There are times when I am feeling seriously overwhelmed and lost. Starting a business. Looking into taking out a second mortgage. Designing a website. Managing multiple social media accounts. Hopefully I can add managing rental properties to this list soon.
That’s a lot going on and I’m one person trying to track it all. A few months ago, I decided to add business books to the ever-expanding library I’m consuming and found some great advice in Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman. He references the time-tested story of time management involving rocks in a jar. For those of you who are not familiar, here goes:
A professor presents a class with a glass jar next to a pile of rocks, a pile of pebbles, and a pile of sand. He dumps the rocks into the jar, coming almost to the top, and asks the class if the jar is full. They reply yes. The professor then takes the pebbles and slowly dumps them in, allowing them to fill the nooks and crannies. “Is the jar full?” is asked again, and the answer remains “yes”. Next, the pile of sand is added to the jar, filling in every available empty gap. The class acknowledges that the jar is full, only to watch the professor then take a glass of water and pour it in, finally filling the jar.
The rocks in this story represent major goals, and strategic initiatives. The pebbles are shorter term goals; the sand is minor tasks; the water represents distractions. Had the professor added water or even sand to the jar first, there would have been no room for the short-term goals, much less major goals and initiatives.
Traction recommends setting rocks for your business for every fiscal quarter. Beyond this, each employee should have rocks, or major goals they are trying to accomplish. The Local Housing Project is growing slowly and currently a one-person show. I’m sharing the rocks that I have set for the 4th quarter of 2022 so that I may hold myself accountable. I promise to keep sharing these as we progress forward and then take the time to review and make adjustments at the end of each quarter.
- Publish Vivid VIsion of TLHP and create Vision/Traction Organizer chart and accountability chart
- Write quality blog posts once a week and make the following changes on the website:
- Add blog list to homepage
- Update contact form
- Revamp all pages toward minimalist design
- Create Facebook fan page
- Build social media accounts by interacting with people on a daily basis.
I started with a lengthy list and paired it down to this. My goal for this quarter, or what is left of it, is to continue to build our brand and reputation online. I hope that when I approach realtors and lenders in the next quarter, I can show the reputation that I have established as a building block to future success.