“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
At Mazur & Co., the start of the new year and the renaming of the firm has allowed for plenty of opportunities to review, reflect, and refine. My resolutions, both personal and professional, have a common theme: optimizing my time so I can do the things I’m passionate about more often and more effectively.
For example, when our team is looking to improve the workflow of a client project, we often start by identifying our end goal, and then we work backward to develop a realistic timeline. We refer to our experience on previous projects to help us identify possible problem spots, and brainstorm ways to avoid those issues and be more efficient. For anyone looking to improve their outcomes, I highly recommend setting aside some dedicated time to inspect one’s goals and ask strategic questions, such as what clear, tangible steps can be identified and taken? What tasks could be done better and more efficiently with a bit of pre-planning? And most importantly, is the overall goal and timeline realistic?
From a project management perspective, dedicating time to outline a process and revising and revisiting it along the way creates a strong structure of consistent, quality steps instead of reinventing the wheel each time. In our project management software Asana, if we have a recurring project, we can actually copy all of our tasks from a previous project to the current one, and then add or customize steps as needed. Of course, dedicating the time to optimize is sometimes easier said than done, as we often move quickly from one project to the next. Yet if we prioritize time for reflection, we can cultivate a set of best practices to apply the next time around. At Mazur & Co., developing that level of efficiency and quality control for our clients as well as our own internal business practices is the recipe for success.
On the personal front, in the new year, I’ve resolved to cook more often by trying a minimum of one new recipe each week of 2025. My first few recipes were made on Saturday afternoons after last-minute trips to the grocery store. After reviewing my initial process, I’ve learned to select my recipe early in the week, grocery shop ahead of time, and schedule my weekly recipe testing on my calendar. When it comes to achieving your goals, you can always find a way to make things more optimized and organized: you just have to give yourself the gift of time.
The following recipe is from Cookies, Bars & Brownies by Carla Bardi and makes approximately 30-35 bite-sized cookies.
Cinnamon Star Cookies
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup sugar
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
