"Failing to PLAN is PLANNING to Fail"
It’s a new year, its 2021. You’re full of ideas, hopes and dreams. There are several things you desire to accomplish this year. Or maybe you don’t even know what you want to accomplish this year. What then? You need a PLAN. He who doesn’t plan ahead will find trouble at his door. In this article, we'll give you the ultimate guide to plan your year. Are you ready???
What are your Plans for the New Year?
Talking about you, what are your plans for the New Year? What do you want to accomplish this Year? What good habits do you want to enhance, what bad habits do you want to drop? Where do you see yourself at the end of this year? How much money do you plan on saving? I am pretty sure we ask these questions and more, and even if you haven’t asked yet, it’s not late to do so. These questions are easy to answer when you’ve set SMART GOALS. For more information on Setting SMART goals, I invite you to click the button below to watch our video on the subject. But achieving those goals becomes complicated when “YOU LACK A GOOD PLAN”
What is a GOOD PLAN!?
What is a good plan, how do I even know whether my plan is good? Simply put, a good plan is one that is based on clear, well-defined and easily understood objectives; what we call SMART objectives. The question now is “how do I make a good plan to accomplish all my SMART objectives for this year?”
Planning Your Year
Let’s start with planning your year; you need to sit down, visualize the whole year and write down what you desire to accomplish. Writing it down is very important for follow-up, reminders, to review and evaluate the year and be grateful to God for the outcome. Let’s get practical:
Step 1: Define and write down the main aspects of your life e.g. Professional or academic, spiritual, financial, social, family, relationships, attitude etc.
Step 2: Clearly define what you want to see in each of them at the end of this year. This implies setting SMART Goals for each of them. A SMART Goal is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. For more on SMART Goals, I’ll refer you again to the link in the description.
Step 3: Write down what it will take you materially, financially, individually or even in terms of relationships, to attain these objectives.
Step 4: Define and write down the timeline of each objective. Is it something that I accomplish in a day? Is it something that will take me all year to accomplish? Does it need to be accomplished before a given month? This will help you get a better view of the level of urgency of each objective.
Planning Your Month
How will you implement the plan? This leads us to …Planning your months. After defining your timelines, you will know what activity enters what month easily. From the big plan, it will be easy to define your monthly objectives. Define monthly objectives and activities using the same guideline for the year but limiting them to what needs to be accomplished in a specific month.
Planning Your Day
After planning the month, the next natural step is to plan your day. You MUST plan every day of the month. Your goals can only be accomplished by tackling them one day at a time.
For instance, James is a student who desires to graduate with a GPA of at least 3.5. To attain this GPA, James needs to study for at least 4 hours per day
He also needs to sleep for at least 6 hours per day
Since he needs to raise money for rent, he has to work 4 days per week, and reduce his leisure time to 2 hours per day
With more money comes a greater need to spend, but he must save 1000 FCFA per day.
With all these parameters set, you can then clearly define the day’s activities and allocate time for them
“We don’t just plan to meet objectives but who we become during the process is equally as important.”
It’s worth noting that daily or monthly realities can change. When they do, adapt your plan without drifting away from your main objective. Don’t just stick to your initial plan and you miss out on opportunities. Be flexible A Wiseman said “We don’t just plan to meet objectives but who we become during the process is equally as important.” Give yourself space to grow and be better as you strive to attain your goals. We hope you enjoyed and learned from this article. Please feel free to contact us if you need help planning your year or if you need coaching. Let us also know your impressions in the comments. We wish you the best and until next time BESTech remains, Your Best Bet.