New Year’s Resolutions – do you have any for your business? If you haven’t thought of any, a good one is to plan. Arrange a weekly session either with your PA or with your whole team, and go over the agenda and progress of the week so far. This will help you focus, and a 30 minute weekly group session is much more beneficial than a quarterly review when it comes to staying on track New Year Solut…

 New Year’s Resolutions – do you have any for your business?

New Year Solutions

Another good idea is to look at what worked and what didn’t work for your business in 2013, focusing on what worked to help set yourself realistic targets and objectives for the first quarter of this year. With the holiday break behind you and with a hopefully clearer headspace, update your business plan to reflect this new target-focused version of yourself.

Planning your day the natural way

Rather than trying to fight your body clock, why not take advantage of it and learn to use your circadian rhythms to maximize your productivity?

For example, you are most alert mentally between 10 and 11am, so it’s a good idea to work on your most challenging tasks during this period. Energy levels take a slump around 12pm, and even your body temperature lowers – perfect time for a coffee or tea while you chat with your team!

Between 3 and 5pm, both your adrenalin and body temperature rise, simultaneously increasing your pain threshold (!) and confidence level, making this a good time to present ideas or meet important clients or suppliers.

People who claim to be ‘night owls’ might have an advantage – according to research, from 9pm onwards, the increased levels of melatonin (the sleep hormone) lead to more creative thinking, with the average peak coming at 10.04pm.

Smart Ideas for the New Year

• Review your overhead costs – trim the fat and look at ways where you can work smarter, whether that means hiring a virtual assistant, outsourcing certain areas, or moving offices.
• Parkinson’s Law states that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion – if they know they have 8 hours to complete a task that should take 2, most people will find that through a combination of distractions and dilly-dallying, they will be rushing to hand it in before the deadline. Don’t be one of them!

Highlights of 2013

New year, new start – but it’s important to reflect on the year that’s just gone by in order to focus on what you can achieve in the months to come.

• Starting work on an exciting new project with the Qatari government
• Successfully placing a number of SmartPAs as part of our new recruitment division
• Launching our SmartPA Training Academy in the UK and the Middle East

Watch this space for…

Our E-learning package, due to be released in early 2014.

Reminder

It’s Burns’ Night on 25th January, a time for haggis, neeps and whisky, and just what us Scots need to cheer us up after the Christmas festivities.