Work Your Best Laid Quarterly Plan

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I’ll spend the first four sharp­en­ing the axe.” — Abra­ham Lincoln

Half way through the year already! I hope you are halfway to meet­ing all your goals for the year, and ready to tack­le the next six months.

Plan, Plan and Plan Again

Time is finite. You need to know exact­ly where to invest your hours and ener­gy to get the results you actu­al­ly want. You need to know which oppor­tu­ni­ties to focus on now, and what to let go or mark for the future. With­out a plan, it’s far too easy to get dis­tract­ed and focus on too many things at once, spread­ing your efforts thin and achiev­ing few­er goals. (Your Oxy­gen Mask First, Chap­ter 17)

In my book I talk about the impor­tance of a sol­id, one-page Mas­ter Plan for your work, self and life – and map­ping out mid-range and near-term goals every quarter.

It’s now time to stop, reflect and assess what you’ve achieved, so far this year, and to fig­ure out what you need to do for the rest of 2018

Coach Kevin’s Challenge

Down­load the Quar­ter­ly Plan work­sheets here or refer to pages 97 and 98 of my Your Oxy­gen Mask First Work­book. Block out 30 minutes.

• Buy a copy of the Work­book here or
• Down­load a free Work­book here

PAGE 1: In the first 10 min­utes, reflect on your work, self and life in the last 90 days.

Think of this as your report card, self-assess­ment or per­son­al per­for­mance review.

• List the biggest achieve­ments in work, self and life in the last 90 days.

List the biggest chal­lenges or dis­ap­points and note why.

• Pas­sion ratio: How much of your best ener­gy or pas­sion did you invest in work, self and life?

Think of a tank of oxy­gen you would use to climb a moun­tain: how much (what per­cent­age) did you breathe for work, self and life? This isn’t about show­ing up – this is about ded­i­cat­ing your best think­ing and energy:

• What would have been ide­al to be your best?

If you were hap­py with what you did, you might pick the same num­bers. But if you don’t feel right about it — think of this as a recal­i­bra­tion exer­cise — how much would you have ide­al­ly dedicated?

• Con­stant Improve­ment: What do you need to start or stop keep­ing doing to stay on track?
  • Look back to your Mas­ter Plan to what you want to achieve. What do you need to adjust? Think of it as a chef sea­son­ing a dish – lit­tle more salt a lit­tle more pepper…

PAGE 2: Plan for the next 90 days

• Based on your reflec­tions, how much of your best ener­gy do you want to spend on your work, self and life?

For me, this is dif­fer­ent in sum­mer. Since I spend the major­i­ty of my time with my fam­i­ly, I spend more on life. I’m going to run 40÷20÷40 on work, self and life, dur­ing this time – very dif­fer­ent to my nor­mal of 70/10/20.

• Your #1 project: If you only had one goal this Quar­ter, what is the sin­gle most valu­able thing you can achieve in the next 90 days, for work, self and life?

So, basi­cal­ly, you have three goals.

• What else is important?

if you have extra oxy­gen, when #1 is done, what else would you do?

• Toads: What are the lit­tle, non-strate­gic things you’ve been pro­cras­ti­nat­ing on that are weigh­ing you down? (Chap­ter 5 of Your Oxy­gen Mask First)
• Habit to start: What do you need to improve on this Quar­ter and how?

Look at the 17 habits in the book, or re-do the Self-Assess­ment, to help you fig­ure it out.

• Down­load the Self-Assessment
• Short videos on the 17 habits
• Stop: Based on your goals, if there’s one thing you’re going to stop doing, what would it be?
• Actions: Now you have a plan, what are you going to do to get a jump on it? List 3 – 5 actions that you will make hap­pen today or tomor­row to get a jump start on your goals for Work, self and life.

Hope you had a great quar­ter and that the next 90 days are incre­men­tal­ly better.

Make it so!

Best,

Kevin