Hey, YOU. Yes, you. I know you’re busy. Most likely, you are either a high-level visionary with a million ideas, a multi-passionate entrepreneur with multiple companies, or maybe you’re a mom of a few with limited hours to spend in the business. I get it. Your time is limited, and it’s the most precious resource you have.
But what we’re talking about today is important and well worth your time.
As we’ve coached hundreds of women in business across a dozen countries over the last few years, I’ve realized something: space for self-leadership is both one of the greatest pain points and greatest catalysts for breakthrough amongst the entrepreneurial community.
Do you ever feel like you’re just going through the motions?
Wondering why things may not be working?
Feeling isolated and small?
Seeking guidance, tactics, and strategy as “the way forward?”
Not knowing what comes next - after today, this month, this quarter?
What I have found is that all of these things are a byproduct of too much external noise and not enough space for self-leadership. Self-trust. Self-thought. When we don’t create the white space needed in order to slow down and really think for ourselves, we end up feeling small, powerless, and directionless.
This is not who you are, and it is not how you’re meant to lead.
As we wrap up this year and prepare to enter into a new one, I want to encourage you to make the time, make the space, make it a priority to turn down the outside noise and tune into the voice, vision, and desire within. Allow this to set the tone for what is to come.
Because everyone will have a different opinion on what you should do over the next 365 days. But the one that matters most is your own.
It may seem odd that we’re opening a blog post around Annual Planning with a discussion on self-leadership. But this is foundational. Because before we can dive into the tactical planning components, we have to begin with vision. We need something to be the guiding light and north star so we can sort out which approaches, tactics, and plans make most sense for YOU and your goals.
So, what is your bigger vision? Beyond what you hope to achieve next year, what is it all FOR? What are you working towards long-term? This needs to be kept front and center. It will determine what path you take and what is prioritized at every level.
If your vision isn’t crystal clear, that is okay. I am well aware of the fact that there is a lot of talk around long-term vision in the online space. And although it’s for a purpose, I know it can sometimes feel overwhelming. Grasp whatever you can of your vision, and let that be enough for now. It will be revealed to you more and more through time.
With your vision locked in, go ahead and do some basic, messy, zero-pressure brain dumping. Wrapping your head around an annual plan isn’t something that will happen in one session. Most likely, it will be a few. And I find that it’s easier to start really messy with zero restraints before refining and solidifying. So, in one of your first sessions do a basic brain dump. Write whatever comes to mind - leaving no idea left behind. Just let pen meet paper, or text meet the screen.
At this point, I would highly recommend meeting with your team to do some more brain dumping and high-level vision casting and brainstorming with them (again, at this point we’re still in the messy stage with little refinement - just room for play and thoughts).
Here are some of the prompts we’re going through as a team at The Awakening:
What is your anthem for the year? (Word of the year)
When did you feel most alive in this last year?
How can we make working here more FUN?
What do we want more of?
What do we want less of?
What are your big-picture goals (1-3 for business + personal)?
How can we innovate and trailblaze in the upcoming year?
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How can we elevate our client experience at every level?
What do we each need in order to execute and actualize?
If you have a team, I highly recommend bringing them in for your Annual Planning. This is such a great opportunity to bond as a team, exchange ideas, and make sure that everyone is set up for success, joy, and power in the new year.
With the larger vision clarified and yourself as the Founder, as well as the team, feeling energized by the ideas discussed, we can now dive into some of the more tactical planning pieces. We’ll break this down by three tiers:
The first thing we want to do is start creating your “year at a glance” plan. This is where you’ll start extracting some of those ideas discussed in the braindump phase and start putting them on a calendar. Instead of looking at concrete dates, start by looking at the year by month. You’ll want to have a couple of sections here:
1 - Project: The first thing I’d like you to do is extract some of those bigger projects and ideas and start assigning them to a particular month. An easy guideline for this is to have roughly one big project per quarter (think rebrand, launch, new offer integration, etc). These will act as your anchor pieces on the calendar. Everything else will be planned accordingly.
2 - Out of Office: Simultaneously, go ahead and start jotting down your out-of-office dates whether that is travel, holiday, etc. Additionally, if you know that you’d like to pull back at any particular time (for example, in the summer months), go ahead and document that as well. All projects and initiatives should be crafted around your capacity, season, and out-of-office dates.
Once your year is mapped out from January all the way to December with high-level projects, initiatives, and anchor pieces, we can start bringing some more refinement and specificity. This is where quarterly planning will come into play.
We’ll use our quarterly planning method to do this. To get started, select one of your initial goals for the first quarter (be sure to set no more than 3 goals per quarter). This goal will act as your Project Bucket. From there, we’re going to break this project down into Categories which will then be broken down into Tasks. Let’s run through an example together:
Let’s say one of your quarterly goals is to have a $50,000 course launch. This = your Project Bucket.
Your Categories may be:
From there, we’re going to look at each category and break those down into tasks. For #1 (Create the Course), your tasks could be:
See how this works? We’re breaking down your big-picture goal into nitty gritty tasks with as much detail and specificity as possible so that we can ensure progress on the project. With these tasks broken down, you’ll want to start assigning tentative due dates to each milestone - that of which should be measured on a weekly or biweekly basis.
The final piece here is your daily workflow and mode of operation. If you’re seeking guidance in moving the needle forward for your business every single day, optimizing productivity, and prioritizing daily profit generation, we have an entire section dedicated to this inside our Awakening Membership.
Ashton Smith is the CEO and founder of The Awakening, a platform dedicated to helping women in business build intentionally so they can leave a powerful legacy behind. She helps early-stage all the way to established entrepreneurs own their power as CEO, deeply connect with their vision, & sustainably scale their businesses.
