Throw Out The Annual Plan Twelve weeks is long enough to get things done, and yet is short enough to create and maintain a sense of urgency.” Executing to a plan has the three benefits of reducing mistakes, saving time, and providing focus. Further, the 12-week planning is distinct from annual planning as it has:
Greater Predictability of the actions required to achieve the results you want.
Increased Focus on the one to three most important things offering the greatest impact.
Enhanced Structure to align and implement your plan to your long-term vision.
You should take these steps with setting big goals:
Identify and define your overall SMART goal(s) for the 12 weeks. #
Determine tactics by decomposing your goal into individual tasks and actions. Check out Todoist or ClickUp for help with managing tasks and projects #
Execute on the tactics within the 12 weeks to achieve your goals. #
One Week At A Time Weekly Plan – “translates your 12-week plan into daily and weekly action“ The weekly plan will provide focus and track the short-term activities to the long-term vision. Start with the 12-week plan to designate weeks to complete each tactic, which will dictate the actions needed each day. Then, follow these steps for effective weekly execution:
Start your week by spending 15-20 minutes reviewing the last week and planning for the next week.
Start each day for five minutes to review the weekly plan, review the previous day, and plan for today.
Check-in with your weekly plan a few times daily to ensure tactics get finished.
Measuring
Brian Moran claims that measuring your progress is vital for effectiveness and achievement. An effective system of measurement should include both lag and lead indicators (KPIs) for receiving the feedback required to make informed decisions:
Lag Indicators – “the end results that you are striving to achieve;” examples: income, profit, revenue, weight, body fat percentage
Lead Indicators – “the activities that produce the end results;” examples: number of sales calls made, amount of content created, or the time spent doing work
“Ultimately, you have greater control over your actions than over your results.” Therefore, the most crucial lead indicator should measure your execution. Accordingly, your tactics are executed to your Weekly Plan, while your execution is measured using the Weekly Scoreboard:
Weekly Scorecard – “provides an objective measure of how well you executed your weekly plan” by showing the percentage of tactics completed However, “scorekeeping is not for the faint of heart” as facing the reality of lack of action is tough. Therefore, you should strive for execution instead of perfection. Moran has found that successfully completing 85% of weekly activities results in most likely achieving your goals.
