How often do you find you struggle to stay on top of your tasks and stick to your plan?
It’s when you’re busiest or dealing with the unexpected you need to be able to take a step back and reassess what’s important, especially if you keep coming up against obstacles and roadblocks.
The secret to getting over these obstacles is through regular reviews and getting a fresh perspective to the challenge.
As we head into the Easter weekend, find a little time over the next few days to review your progress so far and identify any obstacles you’ve come up against so far
this year.
The Importance of Regular Reviews
Reflection and Learning: Regular reviews provide you with time to reflect on your progress and learn from your past experience. By taking a look at what worked well and what didn't, you can start to recognise patterns, identify your strengths, and any areas for improvement. You’ll also be able to recognise and acknowledge your ‘successes’ rather than focusing on the failures.
Adapt and Adjust: It’s easy to get caught up in the day to day and without regular reviews, you can quickly veer off course and lose sight of your long-term goals and objectives. Regular reviews serve as checkpoints, enabling you to make adjustments sooner rather than later, so you can remain focused and on track.
Accountability: Scheduled reviews create accountability. Knowing you’ve set aside regular time slots to review and assess your progress, helps you to stay focused, motivated and committed to your plan and priorities. If you undertake your review with a colleague, mentor or coach, you’ll not only have additional support but someone else to hold
you accountable.
Getting a Fresh Perspective
Get Outside Insight: External perspectives, whether from mentors, colleagues, or a coach, provide a different insight you might overlook or be unaware of. A fresh pair of eyes can provide you with unbiased feedback and a new solution to your problem.
Spark
Your Creativity: Fresh perspectives will stimulate creativity and innovation. By finding different viewpoints, you’ll uncover more ways to improve your processes, streamline your workflow, and manage your tasks so you can work more efficiently.
How to Incorporate Regular Reviews and Fresh Perspectives
Schedule Regular Review Time: Set aside dedicated time for your reviews, whether it's weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Block them out in your schedule, set them to repeat and stick to them, so you maintain
accountability and momentum and they’re less likely to get forgotten.
Do Something Different: Sometimes it’s difficult to see the wood for the trees. Finding a fresh perspective enables you to get out of your day to day routine and opens up new ideas and strategies.
When you feel stuck:
- take time out, take a break and do something different, even for a few minutes.
- deploy a little lateral thinking, journal or brainstorm to flex your mental and
creative muscle.
- do something completely unrelated to work to shift your focus. Manual, repetitive activities switch off your overthinking brain and allow for those lightbulb moments. Volunteering gives you a different perspective and can change your point of view.
Ask: Actively ask for feedback from your colleagues, a mentor, or industry expert. Be open to constructive criticism and different points of view. Don't take it personally. Use the information to change your approach and refine your strategy.
Embrace
Change: Be open to change and trying something new. We change all the time, as does work, life and the world around us. Don’t be afraid to try something new based on the insight you gain from your reviews, feedback and finding new perspectives.
Regular reviews are a key tool in improving your time management and productivity. They offer the opportunity for you to reflect, make adjustments and come up with solutions.
Incorporate reviews into your routine and make getting a fresh perspective part of your strategy for success and
problem solving toolkit.
