Mindset: Rocks, Pebbles and Sand

This is an excellent mindset to consider when looking at your business planning process, and how you work on a day-to-day basis. (You may have seen this concept applied to other situations)

It’s crucial to do things in the right order: If we try to fill up with the day-to-day actions, we won’t be able to achieve our annual goals. Instead, think about identifying your annual goals (put the rocks into your jar), put the pebbles in around that – think about those 90-day goals that help you work towards the annual goals, and then fill up the space with sand (you day-to-day actions). That way we can focus on the day to day actions, knowing that we will be working towards the bigger rocks.

An example of this might be:

Annual Goal: Gross Profit margin of 60% (it is currently at 50%)

90-Day Goal (the first of 4): Increase revenue

90-Day Actions: increase sales price, research loyalty programmes to encourage more regular purchasing, contact existing clients to see if they require additional services/products, acquire ‘x’ new customers (these actions will usually be broken down from 90-day actions into weekly or daily tasks – it all depends on how you work. Breaking things down into the smallest components is usually the easiest way to track your progress and gain clarity.)

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