Keep a list of your concerns and questions

What

Set aside a few minutes each week to write down the concerns and questions that have been sitting in the back of your mind.

Not a to-do list. Not a goal-setting exercise. Just an honest record of the things that have been quietly worrying you, or that you haven't been able to answer yet.

Why

When you work for yourself, there's no one to debrief with at the end of the day. No colleague to catch you in the corridor and say "have you sorted that thing yet?" The concerns just accumulate, quietly, in the background.

Some of them are small. Some of them feel bigger than they actually are. And some of them are genuinely important and need dealing with before they become a problem.

The trouble is, when they stay in your head, it's hard to tell the difference. They all feel equally heavy when you're carrying them around.

Writing them down does a few useful things.

It gets them out of the rotation in your head. It makes them visible and, usually, more manageable.

And it creates a record you can look back at, which means you'll also start to notice when concerns keep coming up week after week. That pattern is useful information.

A concern that reappears three weeks in a row is telling you something.

How

1/ At the end of each week, spend 15 minutes checking-in with yourself. Write down anything that's been worrying you or that you haven't had an answer to. Use whatever format works for you: a notebook, a notes app, a document. The medium matters less than the habit.

2/ You don't need to act upon everything immediately. The goal here is to capture things, so you can see if they're reoccuring, or if it's something you know is important, to keep track of it. If there's something you know has a deadline, consider popping it in your calendar now.

3/ If there's a question you want to tackle, bring it to your community. Chances are someone else has been thinking about this too, or might have already found an answer.

4/ At the end of each month, glance back at last few weeks. Cross off anything you've resolved. Notice anything that keeps reappearing. Those recurring items are worth paying closer attention to.

You can use the Flightplan "Checkin" feature to capture feelings, concerns, questions, celebrations and milestones.

Check-in now.