Written by Jason Montoya. Posted in My Life.

My Goals as I Look Forward to the End of February 2018

Month 2. Year 2018.

After last month’s positive progress, and the lessons I learned, I’m looking forward to building upon this terrific start to the new year.

Setting my goals for the month here in this post provides me a reference point to look back upon. It also gives me the opportunity to process upcoming objectives, and sharing provides you with a glimpse into my journey.

My Brief List of Feb 2018 Goals

A detailed assessment of the following goals is found further down the page.

With an update in my consulting pricing, I’ve updated my Color Zone System (red/yellow/green). My goal this month is to adjust my numbers and behavior to reflect this change. Since it's a short month, this will pose a small challenge.
My next checkpoint on the book project involves populating my new structure with existing content and identifying gaps that require filling.
With taxes due soon, my goal for the month is to have both our personal and business returns completed.
On my service offering, my intent is to update the page with additional customer success stories.

Freelance Consulting Color Zone System

In Path Of The Freelancer, the Color Zone System (CZS) is a way for us to proactively adapt to the ups and downs of freelancing. It also acts as a leash for how much we work in a day, week, month and year.

Since I charge hourly, short months make it slightly more difficult. My tracking and planning are based on the number of weekdays in the month. For the month of February, I've only got twenty days to reach my monthly goal (last month I had twenty-three days). At my hourly rate from last year, this would mean logging 6.5 hours per day. With this year's updated rate, it means logging 6.1 hours per weekday to hit my numbers in February.

With the increase in my rate, I'm normally able to work fewer billable hours and generate the same income which is directly tied to my 2018 goal. Here's my updated Color Zone System (CZS) for the Green Zone, with the new numbers.

2017 Green Zone

Monthly | 93.50 hours - 130 hours
Weekly | 21.57 hours - 30 hours
Daily | 4.31 hours - 6 hours

2018 Green Zone

Monthly | 87.25 hours - 122 hours
Weekly | 20.52 hours - 28.11 hours
Daily | 4.10 hours - 5.62 hours

This update means I can work twenty minutes fewer per day, one hour less per week, and 4.25 fewer hours per month, this year compared to 2017. This results in fifty-two fewer hours across the year.

the JUMP: Moving The Perpetual Startup Forward

When I first set out to write my next book, my inclination was to title it Path Of The Founder to build on the theme of my first book. But, I came up with another name I like that's also specific to my message.

The new name under consideration is "the JUMP: Moving Your Small Business Forward". I'm also playing with some other sub-headlines so it's a work in progress. My goal this month is to populate the manuscript outline with content I've already written. Once I’ve completed this, it’ll allow me to see where the gaps are, and this becomes my to-do list for what I'll write next.

Finish 2017 Taxes

Ever since I was audited by the IRS for our 2008 business taxes, I’ve aggressively filed our taxes as early as possible. We end up knocking them out by the end of February most of the time, thanks to a referral tax accountant. It feels wonderful to get this done early and if we’re receiving a refund, that comes early as well!

Update Services Page

With a proactive bent, I want to update my services page. As opposed to waiting until I need to update it, my goal is to do it well before it becomes necessary. This plants seeds for the future and empowers me to better serve my existing customers as it fosters a stronger focus on what I'm offering and how our engagement will play out.

February 2018, Here I Come!

While it can feel like there's always a ton of things to do, I find it helpful to name a few of these things and make them happen. As I do this each month throughout the year, I'll slowly but surely make steady progress towards my annual objectives.

What about you? When this month ends and you look back at it, what do you want to see?

Photo by Josh Calabrese on Unsplash

Monthly Reflection Point