear and clean your desk and workspace.
• Write anxieties down: when you wake up with stress on your mind or work anxiety has you up at night, jot them down on paper. When you take the time to write your worries and problems down, you can logically organize and assess them in a very tangible way - now you can truly see what needs immediate attention and what can wait.
• Review goals: after you’ve written down your workload woes, reviewing your goals gives your tasks context. Assess your progress towards each goal and think about what’s keeping you from moving forward.
• What’s your why? when you’re looking at your goals, think about your “why.” What is the emotional drive and “why” behind your goals? 
• Review & identify: review your projects and consider next steps; you should be able to tie every goal to the projects on your list. Now, what’s the next step to accomplish something today?
• Review your schedule: take a look at your calendar to understand what’s on your plate today, tomorrow, and later in week so you feel prepared.
• Scan, don’t answer: do a quick scan of your inbox, mail, and/or voicemail to review urgent items - but don’t answer them yet. Learn to discipline yourself to hold off responding until your action plan is together each day.
• Make your daily plan: be realistic and prepare your work plan for the day - don’t be overly zealous - as a business owner, you know that emails, calls, and interruptions happen all day, so make a plan, connected to your goals, of what you need to do today. Do you normally have 10 things on your to-do list? Scale back. Pick 3-5 substantive tasks to be completed in your day so you’re not setting yourself up for stress and failure. It’s a vicious cycle of defeat.

Lasting thoughts

The most important step is this: Actually do the steps. Don’t simply gloss past them in an effort to break the rules, check and respond to all emails ASAP, and forget your focus. When this becomes a part of your morning or daily ritual, you’ll get into a focused groove.

When you spend time each day - even a half hour - working towards advancing your goals, guess what? You did it - you advanced. Go, you! By following this process, you’ll have better focus, energy, and a sense of accomplishment each day.