Business Matters - Part 4b - Practice the Rule of 5

So I tried practicing my Rule of 5 this week( see last week's post for info). Thanks also to Fabienne from Easterya and Nikki from the Beaded Zen for joining me. Anyone else give it a try?? It really did help to have someone to email regularly about my experiences and successes and those not-quite-successes! It made me do more and try harder.

My conclusion after trying to work by the Rule of 5 (you commit to accomplishing five specific things each and every day that move you towards your goal) is that trying to do 5 things each day to reach toward a new goal is too much!!! It was most useful to write out goals in steps - but adding 5 new things each day to my normal daily activities didn't work out. I think I'm a 5 steps a week kind of person.

It would seem that Fabienne and the Nikki had similar experiences. Here's what Fabs said:

"Well, setting targets each day to work towards a goal is great, makes total sense... But 5??? Woohoo! That's a bit steep! I guess if you are to succeed, you have to be able to dissect all the steps you need to take to achieve that goal, and I agree with you: 5 targets a week instead of a day, to start off with, feels much more manageable... This week, out of my five, I've managed only 2, so I'll keep on going..."

I know Fabs made great strides with techie things this week - like making banners and avatars so I think she gets extra points for her techie-ness - her 2 goals really equal 5 as getting to know a program for image manipulation etc is, at least for me, very slow going. Good for you Fabs!

Overall, I found the approach useful. I did use the week to get together my Songbird suite of jewelry items and I have, so far, approached one store to ask if they would be interested. They are a birding store and have just a little bit of jewelry and I think my items would be a good fit. I only emailed them today, so I'll wait and see. But now I'm ready to approach others too.

It was a good way to implement something new in my business - a specific goal and I think I'll use it again.

Care to share any "get it done" strategies you have used successfully?