With that in mind, setting up a positive experience can be summed up in three steps:  Expectation, Communication, and Implementation.

Expectation:

Setting up expectation is possibly the most important of the three.  What will you be providing, and more importantly, what WON’T you be providing?  What’s an expected timeline for implementation of each individual step?  The idea here is to go through your entire process, ensuring the client doesn’t have any expectations that are unrealistic.  In addition to the explanation of your process, make sure to follow up with the client to see if they have needs that your services may not be able to meet, advise them, and suggest solutions.  This will ensure that there won’t be any unmet objectives at the end of the project.

Communication
As many of you know, things don’t always go as planned.  Timelines are skewed, dogs eat homework, employees get sick… whatever the excuse, we don’t ALWAYS meet our objectives.  This can cause a great deal of anxiety for both parties.  The most important lesson that can be learned from anything you read here is this, get ahead of your stumbles. The more lead time you can give a client that things may not go as planned, or that you may miss a deadline, the more coordinated your business will seem.  Whenever possible, determine new deadlines or other objectives within the process that can be completed.  (It’s times like these when a flow chart of the project comes in handy).  If ever the question pops up “should we tell the client”…. the answer is almost always “yes”.  Over-communicate if necessary, but make sure everyone stays on the same page, and on the same team.

Implementation
This simply comes down to implementing the game plan.  Do what you said you’d do!  If you’ve effectively set up expectations, and communicated with the client throughout the process, implementation can be the easiest of the challenges.  It probably goes without saying, but always do your best work, if the project can be improved by a little more TLC, give it.  Never walk away from a project with the mentality that “it could have been a better solution IF”.  Communicate the solutions with the client, and if they fit the objectives, make the project all it can be.

We’ve made it our goal at Strategic Blend to overachieve every opportunity we get.  As we continue to grow our business, we will always strive to meet expectations, effectively communicate the common goals, and implement them in a timely fashion to reach the greatest outcome possible.

In a recent conversation, I realized keeping my plate constantly full is a good way to keep motivated.  When I have idle time, I have a tendency to get lazy, or have trouble getting motivated.  When I’ve got a laundry list, I take the challenge to conquer everything, and many times, gets me motivated to keep on truckin’ once the list is through.

Here are some helpful time managers to keep you on task.

Google Calendar:
Not only does it allow you to create multiple color coded calendars (all on one page), but it syncs to the iPhone!  That is, if you’re iphone inclined…. if not, and assuming you’ve got a web-capable cell phone, the new mobile features to google are fabulous.

Make a list:
Using a handy “notepad”, whether a physical piece of paper (I like jumbo post-its) or opening a document on my computer and making a list.  There’s something nice about being able to cross off tasks.  This also gives you an opportunity to break down big tasks into smaller more manageable tasks.

Project Management Software:
For really big projects, where you have to worry about lead time, or several moving parts, I like to use project management software.  This gives you the chance to map out the entirety of the project, get a good timeline, and manage expectations (even if they’re your own).  GnattProject is a great (and free) program.

Ideally, you’ll use each of these time management and planning tools in conjunction with one another to keep the momentum and finish tasks as efficiently as possible.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a schedule to plan, a project to manage, and a list to tackle.

I just came across this video of a keynote he did for a Web 2.0 expo – watch it.  Please.  It will inspire you, fire you up and kick your ass.

Ultimate ToDos ($4.99 in the itunes app store) is a fantastic app with great menus and interface.  I’ve been trying out every ToDo List app and this is definitely THE best.  You can organize tasks by tags or contexts, allowing you to mark items as personal or business, project name, level of commitment or whatever methodology you wish to use.  It also displays tasks via a number of tracking methods, whether it be time-related, priority related, randomly flagged, etc.  The complete customization of how you use the program is what really appeals to me as everyone has their own way of doing things.  It also syncs with various online and desktop “to do” applications.

The developers have a great website where you can learn more about the app, see menu screens and really get a feel for how it works.

Ambiance ($0.99 in the itunes app store) is an app that provides great background noises.  Too often I’ve found myself unable to focus, and in dire need of some neutral, hypnotic background sounds.  This app provides a wealth of great sounds, from waterfalls and beaches to clocks, vynal and city streets.  I tend to use this more than listening to music as it really helps get you in that “groove” to focus and let your brain do its job.

So if you’ve got an iphone or ipod touch – give these babies a go!  For just $6.00 total, you could be doing more in ’09.