How you start your day matters both personally and professionally.
Setting a daily practice for yourself, for your personal enrichment, job search and/or business development is key to feeling good and advancing your goals.
Your Personal Morning Practice
What does your morning practice currently look like? Are you in a rush to shower, brush your teeth, get dressed and get out the door? Are you adding feeding the kids and/or the dogs (cats) to that? Are you taking any time for yourself to face the day?
What happens if you get up a little earlier and take some you time? Do whatever it is that brings you peace and gives you the strength to face the day with energy, mindfulness and joy. What does that look like for you? Running, meditating, gratitude journaling, yoga, reading a good book with a cup of coffee, something else? Maybe it's as simple as a few affirmations and setting an intention for the day.
Why are morning routines so important? They help you get focused for the day, check-in with yourself and build momentum. What can you add to your personal practice tomorrow morning that will get you moving toward your goals?
Morning Practice for your Small Business
You're headed into the office, wherever that may be. It could just be down the hall if you are home-based; where do you start your days? If you didn't think about marketing, then it's time to change up your practice. If you get wrapped up with whatever your business provides, versus running the business, you'll never make time for it.
So, what should your morning look like to drive your business? Well, first, a calendar of what you are going to work on each day should be made. Best practices suggest that you post on your social media channels 3-4 times per week, produce one blog per week (at least 3 per month), and send 4-8 quality emails to your list per month. How should you start your day? You also need to check for comments on your social media, private messages and reviews on Yelp, Google, TripAdvisor, etc.
You will have to decide what works best for you, but you might dedicate one day to designing social media posts that you can schedule out; another writing a blog and yet another designing an email. You will need to daily, go through your social media channels. Nobody wants to wait for a response more than 24 hours. If you do not get into the practice of running your business daily, you'll wonder why your phone isn't ringing and no one wants to be in that position.
Morning practice looking for a job
“Looking for a job is a job in itself.”
Looking for a job is a job in itself. A daily practice is key. Up to 80% of jobs aren't posted on job boards like Indeed. Many times they aren't posted at all. Why? Because employers would rather hire someone that is recommended to them. 60% of jobs are attained through networking.
So what could a daily practice of looking for a new career look like? Schedule yourself an hour or two to do some research. It all starts on LinkedIn. What companies are you interested in working at? Make connections at those businesses. Have some exchanges and ask if you can schedule an informational interview to see what it's like to work there and what it would take to do what you want to do. Make a good impression. Those informational interviews often turn into job offers if you impress each other. Reach out to friends and family and let them know what you are looking for. You never know who they might know to help you on your journey. Also, spend a little time looking at job boards just in case that ideal job is posted somewhere. Before applying, make sure your resume and cover letter are customized for every job you apply for.
All of this may take you some time, but be diligent. Results will come and you'll be so glad you were proactive!
Start each day on a good foot
What are you going to do tomorrow to start off on the right foot? Start small if you need to. Put one foot in front of the other and just start. Scheduling yourself daily helps to hold yourself accountable and stay focused.
For more guidance on setting a daily practice for yourself, your business or your job search, reach out to Coach Remi Gibbs with Renovated Realities, gibbs.remi@gmail.com.