Setting up for a New Year

We have just run our ‘Quarterly Planning Mastermind’ with great success!

I say it was a success because the fabulous business leaders who joined us said the insights have helped chunk down their thinking for the planning, making way to focus on priorities and reduce or remove overwhelm. What a great outcome!

The planning process starts with defining what is important and then having the structure in place to create the roadmap to the future you are wanting to achieve in your business.

Developing a planning mindset is key, as Dwight Eisenhower said, “Plans are nothing, planning is everything”.

Creating a plan is the easy part, however, understanding the yearly planning process will enable you to bring your plan to life.

Successful planning requires a mindset that includes the following:

• Understanding that plans need to be flexible for change as the business environment demands it

• Focussing on the large goals and knowing that obstacles and unforeseen circumstances will get in the way, and keeping the end in mind will keep you moving toward the end goal

• Commitment to breaking down goals from the big or wildly important goals to the smaller goals by category and by quarter.

• Consistently reviewing quarterly and monthly, with weekly and daily priorities for focus.

• Collaborating and reaching out for support because no one knows it all!

Creating a plan is the easy part, however, understanding the yearly planning process will enable you to bring your plan to life and turn it into a working document that is with you every day throughout the year. As the saying goes, “how do you eat an elephant?” (not that anyone would want to actually eat an elephant, right?). You do it one bite at a time.

Here are 5 key steps to achieve this and chunk your plan down into bite-size pieces.

Step #1

Once you have defined what your business stands for with a clear Vision, Mission, and Values, along with a Wildly Important Goal, the key is to confirm your goals for each of the categories in your business for the yearly plan.

Step #2

Develop the quarterly goals within subcategories to achieve yearly goals. These quarterly goals become the focus for the following 3 months. This quarterly planning is how you bring your category and subcategory goals to life in a way that allows you to focus on priorities. Also keep the SMART principles in mind, as this process allows you to prioritise and stay focused on what matters to you and the achievement of your goals.

Step #3

Identify specific activities by month to achieve sub-category goals. This is chunking down even further so that you can be very specific about what to focus on each month. What we focus on is what we get to the exclusion of everything else.

Step #4

Now we go chunking down another level and plan weekly top five to ten activities to focus on to achieve the month’s focus. When you can be so super specific about what you need to focus on you will achieve your goals. This may mean trading off other activities to focus on what you believe the priorities are for your business.

Step #5

The final chunk-down level is about prioritising daily. These are your non-negotiables that must be done for that day to achieve the weekly and monthly activities all linked to the quarterly goals.

Following this process and allocating time in your diary for interruptions, while at the same time having a focus on priorities will take you towards your goals more effectively with less overwhelm and procrastination.

Click here to learn more about the Leaders Network Quarterly Planning Mastermind for 2023.