Planning and life’s little curveballs
Sometimes our best laid out plans go out the window as life throws little (or sometimes big) curveballs at us. No matter how much planning you do – you still need to be flexible and sometimes just roll with the punches. But why is planning important?
Today is a classic example. I got home from my exercise class and appointments last night at 9pm. I started to feel a bit off….possibly a combination of dehydration and various other things. I had a full schedule today with a breakfast networking event in the city, followed by various client work, then a hospital appointment for my son in the afternoon, then a 3 hour tax course in the evening. However my husband took one look at me last night and went and got me a towel and a bucket and tucked me into bed in the spare room (trust me that was a wise decision).
So here I am today, having had the best laid out plans in the world – and they are totally out the window. I have missed the networking event, my husband is taking our son to his hospital appointment for me and I am tapping away at my laptop from the comfort of home. Plus I will need to miss my tax course tonight (where we get assessed on attendance).
So how does planning come into today still being classified as a successful day. Well here is how !
I plan my week with my clients in advance – which days I work at their premises and which days I work remotely. Thankfully my clients are flexible and their main focus is the end result being achieved, so I was firstly able to reschedule today’s clients for tomorrow giving me a bit of breathing space to work completely from home today.
The clients I was due to work on tomorrow, are now being worked on remotely today from home. Plus I get to make a few calls to sort out some website issues and updates, and I get to try and sneak in a bit of rest during the day – which is what I believe my body is telling me.
Tonight, I will be skipping my tax course – and whilst this is not ideal, I really think sitting there for 3 hours with a bucket is even less ideal. I have homework to hand in (another assessable part of the course) so I will turn up to hand in the homework, then come home to rest.
Being flexible within your own self is one of the hardest things to accomplish as a business owners.
We are always trying to please everyone else, and often have a fear that doing something for ourselves, or rescheduling things because we absolutely need to will upset our clients. OK so Plan A might be out the window – but what is Plan B, if that doesn’t work, what is Plan C. Give your clients/customers some options, and think about how the tasks can still get done (different days, remotely, after hours, etc) so the client/customer still ends up with the same end result.
The fact that you are open, honest and willing to rearrange your plans with your client still at the forefront of your mind, is a positive reflection on you and your business.
Planning is essential in any business, but a higher skill is having the confidence to rearrange those plans at the last minute, so everyone still walks away a winner.