#229: How I Set and Achieve Goals as an Entrepreneur, Busy Mom, Professor

Introduction

Have you ever tried to set goals following an entrepreneur’s directions only to realize that their model doesn’t even come close to fitting your needs as a busy parent?

Yea, me too!

The models that expect you to work 40+ hours a week on your business, the models that have you completing three tasks a day all feel like Venus to your Mars.

While I don’t claim to have all of the answers, today I’m going to walk you through how I plan for my business as a digital course creator who is also a busy, homeschooling mom and college professor. 

I promise to keep the episode short as I’m guessing you are listening because you are busy too! Take what you like, and leave what you don’t. And know that there is NO single, one perfect way to plan for your business. What works one week or one quarter might not work for the next. 

I’ll go ahead and spoil the episode and say that the key is flexibility!

Business Planning for the Busy Human

Honestly, when I first got started as an entrepreneur I was already homeschooling our kiddo and teaching 4-5 college courses a semester serving around 250 students a year in those courses alone.

When I say that there just isn’t a lot of time for my business, it isn’t a matter of scrolling less and working more. It isn’t about prioritizing things more effectively. There literally isn’t time if I want to sleep and I’m someone who has to have 8 hours a night to be at my best.

Before we jump into three things that I do to plan in my business, I’ll be up front and tell you that I work around 5 – 6 hours a week in my business. That is it. That is the way our family prefers it, I keep my operational costs incredibly low, and I focus on low cost solutions for course creators because after more than 15 years of teaching at our local community college I see and 100% believe in accessibility to learning opportunities that don’t break the bank or make you scrimp and forgo living necessities like food.

With the stage set, let me tell you what I’ve found to work for me over the past 4 years and then I’d love to hear from you what tips and tricks you have for planning on a tight timeline.

Three Planning Approaches for Limited Time 

Approach 1: Plan the Quarter Intentionally

When I was on a mastermind call recently, we were doing some 90-day planning and sharing what we were working toward so that we could support one another. When I shared my goals, I mentioned that if I don’t meet my goals it won’t be because of a mental roadblock or a failure to stay focused, it will be because something happened outside of my control and was simply more important. In my case, this would be something family related as that will always come before my business.

It might sound cocky, but I can make that kind of statement because I’ve gotten hyper focused on planning my quarter, or 90 days, whichever the task might call for, very intentionally. 

One way I do that is to figure out all of the things that I can’t move around. What is going to take time that is a non-negotiable? What will likely cause some fires that need to be put out? What celebrations do we have planned that I want to be present and focused for?

With that in mind I then look at the list of things that I would love to accomplish in my business and figure out the order that they need to be tackled in. For example, in the next 90 days I’m focused on getting my YouTube channel current with my podcasts, which requires me to work on thumbnail design, planning out and recording a few series of videos that will drive traffic to my channel, and getting my podcasts uploaded and optimized for YouTube. It wouldn’t make sense to tackle this goal if I didn’t already have my podcast running smoothly for the quarter.

So I prioritize my list and will pick the top 1 – 3 items that will move my business forward and that is it. I’m always keeping in mind that I have very limited time. Other people who work in their business 40 hours a week are going to accomplish more than me. That is ok. There is no race and if I know that only 1 thing is feasible for the 90 days then that is what I’m going to put my name next to and that is it.

The trick here is to let go of the FOMO, the guilt for not moving faster, or the fear that if I don’t get more done then my business will not be a success.

Success is what we define it to be. For me, success is being present for my family, making homeschooling our kiddo a priority, and taking care of my college students first and foremost. Everything else that I accomplish in my business is icing on the cake. This might not be the case for you. I want you to be able to define success for yourself. What does it look like? WHen you know the answer to that question it is easier to plan your quarter and stick to it.

Be intentional in your quarterly planning. Your goals don’t have to be massive and they don’t have to follow anyone’s prescription.

Approach 2: Don’t Plan the Day

Next up in terms of planning with a busy schedule is that I don’t plan what tasks I’ll accomplish each day. I plan by the week to make sure I get to that 90-day or quarterly goal. 

