Habits to keep in 2023

2022 held a lot of new things for Murphy Marketing – new people, projects, goals, and accomplishments. While we celebrate what worked this year, we want to be intentional about carrying those good things into the new year with us. Some of the best resolutions aren’t brand new ideas and methods, but simply resolving to press into good practices you’re already living out.

Here’s what worked in 2022 that we’re bringing into 2023 with intention, so that we can better collaborate with one another and serve our clients better. 

Personal Development  

• Planner 

For the first time ever, Katie found a planner that she likes enough to re-order for the new year!
Claire also started using a paper planner again halfway through 2022, and it changed the game for starting every day with clarity. 

• Timeblocks 

This is a simple principle for getting work done, but so effective. Blocking time has served us so well, as our work can vary from client calls to in-depth-strategy to wordsmithing, all within a day. Keeping some of these tasks separate and reserved for different parts of the day is so useful for really focusing on our work! 

• Leadership coaching 

Katie has been working with The Restored Leader since 2020 to clarify her personal and professional Core Values. We’re so grateful for TRL and the way they’ve helped Katie – and all of us – grow! 

• Asking for help

This is a skill everyone needs, and most people will always have room to grow in. After a year of continued growth and collaboration, the importance of communication and honesty with one another has only become more apparent. Another less obvious way of asking for help is seeking other people’s opinion and insight. Whenever we get stuck on something, it’s so helpful to put up the bat signal to get a second set of eyes. 

Ways we ask for help: 

• Getting childcare 

• Seeing a counselor 

• Working with a leadership coach (see above) 

• Letting our friends and family in on our lives 

• Asking for an opinion or advice when we’re stuck 

• Creating buffer time 

Gone are the days of scheduling back-to-back meetings, and we are so grateful. An extra 15 minutes between meetings makes a world of difference in a work day. We are also trying to be more intentional about opening the workday and closing the workday well – creating transition times between home and work and back again, even if we don’t have a commute.

• Only making calendar promises we can keep 

Instead of defaulting to an answer of “yes” as a first response to every opportunity, Katie started asking follow up questions before committing. Using phrases like “tell me more about that” and “let me check with my project manager first” before committing to a project created a calm workflow and clear boundaries and intentions for our internal team.

Team Development 

• Christmas celebrations 

Three of our team members live close enough that we can occasionally get together in person, and this year we did just that! We had a truly great time celebrating the year together, and we’re so excited to do it again next Christmas. 

• Working directly with clients 

We have a stellar team at MM and we want to show them off! We realized mid-way through the year that we should cut out the middleman and introduce our writers to our clients directly. Claire, our lead writer, leads many of our client review calls herself and it’s been such a rewarding experience to see her thrive. 

Business Development 

• Launching VIP Days

We initially created the VIP Day experience in 2020 when businesses were panicked trying to pivot their message and often business model as well. Do you remember all of the pivoting? As we built and mentored our team in 2021, we slowed down the VIP day offerings and then brought them back during 2022. We’ve found that for certain clients and certain projects – VIP is the way to go! 

This is the list we use to help sense if your project/ style is a good fit for a VIP experience: 

• If you’re decisive

• If you have a small team or a unified team 

• If you’re pressed for time and need something done faster than our normal 2-week sprints 

• ClickUp for Project Management

It can be intimidating choosing a project management tool, especially when your entire team is affected by it. After months of research we decided to move from Trello to ClickUp and we have zero regrets. It’s a platform that can do so much more than task management and has been a game changer for our team to determine bandwidth and keep us organized. Shout out to Laura Cason and Ari Adler for leading the ClickUp Revolution! 

We hope this list of what worked for us in 2022 will serve as a guide for you, as you think about your own habits for 2023.
Wishing the happiest new year to you!