You probably spend a lot of time each week doing the work, driving things forward, sending emails, juggling receipts, returning phone calls, and serving clients or creating your thing to make your business work.

These things are all necessary, of course. Neglect these tasks and you likely won’t have a business anymore.

But when you’re busy with your nose to the grindstone, you might forget to address a few other things that are MAJOR contributors to the success and sustainability of your business over time: the big picture, and rejuvenation.

I suggest to all of my clients that they take the time to plan two specific days to ensure they’re not missing any red flags or opportunities, and that they have enough energy for the long haul.

Big Picture Planning Day

The first day I encourage my clients to schedule each month (or at minimum each quarter), is a Big Picture Planning Day.

This is a day where you clear your schedule so it’s free of phone calls or meetings, you enable your Out Of Office reply for emails, and you take some time to look at the big picture. Even if you’re a one man show, you need to put on your CEO hat from time to time, and look at the overall health of your business so you can make the next best move going forward.

You’ll want to review your finances and make note of any trends in sales. What’s been working and what’s not working?

You might want to do a quick SWOT analysis so you can get a sense of what is important for you to focus on next. What can you leverage? What do you need to address? What’s exciting?

You can look forward at the next 3-6 months to see what you need to be planning for now to ensure things go smoothly in the future. What seeds do you need to plant now?

You’ll want to review your progress towards your goals. What do you need to to do reach those goals? What is on track? What needs attention?

Essentially, a day like this allows you to get out of the day-to-day work and check the map!

Are you headed in the right direction still? Do you need to course correct? What might you be facing moving forward?

Answering these questions and checking in on the big picture is powerful, and essential, to growing your business.

Out Of Office Fun Day (OOOFD)

The other day I encourage my clients to plan once a quarter, is an Out of Office Fun Day.

When you've been pushing, and working, and grinding, and creating for a long time and you starting to feel the exhaustion that comes with it, it's time to shake it up.

You can keep hitting your head against the wall and running yourself ragged if you’d like, but stepping away COMPLETELY is often the only way to shift out of a funk.

Planning a day that isn't for "catching up" on life (i.e. no chores or errands), and is simply for fun and following your curiosity and desires is super rejuvenating.

Get out of the house, head somewhere new, explore the world, find a funky cafe somewhere, take a nap, doesn't matter...just allow yourself to lean back and get out of your head.

For me it usually includes going to a yoga class, getting a fancy juice, and then getting in the car with my camera and my journal and just driving until I see something that piques my interest. I’ll allow myself to just explore and do what feels good without an agenda.

It doesn’t have to be expensive or extravagant, it just needs to be out of your normal routine.

It’s important that this be a solo day, so that you’re doing exactly what YOU want to do without being influenced by what anyone else’s needs or wants.

The only thing that isn’t allowed is doing anything that you’d check off of your “to do” list. This is about play, fun, ease, and exploration.

And, friends, I’m telling you…it is CRUCIAL to long term business success and sustainability.

Get out your calendar and schedule them. Tell me how it goes!