How to Make 2019 Your Best Year Yet (Hint: Quarterly Planning)

We are officially in Q4 and planning for 2019 is top of mind for many of us. I truly believe that having a solid plan and using quarterly planning is the key to making 2019 your best year in business yet.

Quarterly planning (aka 90-day planning) seems to be a buzzword lately but for a very good reason.

I used to just go with the flow or create such a huge plan that I wasn’t sure what to focus on right now in my business. I was a hot mess and it wasn’t serving me or my business at all.

Once I discovered quarterly planning everything changed.

So I am going to show you how I’ve adopted this process to work for me and I even created a free 5-day challenge called From Inspired to Action Taker to take it a step further.

Goal setting can be a very daunting process, but I’ve broken it down step-by-step to make things super easy.

Step 1: Visualize Your BIG PICTURE

Before you can begin to plan for your year, you need to spend some time and set your vision.

Think BIG PICTURE here. Not just for the year, but what is the lifestyle you want? How does your business fit into that?

• Maybe you want to be able to work only 4 hours a day so you can spend time with your family?
• Or possibly only work 3 days a week so you have time to travel?
• Do you want to work 1:1 with clients or do you just want to offer digital products and courses?
• Do you want to work alone or have a team?
• Do you want to work virtually or in your local community?
• What lifestyle do you want your business to support?

I want you to really think about it. Write it down.

Once you have your big picture, take a look at where you are right now in your business. Think about your vision for this upcoming year. How can you move yourself and your business at least one step closer?

If you want to only offer digital products but right now your entire income comes from 1:1 services, then it doesn’t make sense to just make the leap. BUT you can start to think about things you can do this year to work toward your goal. Maybe your big goal for the year is to build up your digital product offerings and have it bring in 30% of your income – moving you one step closer to the FULL transition.

Step 2: Set Your Quarterly Milestones

Once you know what you are working toward this year, I want you to break it down even further.

Choose up to 4 main areas to focus on this year that will help you reach your goal.

These should be outcome focused, like:

• Launching a membership site
• Growing your email list to 10,000 subscribers
• Selling out your program every time it launches (you should know how many people you need to be considered sold out)
• Etc.

These 4 main areas are going to be your quarterly milestones.

PRO TIP: Be sure to intentionally include breaks or lighter workloads after big, time and energy intensive projects. We don’t want you to burn out!

Got your quarterly milestones set? Great! Time for the next step.

Step 3: Break It Down By Month

Now that you’ve set your big picture vision, know what you are working toward for the year AND planned out your quarterly milestones, it is time to break it down even further.

At this point, we just focus on ONE quarter at a time.

It is great to see the big picture of your year so you know where everything fits in BUT planning too far out doesn’t do anything but create overwhelm.

So to combat that, we take each quarter as they come.

What you need to do is take your focus for the quarter and break down the three ways you are going to accomplish your quarterly milestone.

Once you have your projects set, it is time to break down each and every task you need to complete each project.

The goal is to write it all down ahead of time so as you are working through this you have a set roadmap to success. No thinking of what needs to be done next. No forgetting a step because you took the time to plan ahead.

Step 4: Put Your Quarterly Plan into Your Project Management System

You have created your quarterly. That is call for celebration! BUT it does you absolutely no good unless you take action.

So an essential step is to put your tasks into your favorite project management tool. My favorite is ClickUp! But just be sure to use a tool that you will actually use every day! That is the important part!

Step 5: Put It On Repeat!

As your first quarter is coming to an end, it is time to do this whole process over again for the next quarter! It is truly that simple!

Once you get in the habit of quarterly planning and setting goals with intention your business will grow exponentially. I am still in awe at how much my business has grown and how much I have accomplished in such a short period of time using this method.

Take It A Step Further

Want to take this a step further? Then sign up for my free challenge From Inspired to Action Taker. It breaks this down even further to help you create a plan that is right for you.

So tell me, do you currently use quarterly planning?

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