Planning and Productivity

How I Create My Annual Plan

Sometimes people ask me how I plan for the year. Honestly, my approach changes a bit every year because I change. That said, I’d like to share with you how I will approach my planning this year in the hope you might find something useful. Let me start by saying this from the start…

I don’t believe there is one right approach, even though lots of people are very willing to sell you their planning approach. I’m not against buying someone else’s approach because you can always learn something about planning. I’ve bought other people’s planning processes in the past, and that has been helpful. But at some point, I think you will find you will unnecessarily chafe when using someone else’s plan and will ultimately want to develop your own approach.

I’m telling you this because I’m not sharing my approach to convince you it is the end-all, be-all. It isn’t. It is my approach and it works for me. And it evolves over time. This very process I’m sharing now is my intended evolution in the process for this year. Don’t be constrained by it. Find your own way. This said, in the hope that seeing mine might help you, here’s mine…

How I Reflect at Year End

Planning and Productivity

Between the Winter Solstice and the New Year, I reflect on the prior year and plan for the new. I take a mental break between reflecting on the year ending and setting goals for the new. Putting a short pause — a day or two, typically — between the reflection and the planning works well for me.

This really sets me up for my year. It’s amazing what happens when I do this well or lackadaisical. Big diff.

You can use this exact same process once a quarter to put more intentionality, focus, and discipline in your life and work. However, I haven’t gotten there just yet. I usually do a mid-year review. In 2020, I’d like to hit all three interim reviews. More on that, later.

But planning isn’t the end game. It starts the game. It’s the game plan. But playing the game is another thing altogether. Plans change when they meet reality. That’s why quarterly reflections can be so powerful.

Before I walk you through my ten steps to reflection, let me share this. The third part of the process is this…

Your 2019 – How to Rock a Mid-Year Reflection

Personal Development, Planning and Productivity

Can you believe it? Half of the year gone… poof! That kind of snuck up on us, didn’t it? One half is now behind us. One half is ahead. How’s it going for you? How is 2019 shaping up?

Do you have a process for taking stock about how your year is going? If you do, this post isn’t for you. But if you don’t have an approach and are interested in spending an hour being reflective about the first half of the year and more intentional for the second half, I’m going to give you a super simple approach. Ten steps. Sixty minutes. Yes!

Why would you want to do this? Well, if you want the second half of 2019 to be even better than the first half, reflection brings clarity. And clarity is power. If you act on it. And this approach includes an action aspect.

Given this is for folks who don’t have an approach, don’t expect this to be the end-all, be-all. I want this to be both do-able and impactful. So let’s get to it…