Why don’t I plan by the day? Honestly, because when I’ve done that in the past, the items just get shuffled day to day when other things pop up that require my time and attention. I got tired of that shuffling.

Now I sit down once a week and figure out all of the things that I’d like to get done, including self-care like exercising and meditation and write it all on one day in my planner by topic. 

By topic I mean that I have categories for podcast, email, YouTube, school, exercise, mastermind, and appointments right now. Those are the things that I’m mostly focused on.

Then, throughout the week I tackle the items of greatest importance or that have deadlines. For instance, I have to have attendance entered by Monday afternoon. I know that on MOnday morning I’m tackling that task. I know that my podcast need to be scheduled to go live on Tuesday at 4am. But pretty much everything else can be completed throughout the week based on my energy and quiet time to concentrate.

This approach allows me to align my tasks with my energy and my mood. This week I was working on researching and writing 4 podcasts, but the day I was going to write, I just wasn’t in the brain space to sit down and write episodes so I focused instead on the outlines so that later on I could come back and create the episodes with a fresh mind and more energy. I used the rest of that block of time to do some admin tasks that were critical, but didn’t require a lot of concentration.

By planning the week instead of the day I allow myself the flexibility of my other obligations and also give myself the freedom to do tasks that match my energy that day. I no longer shift things from day to day and the week of tasks gets done.

Approach 3: Be Conservative

Finally, the third approach to planning when you are busy and have very limited time for your business is to be extremely conservative. 

Be conservative with what you think you can get done. Be conservative with what you commit yourself to. Be conservative with the goals that you create.

I know some of you might be listening to this and thinking that you have to dream big to build a great business, but you don’t have to push your goals to the point where they just create havoc, drama, and dread. It is ok to set a goal and know that it is totally doable. 

A lot of goal setting gurus will tell you to set the goal just beyond what you think is doable. And in some ways I agree because it pushes you to explore new approaches, but I don’t think this is a healthy approach if you are already tired, busy, and trying to find time to fit your business into a busy life. 

I think it is perfectly acceptable and even preferable to set goals that are doable without wreaking havoc or upset in your life. There may come a day and time when you can set the wild goal that pushes you beyond your comfort zone, but that doesn’t have to be right now.

Action Item

I promised you a short episode so that you can do your own planning and I hope that something I’ve said today has sparked a new idea for you. Remember that planning is a personal thing. I’m sharing what works for me as a busy mom, homeschooling parent, college professor, and entrepreneur, but that doesn’t mean it will work for you.

So this week, I want to encourage you to take some time to think about what planning method is most effective for you and why. When you understand the why behind something, you are much more likely to stick with it. Just like I know that planning for the week not the day works for me because I don’t have to shuffle tasks from day to day when life is happening at a fast clip. 

I’d love to know what works for you, what approaches you take to planning as a busy entrepreneur who has more than one thing going on in life. Send me a DM on Facebook or Instagram at DigitalCourseCreatorGuide and let me know your favorite approach.

Where to Go Next?

Above all, remember that planning isn’t prescriptive. There are a ton of models out there, trust me I’ve seen a lot as a psychology professor. There are a ton of models because no single approach works for everyone nor does one single approach work for someone all the time.

The key, as I shared at the very beginning of the episode, is to be flexible with yourself. There isn’t a right or wrong way to plan, but I do encourage you to plan so that you stay focused, use your time to the best, and make progress on your timeline.

If you want to hear more about planning for your business, check out Episode 170 where I walk you through planning for the year. This was originally published to walk you through planning for 2024, but all of the principles apply at any time that you are ready to plan for the year.

You might also consider the power of flow in your business and how to generate flow with the plan you create by listening to Episode 167.

As always, thank you so much for listening in. If you found this episode helpful, please share with your entrepreneur friends and colleagues who are building a digital course in their business and be sure to subscribe to the Digital Course Creator Podcast.

Until next time, happy creating!