It’s that time of the year again… planning time.

That time, where I suddenly have all the time in the world to do everything on my to-do list, just to avoid the dreaded yearly planning session.

Thing is, for years I’d try to plan my year (heck, sometimes I even tried making a 5 year plan!) but I’d just strike out.

It’s not that I didn’t know what I wanted to achieve, or that I didn’t have a general sense of where I was going, it’s just that like most businesses, I was mainly focused on what was happening right then and there… as in: How to make more money in the ‘NOW’.

And let’s be honest here, how can anyone possibly plan 12 months in advance? Planning so far into the future is simply a set up for feeling like a failure (when you suddenly remember you set goals for yourself, in July,  look back at them and realize you haven’t completed any of them). Plus it’s great way to stress you out for the first quarter of the year.

However, three years ago I met a super talented woman named Mackenzie Fogelson. Mack (who noticed my aversion from planning), introduced me to her super simple and actionable framework for planning content.

I loved it so much, I started using it to plan my goals and projects ever since, and it’s been a roaring success.

After speaking to many of my students, masterminders’ and a few of my clients, it turns out that most people are like me and have a hard time planning their year.

That’s why below, I’ve decided that this year, I’m going to share my entire framework (including all the worksheets I use) with everyone I know.

So, below you’ll find the breakdown of my 3-step process for planning your year. It’s a combination of Mack’s framework along with additional steps I added to make it super actionable and easy to follow.

Three things that will help you make the most of this framework:

1. I do have goals for 12 months, but I only plan for 90 days. It helps us stay focused as a team, and makes sure we get s**** done.
2. I dedicate just half a day to planning. No more and no less, to keep it super actionable (and get it over with) 😉
3. At the end of the process I share my goals and plans with the friends and people who know me best. In fact, we share our goals with each other as a group to make sure we’ve pushed ourselves enough, and to keep each other accountable. I strongly recommend doing that too.

Grab the free worksheet here

Here’s the breakdown:

Step #1: First you’re going to start with your vision board.

Your vision board is divided into 3 columns and will give you clarity on where you are today and where you want to be. It’s a simple table that helps you map out your current situation, where you’re going and how you’re going to get there.

Step #2: The four helpful lists.

This is where you’ll choose one of those goals you’ve set for yourself and get real about it. The four helpful lists is divided into four columns to help you uncover and define exactly what needs to be done to achieve that goal. 

Step #3: Your 90 day plan

In this final step of the framework you’ll choose 3 goals to focus on in the first 90 days of the year. You’ll define the exact tasks you’ll need to perform during these 90 days AND how you’ll measure their success.

Once you’ve completed this step, you can copy and paste it into your Trello/Asana/any other task management platform and start working immediately.

This process was built to get you working immediately. This isn’t some beautiful roadmap you’ll build and forget about within a week, it’s designed to be highly actionable and help you keep track of your goals.

Let me know in the comments how it’s going for you and if you have any other goal setting tips we can use for planning our year.

Good luck 🙂

– Talia

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