KIS & Tell January 2021
Welcome back!
I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and are looking forward to a year that has to be better than the last. It’s hard to top 2020 (although the events in DC are making me nervous about that…).
But I’m not going to fall into the same trap as last year.
My goal this year is to improve my focus. The practice of doing less with more intention. With so much work to juggle every day, I’m often distracted from doing what I’d planned. The normal distractions of running a business plus the chaos of 2020 made it so tough to do the most important work. It’s a classic trap:
Urgency vs Importance
For five hundred years, there was no plural of “priority.” Not until the 20th century did people start saying (and thinking!) “priorities.”* Up until then, you couldn’t have more than one priority. It was inconceivable. Nowadays we talk about competing priorities.
In 2021, I’m making one simple resolution. I commit to setting one priority each day. Just one.
This looks like planning out each day’s priority the week before, writing it down as the first task in my planner, and working on it for a couple of hours before I look at anything else work-related.
If I’m unable to accomplish my priority, I’ll reflect on why and write it down. Mining why I miss my mark will help me find patterns and adjust.
If I’m successful in accomplishing my sole priority each day, then I’m confident that 2021 will be transformational.
Even though we are all busy. Even though the world is burning. Even though we have multiple “important” things to do. Pick one priority. All this commotion makes it feel like we were set up to fail, but we were not. We choose where to put our time and attention. Nobody and nothing “takes” it from us.
Importance vs Urgency
I challenge you to consider the difference in your business.
* Credit: Essentialism by Greg McKeown
Fresh Content
Hot off the press & onto the blog, website, and beyond.
This revolutionized my business.
You all know that I look for ways to simplify life and business all the time. Here’s a habit I developed about mid-last year. It’s powerful and simple, yet uncommon. I highly recommend you try it. It will help you back out from your narrow day-to-day focus and view your work with fresh eyes.
The big secret? Take a moment at the end of the week to close up shop and prep for the next one. I call it my week-end bookend process. You can read all about it here. Essentially, you reflect on what you did this week, priorities for the next week, and plan it out.
The first action is the most important. How often do you stop to reflect on your work now? Unless you have a similar routine, I imagine it’s not often. In just a few minutes you can get more perspective on your efforts, progress, and needs.
This helped bring so much more order and a sense of control. I share about the process in this blog.
App of My Eye
I'm always on the lookout for new apps that help make running a business easier! Here are the best finds over the past month.
Everybody loves video. That’s why YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world and all the kids are on TikTok and Reels.
Clients love it. It feels more personal. Employees love it. Training is so much easier when they can watch every click and move in a given process. I love it, too. I watch creative instructional videos, business trainings, comics, courses, and even yoga.
And videos are so easy to make, especially with a tool like Loom! Install the free extension, click to record, do your thing, and share the link with anyone you like.
Best Reads
I love to learn. Especially with business, there are always new perspectives and information we can benefit from. Here's my latest fav.
"You'll find that, by focusing on the small things, the big things take care of themselves."
Big goals are wonderful, but to make progress on them, you need to break them down. Boyden recommends taking one little part of the goal and making it your focus for the entire week. You can chip away at your goal by going small.
It may seem slow, but over time the effort compounds and you’ll have made massive progress. It’s a proud moment to look back and see how far you’ve come.
He goes further than just breaking it down. He delves into another helpful & too often undervalued tip - accountability. It could be anyone - a biz buddy, coworker, boss, employee, or even a friend. The most important qualities of an accountability buddy are that they’re available weekly, and will ask you “why” if it didn’t happen. You need someone who will go deeper than, “you tried so it’s okay” week after week.
Selfish plug: this also goes well with the article mentioned in Out & About. 😉
Practicing Simplicity
Practical tips to simplify your business.
Practice: Run through a daily debrief routine.
Rationale: Before leaving work for the day, do a quick check to make sure you're on top of the most important things. Create a list that’s personalized for your business. It could include responding to emails, updating your project statuses, touching base with employees or contractors, checking in on social media, or anything else you want to get done every day.
Tools: Checklist & a set time to perform it.
Tax Tips
The world of tax is constantly changing. Here's what you need to know.
Here’s a quick rundown of the early 2021 tax season due dates:
1/15 - Friday: Q4 2020 estimated tax payments due
2/1 - Monday:
1099s Due to Contractors
W-2s Due to Employees
Most tax forms must be sent out
3/15 - Monday:
Partnership & S-Corporation returns/extensions due
Payments due (if applicable in your state)
4/15 - Thursday:
Personal & C-Corporation returns/extensions due
2020 payments due (even if you filed an extension!)
Q1 2021 estimated tax payments due
5/17 - Monday:
Not-for-Profit Organization returns/extensions due
6/15 - Tuesday:
Taxpayers outside the US returns/extensions due (automatic 2-month extension expires)
Q2 2021 estimated tax payments due
Out & About
We're going places! Whether it's for networking, client meetings, or personal travels, I love to explore. Here's one recent stop.
Have you heard of The Rising Tide Society?
It’s a free community that gets together monthly in local groups across the US and beyond to discuss one business topic. It’s aimed at creative entrepreneurs but isn’t exclusive. I used to go to the Norwich, CT chapter when I first started my business. It’s a unique way to meet other entrepreneurs, work on our businesses, and find real biz buddies.
This past Monday, they released their January issue and I wrote one of the articles in it. This is the first time I’ve been published, and getting into one of their monthly issues was one of my publishing goals. What a boost to start the new year!
The January issue is all about business planning. My article focuses on how to make your goals actionable by breaking them down into the smallest step you can control. You can download the guide for free, here. Most of the groups have gone virtual because of the pandemic, so regardless of where you are, you can check out a monthly meeting in the spirit of “community over competition.”
On the Horizon
Here's what we'll be focusing on over the next few weeks.
I will be sending out emails to clients & others who have expressed interest later this week.
Send me a message if you want to simplify filing your taxes. I have refined my process, even more, this year to make all steps of the process easier for you!
This year some of the updates include a welcome guide with all resources you’ll need, including these dates, videos, guides, pricing, and more.
I haven’t watched it yet, but a client highly recommends the new Netflix show “Death to 2020.” The word is it’s hilarious. It’s on my schedule this weekend.
On the same note, I really liked this faux-commercial where Satan and 2020 meet on a dating app! Sometimes all you can do is laugh and hope 2021 isn’t more of the same!