A mistake I made for many years with rhythms.
(Printable PDF checklist below).
The intention of this post is to save you some pain from a mistake I made for many years…
For many years I kept optimistically scheduling my annual personal reflection and planning for “the break” at the end of the year.
Oh it was glorious!
The things I could do on “the break!
How insightful I’d be away from the week-to-week of routine and the businesses!
The level of clarity, focus and luxurious inspiration from all that love, family, food and giving!
The gorgeous journals I would pack!
Aaaaannd I think you all know how this goes… “The break” is not really a break, in reality it’s a gear shift.
Shifting from working gear to end of year gear – family, festivities, friends, celebrations, rest and often travel.
So I would have partial plans, guilt that I wasn’t fully with my special people, split focus and then arrive in the new year with only bits of what
I needed for really powerful focus and momentum.
Proper breaks that inspire the reflection, applying lessons learned, doing big picture work on ourselves, challenging ourselves, our ways of working, our ways of living, our ways of thinking and ways of loving and giving back – in my experience – takes serious HEAD SPACE.
And for most is us that space DOES NOT HAPPEN In end of year gear unless we allocate specific time for it, carved out, away from the holiday-mode tsunami that we get swept away by.
So 5 years ago I STOPPED TRYING.
I made a decision to allow the break to be the tsunami, stop resisting and be in the pleasure of it!
Now every year I start reflections and planning at the start of December. I do it like a retreat for myself and do it regardless of location/company/commitments or circumstances. I make chunks of time happen.
I have this quirky belief that I am at a disadvantage when the planning is done AFTER the start of the year/quarter. This means that December’s planning activities have to be done early December because the tsunami is coming.
This is my format for my year’s rhythms here if you want to check them out or utilise them…
Here is how the year looks now:
December
Personal Annual Plan (Intentions and Goals)Quarterly Personal Objectives set and allocated to each monthJanuary Personal Action Plan (PAP)Annual Business Plan Review Quarter 3 Business Objectives set and allocated to each monthJanuary Business Action Plan set (BAP)
January
February PAP and BAP
February
March PAP and BAP
March
Review Personal Annual PlanQuarterly Personal Objectives set and allocated to each monthApril Personal Action PlanAnnual Business Plan Review Quarter 4 Business Objectives set and allocated to each monthApril Business Action Plan set
April
May PAP and BAP
May
June PAP and BAP
June
Review Personal Annual PlanQuarterly Personal Objectives set and allocated to each monthJuly Personal Action PlanAnnual Business PLANNING Quarter 1 Business Objectives set and allocated to each monthJuly Business Action Plan set
July
August PAP and BAP
August
September PAP and BAP
September
Review Personal Annual PlanQuarterly Personal Objectives set and allocated to each monthOctober PAPAnnual Business Plan Review Quarter 2 Business Objectives set and allocated to each monthOctober BAP
October
November PAP and BAP
November
December PAP and BAP
The formats, processes and templates used for each have evolved over the years with my incredible exposure to great leaders, thinkers and processing my and my clients’ experiences and that is what I get the pleasure of using with my clients.