How to Make Plans: 7 Tips for Effective Strategizing in Life and Work

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Life would be great if you could just get on your way and start making your dreams happen without having to waste time on things like planning. But planning really isn’t a waste of time at all; in fact, author Brian Tracy asserts that “every minute spent in planning saves as many as ten minutes in execution.”

Planning leads to greater productivity because you know exactly what you need to focus on each day in order to read your long-term goals. A carefully-crafted plan will also give you the confidence to forge ahead, since you know you’ve thought out all the important details and will be prepared to adapt when necessary.

In this post, we’ll explain why planning is beneficial and show you how to effectively plan for success with 7 steps you can take at work or to fulfill your personal ambitions.

How to Make Plans

Below are 7 steps that will help you craft an effective plan so you can get closer to reaching your goals, whether big or small.

1. Understand your priorities.

You can make plans for many things, but you can’t take action toward all of them at once. For this reason, you need to understand your priorities and know which plans (and which steps) need your attention today, next week, or in two months.

Ask yourself how important a goal is to you. Do you want to find a new job by the end of the year, or the end of this month? How important is that goal relative to your other goals, like losing weight or saving money?

If you can only complete three tasks today, which ones will you choose? You should definitely choose the most urgent or time sensitive. If you only have one such task, you can use your time to work on other tasks related to other goals, if you have any.

2. Write down a SMART goal.

If you want to increase your chances of success, you need to set SMART goals. Here’s what that means:

Specific: You have a much better chance of reaching a goal that’s specific. Saying “I want to make more money” or “I want to lose weight” is vague. You could make an extra $5 per month or lose one pound and technically reach your goal—but I’m guessing that’s not what you were picturing.

Measurable: Besides being specific, your goals should also be measurable so you know how close you’re getting, and also see what still lies ahead of you. Not all goals can be quantified with numbers, but you’ll still need to set some sort of parameter for yourself.

Attainable: It’s fun to dream, but if your goal isn’t actually attainable, that’s all it will ever be—a dream. Your goal should be challenging and push you toward growth, but don’t set yourself up for frustration and failure with one that’s impossible to achieve, or all your time spent planning will just be wasted.

Relevant: Your goals should be relevant to the overall vision you have for your life. If your goal isn’t relevant to what you want or need, then why invest time and energy working toward it? Ask yourself if maybe you’re working toward someone else’s goals for you, like maybe a partner or parent.

Time: Set an ambitious but realistic deadline for your goal so that you are motivated to constantly work toward it.

3. Break down your goal into steps.

Big goals can feel intimidating and even unapproachable, but it all starts with a single step forward. Once you have some momentum, you’ll gain the confidence to keep pushing ahead.

Break down your plan into smaller phases with manageable tasks. For example, if you want to save $5,000 by the end of the year, that means you can set a weekly goal to save $96 each week.

If you want to write a book by the end of this year, start by creating an outline or doing market research. Set daily word count goals that you can reasonably reach; this is a far less daunting task than focusing on 80,000 words.

Or, if you want to start a new business by the end of the year, break that goal down into small tasks. For example, this week you might focus on applying for the appropriate business license or permits.

4. Create a timeline.

Once you’ve broken your goal down into smaller, more manageable tasks, create a timeline with smaller deadlines so you can be sure to stay on track.

Respect the deadlines even for those smaller projects, and learn what to do when you find yourself procrastinating. The purpose of breaking the project up into smaller tasks is to make things easier for you and not overwhelm you, but if you let tasks pile up, you’ll soon find yourself under mounting pressure and not a lot of time to do what you need.

5. Review your plan every day.

Take a little time to review your plan and timeline every day. Sometimes, even if we don’t intend to procrastinate, it’s easy to lose track of time and all the things we should be doing.

You could tell yourself that you’ll take care of a certain task next week, then you blink and suddenly three weeks have passed!

Frequently reviewing your timeline will help to keep you focused and on track.

6. Make adjustments when necessary.

Whether your plan experiences progress or a few setbacks, it might be beneficial to take some time to reassess periodically.

Many things can change, so you may need to adjust your plans slightly for the best results—just because your original plan is on paper doesn’t mean you’re stuck with every detail.

That being said, you can’t plan for everything, so always leave some wiggle room to adapt when life throws you a curveball. Don’t feel like you’re stuck with your original plan just because that’s what you wrote on paper; it may need some changes a few months down the line.

7. Tell someone about your plan.

Finally, tell someone about your plan—ideally someone whose opinion you value. This will help to keep you accountable and incentivize you to actually do what you say you’re going to.

When you share your plans with others, they might also offer helpful insights or feedback that will inspire you to make your plan even better.

What Are the 4 Types of Planning?

In the world of business management there are four recognized types of planning, but you might find them helpful for your own small business or personal goals.

  • Strategic: Strategic planning has a long-term, big-picture focus. This type of planning usually happens at the highest levels of an organization, but you practice it in your own life or business by crafting a mission or vision statement that will dictate your long-term decisions.
  • Tactical: Tactical planning is where the strategic plan is broken down into chunks, and also where much of the actual work is being done to support the higher-level strategic plans. It answers the questions of what will be necessary and how you or the organization will go about fulfilling those goals.
  • Operational: Operational plans typically serve as guidelines that dictate the day-to-day activities as you (or your organization) work toward your goal. In a business, these plans are usually made by lower-level, frontline managers.
  • Contingency: A contingency plan is the plan you make when something unexpected happens. Some changes just can’t be foreseen, so contingency planning is a valuable skill in an increasingly fast-paced and fast-changing world.

Plan Your Writing

In the writing world, we like to say that there are two types of people: plotters and pantsers. Plotters plan, outline, and organize their writing, whereas pantsers “fly by the seat of their pants” and sort of follow in whatever direction the characters or plot take them.

Many writers who identify as pantsers claim that this process has helped them produce some of their best work. But in life, at least when you want to reach a goal, it’s almost always better to be a plotter.

How do you make plans? Share your strategies in the comments below!

 

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