Boy, my reset week went by way too fast. But, I made some great progress and have some things figured out. For the current 12-week period, I’m looking to make some notable movement toward five major areas of business focus.
The five areas of focus for my Degrees of Maternity business goals are as follows:
- The LRCU Membership (a youth leadership community that I provide for some 3rd-8th graders I’m mentoring)
- Reading Tutoring Services (through Degrees of Maternity and for the tutoring company I returned to this month)
- Grant Writing Services (for the K-12 academy I also do reading tutoring for)
- Content Creation (for the Degrees of Maternity blog site, L.I.T. News Newsletter, and LRCU Newsletter)
- The Degrees of Maternity Summer Reading Program (starting in June 2026)
And, I’m using The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington, Atomic Habits by James Clear, and The Atomic Habits Workbook by James Clear to help me get clear on what I need to actively focus on and how to go about completing the action steps needed to move the needle forward in my areas of focus.
I’m also using my 2025-2026 Teacher Planner by Pen+Gear to document my weekly and daily schedules for carrying out the habits (positive consistent actions) to get the goals got. I will go week-by-week and day-by-day in setting up my monthly calendar.
As stated previously, I tend to do well with scheduling out for the month. So, I’m just planning out the month of February for now (with a detailed layout of what I’d like to see accomplished by the month’s end). I’ll tackle the planning for the month of March once I get toward the end of February. And, April’s planning will come toward the end of March.
Currently, I’m still putting some finishing touches on February, since I spent the last week doing my reset and trying to get my head wrapped around some type of organized direction. I should be able to get the action items (I need to take toward my goals) written down in my planner for the remainder of February 2026 before this week’s end.
And going forward, I’m going to take the advice of Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington and take 15 – 20 minutes at the beginning of the week (Sunday) to review the progress made toward goals from the prior week and plan the current one. Then, I’ll take 5 minutes at the start of each day and detail the day’s activities.
These planning sessions should go pretty smoothly since I’ve already determined the high-level to-dos needed to achieve the overarching big goals in each of the focus areas.
Of course, all the planning will be foiled if the execution of the plan isn’t fulfilled. No action. No results. So, mindset shifts and HABITS are currently being worked through, worked on, and worked out.
So much is hitting all at once! Yikes!
Reset . . . restructure . . . rework . . . Whew!
But . . .
I can do it . . . I can do it . . . I MUST do it!
Furthermore, I’m using a composition notebook to document the systems I need to set in place so my habits can productively work within the frameworks for GETTING THINGS DONE. Systems frameworks will include such items as:
- creating documented standard operating procedures (SOPs) for recurring processes
- creating a weekly schedule with as many same day-same time (each day) action items as possible
- setting up a structured working environment (or multiple working environments) conducive to getting uninterrupted work done
- creating automations to streamline processes efficiently
- delegating certain business-related tasks to family members to manage
I think I’ll stop here for now. I’m still working through some of the planning details, but it’s a solid start in the right direction.
I have a lot of mission-driven work on my plate, and I LOVE IT! But, it’s quite the tall order. So, I must be very intentional about what I’m doing here on out. None of this “willey-nilley” — “I’ll just figure it out as I go” — “I got it all up in my head” stuff.
No, I’m going to need some organization, structure, focus, plans, implementation of the plans, good and consistent habits, working systems, and help from others to receive the desired outcome(s) I’m looking for.
degreesofmaternity.com 