How to Align Your To-Do List with Your Business Goals

As a solo entrepreneur, I understand the importance of goal making. But to be bluntly honest following through on the goals I set each month takes effort.

It’s not uncommon for business growth goals to get pushed aside in favor must get done to-do list activities. Does this sound familiar?

Whatever happened to those prospect calls you were going to make?

The potential clients referred to you by people who know like and trust you? After a week or two of not getting to them do you push them aside for more timely to-dos?

And how many webinars have you signed up for with great anticipation, then didn’t watch them live or even the video replay because your to-do list got in the way?

That was me too.

But I’ve found a solution to help me align my to-do’s with my business goals, monthly goal setting.

Why I Recommend the Living Well Planner

The Living Well Planner monthly goal setting section has been an enormous help to me.

I bought the Living Well Planner during an online shopping therapy session. I had let too many balls drop and figured giving an old fashion paper planner a try couldn’t hurt.

(You can read more about why I decided to buy the Living Well Planner or Pin It to read later.)

It arrived in the mail a couple weeks later. It was pretty and clean and so full of possibilities.

The anxiety of not wanting to mess up this pretty planner led me to buy erasable Frixion colored pens. I love these pens! Even though I rarely use the eraser, just knowing the eraser is there gets me past my mental gymnastics.

But back aligning to-do lists with your business goals.

The planner was sold with the instruction to WRITE IN IT. And even came with optional free webinars and downloads to help newbies get past the nervousness of WRITING IN IT.

The first time I followed the planner’s prompts and wrote out my goals it wasn’t pretty.

Align Your To-Do List with Your Business Goals

Goal setting at my previous jobs had been sort of a joke. I’d never taken the time to learn the real value of business goals. Until now.

(You can read more about my first experience with the Living Well Planner at Discover the Difference Between Goals and a To-Do List or Pin it to read later.)

But like most things, the more often I did it the easier it got.

Planning out monthly business goals that align with my BIG dream goals has gotten a lot easier.

The monthly goal setting exercise is the secret sauce.

By following the planner’s guidance I make a monthly Business Must Do list.

These must do’s are the actions needed to allow me to achieve my monthly business goals.

And as simple as that sounds my to-do list is quickly prioritized. The to-dos that will allow me to achieve the Business Must Dos happen first.

Give It A Try

Humor me for a minute and give what I call the MUST DO method a try.

1. Write down a BUSINESS goal you have for this week.
2. List out what you MUST DO to achieve the goal.
3. Pull out your to-do list for the week and circle all the items that are on both lists.
4. Do the circled items today.

Conclusion

What would happen if you actually do step four? Actually do the must do items that move you toward your goal?

You would be that much closer to achieving your business goal!

This simple step of creating a MUST DO list to achieve my monthly business goal has allowed me to prioritize my to-do list.  By aligning your to-do lists with your business goals you automatically focus your time on the activities that lead to success in your business.

Of course, if you are anything like me you still need to feed your family and make sure they have clean laundry. But now, when it comes to my business to-do’s I’m able to focus on what I MUST DO to achieve my business goals.

Do you have a favorite system for achieving your business goals? I’d love to learn about it in the comments below.

Additional Posts You Might Like:

How to Set Personal Development Goals as a Solopreneur

How to Get Your Time Management Strategy Back on Track

How to Grow Your Leadership Skills as an Entrepreneur