Happy New Year!
No, I’ve not gone mad. I know it’s July 1st! We’re halfway through 2024. Where has the time gone? This weekend marked the end of June, the end of the 2nd quarter, and, amazingly, the end of the first half of 2024. This weekend, I reviewed the past week, month, and quarter, and planned my next 6 months, 2 quarters and 26 individual weeks.
Although it’s a half-year, it feels like New Year’s resolution time. A time to assess yearly goals, see where we are, and figure out what we need to do for the next 6 months to achieve what we set out to do just a few months ago.
Anyone who has known me for any length of time will tell you that I’ve been totally disorganized most of my adult life. But 2 years ago, I got organised. Proper written-down goals with a path to my long term goals right down to the daily level. These days, although I still love having several ideas bubbling away, I’ve taken a more organized approach with planning, journaling, and measuring.
This is all thanks to one of my mentors, Paul O’Mahony’s book Rethink Time Management, which he introduced me to around 2 years ago. It resonated with my situation and needs. I was busy running an offline business but needed to find time to start a serious online business. One of the core tools Paul uses is the Rethink Planner, which I’ve been using for the past 2 years. Without it, I’d be lost.
So, what is this planner? It’s a planner/diary/journal where you plan your life goals for 15 years ahead, then focus on what you need to do THIS week to get there. There are sections on your ideal or dream life, 15-year goals, annual, quarterly, and monthly goals, and what you need to do next week to accomplish these.
The whole system is built around the RETHINK acronym:
- R – Relationships
- E – Earnings
- T – Tao (spirituality)
- H – Health
- I – Investments
- N – Networks
- K – Knowledge
And he adds F for fun. We all need some pure fun to have a fulfilled life.
The daily planner has a goal for each area of this RETHINK(F) acronym. I treat this as a quarterly goal. Next, there are the Top 4 Habits. These are good habits to help you achieve success in both your online business and your life. For example, work at least 15 minutes on my new online business EVERY DAY, get outside in the open air and jog, walk, crawl, or whatever for at least 15 minutes every day, and read or listen on Audible to 15 minutes of self-improvement books every day.
Next up are today’s must-do tasks. These are your top tasks to get you to your dream life. There’s a section for a diary for today where you note points relevant to your journey to online success. Then there’s a section for follow-ups—stuff you didn’t get done but still want to do. There is a clear-out for this if you need it.
Learning is an important part of growth, so there is a section for something you have learned every day. Big wins are always good, and they don’t have to be massive. You will have wins every day in some area of your life, even on the most negative days. Finally, there’s gratitude. Be grateful for something every day. We need to be grateful for what we have right now.
I would recommend this planner to anyone (there’s no affiliate commission, incidentally). The hardback copy is rather expensive (and in short supply because Paul is organizing a paperback version). It’s a bit cheaper, but if you have a tablet, Paul has allowed me to share access to the PDF pages that you can use to fill it in on the tablet. These can be found at rsm.one/planner, where you can download the quarterly pages. Just click here to take advantage. There’s also an online guide to using the planner at https://go.rethinkplanner.com/getting-started-guide.
If you would like to find out more about Paul’s Rethink Social Media programme please CLICK HERE to check out my review and also watch a 2 hour recorded video training by him.