The launch of a new year means the beginning of changes for entrepreneurs. We like to reassess our previous year and see how far we’ve come- then make any necessary changes in our plans for the upcoming year. I couldn’t do nearly as much with my goal-planning without the use of some nifty technology tools online like Google Drive.
This past month has been full of planning and setting goals as I moved forward into launching this site and rebranding my business. This relaunch hasn’t been fully without a glitch, but I wouldn’t have been able to do nearly as much without Google Drive . Here are the nuts and bolts of how I’ve needed these productivity tools to get my business relaunched.
I choose how I want to organize my planning.
This may seem like such a simple thing, but there is more to Drive than meets the eye. I’ve used both Docs and Spreadsheet to plan out my blog posts for the upcoming year and each functions differently and works best for different things.
When I just need to get my thoughts down quickly, I resort to Docs. Here’s why..
I can organize my thoughts into virtual folders.
All neatly organized for me, my thoughts now start to shape up and quickly turn into plans to help me meet my goals.
I have a folder called “CHM2014”. (This is my folder for another blog I run). I plan posts for each month and organize these topics into subfolders. Anytime I have an idea for a post that fits the theme for that month, I open up the folder and drop my idea inside.
On the other hand, spreadsheets help me to gain clarity for a bigger picture of my goals. A spreadsheet allows me to type in values such as the months and blog topics for each month.
With a spreadsheet, I can type in more data like different projects or blogs I’m working on. I can see an at-a-glance view of my plans for the entire year and add details for each week. I usually throw in some topic ideas for blogs, projects, ebooks, and podcasts.
Whereas Google Docs helps me to drill down and create notes on these individual projects, spreadsheets help me to see the bigger picture.
Presentations are great for creating slideshows. If you like using Slideshare for business, then Google Presentations (in your Drive) will help you create pretty nice slideshows. Granted you don’t have nearly as many options as you would in MS Powerpoint, but it’s still a great tool and gives you what you need.
(I don’t use Presentations for planning purposes, but just thought I’d throw that extra bit of info in there.) I also use Evernote, which I’ll talk about in another post sometime.
And although Google Calendar is not officially part of Drive- I could talk for hours about how my life wouldn’t be the same without it. Everything I plan out in Drive gets synced over to my calendar. After I create my weekly goals in my Spreadsheet, I then transfer those weekly/daily goals to my calendar.
So, how about you? Which resources do you use for your business goal-planning? What are some of your favorite planning tools?
Leave me a note below- I’d love to hear from you!
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