johnmdemarco posted on October 19, 2011 05:17
Across the past several years I’ve designed and implemented numerous iterations of “strategic plans,” “life plans,” “strategic life plans,” and so forth—each time with varying success. Being intentional in this manner certainly has helped me moved forward, but I’ve never been satisfied with my level of execution on my planning.
One clear epiphany has emerged: my plans have been jam-packed with too many things.
I’ve realized this for a while, as the more recent versions have grown shorter each time. I’m rather pleased with my latest template which fits, blissfully, on a single page in Microsoft Word.
Accompany such brevity is simplicity of goals, strategies and tactics. I have only two goal areas now, focused on the remainder of 2011 and at least the first half of 2012. Each area is married to a top “strength role” identified through my recent completion of Marcus Buckingham’s StandOut assessment, which tells each user their top two roles among nine choices:
“Teacher” Goals: Write Books; Enhance Consulting, Coaching & Facilitation Competencies and Customer Impact.
“Connector” Goals: Sell Books; Build Relationships; Drive Brand Awareness.
One goal is about generating content and enhancing competencies; the other is about how I take such content and competencies to the world. Each goal has a few core, big picture strategies, and some day to day tactics. Every single tactic is incorporated into my Outlook calendar as a recurring event; this piece is crucial for execution!
So what about the other dimensions of my life, such as family, faith, health, etc.?
My previous plan templates usually incorporated these in great detail. I’ve come to a place in life where intentional activities in these spheres have become ingrained, and I simply do not need to place these items down on paper. That does not make them less important; I just approach them in a different manner. This is a personal choice; others, such as Michael Hyatt and his wonderful life planning template, go more into specific tactics in as many as seven different categories.
The key is embracing a planning process that works for you, one that you can implement. In the end, the sophistication or detail of a plan do not matter nearly as much as actually doing something with it.