I’m sure I’m not the only one saying this today. Where did the year go? It feels like it was just a few weeks ago I was freezing my butt off in NYC wondering what in the world was happening to my girl Mariah Carey and trying to watch that darn ball drop to ring in 2017. Now, in just a few short weeks, we will be ringing in 2018.

One of the things I had planned for the last quarter of this year was to launch my newsletter, Off the Record with Sachkia Barnes. Well, lots has happened over the past three months, but I was determined that 2018 would not come and I didn’t get a chance to pop into your inbox.

When I was a child, it seemed like a new year took forever to come. Being an adult has its perks – you’re tall enough to drive and go wherever you want, you can get a job to buy airline tickets to travel the world and one of my favourites – you can legally drink some bubbly! But with those perks also comes significant responsibilities, primarily finding the means to take care of yourself. For most that might mean a job, love it or hate it. Hopefully for someone like you, a thriving, budding or soon-to-be entrepreneur, being an adult gives you the freedom to develop a business that you love, that serves others and allows you to pay for those adult perks.

I’ve been an entrepreneur for almost ten years and hands down, it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. While I love getting to support people, brands and causes that are doing good in their communities, it also means being a master of juggling more than three things at a time. I still have much to improve on, but I’ve learned that organising my time and tasks are essential to any level of success.  My team and I use Asana to coordinate large projects, I also use Google Keep to sort a few things out, but somehow, I always find myself back to sitting with pen and paper when I’m trying to dig deep and map out my time.

As an early Christmas gift to my fabulous readers, I’m sharing my FREE weekly planner that is simple and easy to help you organise yourself and your time. It’s one of the things that I’ve started to put in motion, to prepare me for an energetic 2018.

Click to download your FREE weekly planner!

I would suggest creating a binder where you can store as many pages of this weekly planner as you need. The one page planner includes a space for you to:

• list three priorities for the week
• add 10 manageable things on a to-do list
• take brief notes
• write down what you are grateful for at the end of that week – my favourite!

While organising is key to business success, it’s also pretty crucial to your overall success. I’ve learned by trial and error, and I now encourage all female business owners to remember and embrace our whole selves.  So when using the weekly planner, don’t forget to include any personal or fun tasks that you need to ensure self-care is part of your weekly schedule. I hope this helps you and feel free to share this post with your business bestie or favourite gal pal and enjoy planning together!