How do you plan your year? Looking for a 1-year plan template? Need help planning 2024 in advance?
You’ve got dreams and goals for the new year! And of course, you want to actually achieve them. Unlike 2023, where most plans did not materialize yet again. So, let’s create an epic plan for next year to make your goals a reality.
And, it doesn’t have to be January 1st to plan for a successful and prosperous new year either. Any day can be the best day to make this your best year ever.
But, before we get to my seven steps to a flawless, fail-proof plan for your year let’s talk about the unsettling truth about planning your year in advance.
The truth is, 12 months is a long time. It may feel like 365 days is an eternity to achieve your goals, which is a good and a bad thing.
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On the one hand, you’ve got 52 weeks to get started, take action and make progress, on the other hand, that’s the same amount of time you could end up procrastinating, losing focus, getting overwhelmed, and countless other reasons for not sticking with the plan.
Yup, I said it. I figure we might as well be honest with ourselves from day one. A successful plan for the year is an honest plan that takes into account the very real challenges that you’ll face. That’s true for any type of goal!
The key to overcoming these challenges (the secret to successfully planning your year), is to shift your perspective from one year to one day. To create a 1-year plan that makes your big, life-changing goals into achievable tiny steps.
You will achieve your goals for this year when you’re able to break them down into strategic steps and take them day by day. Ironically, your yearly plan needs to be a daily commitment. You’ll have to say no to a lot, so you can say YES to your goal.
So, here’s how to plan your year in just one day. Once you get all the planning out of the way, you can focus on taking action. Plus, get your FREE printable plan your year workbook.
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7 Steps to Planning Your Year in Advance
Within these seven steps to planning your year, there are a few fail-safes to ensure you actually accomplish what you’ve planned.
Not only will you create a 1-year plan, but you will also know
- Exactly what you want to achieve next year
- What works and what doesn’t
- Why achieving your goal is so important
- What do you need to do daily to achieve your goal
Of course, planning is just your blueprint, you still have to wake up every day and take action toward making it a reality. Keep that in mind as you start planning your year.
The power of planning is the confidence and clarity it gives you. It’s your secret weapon to fight to overwhelm and uncertainty. Create the one-year plan, and trust in the one-year plan!
Step #1: Choose Your Yearly Goal
What’s a yearly plan without a goal to reach? Well, it would be a bunch of steps and strategies without a clear aim. Basically meaning you would get nowhere. #notgood
Planning your year is easy when you know what you want. When you know exactly what your goal is. But, it’s nearly impossible when you don’t.
Another major goal-setting mistake to avoid is setting too many goals at once. The best way to make this your best year yet is to be focused on ONE GOAL from day one. Know exactly what you want, so you can reach it.
365 days feels like all the time in the world to achieve “all the things” but it really isn’t. Instead of trying to achieve everything in one year, make a list of your potential goals then choose your #1 goal.
Unable to decide? This is where goal-setting reflection questions come in.
👉🏽 RELATED POST: 6 Steps to Setting Achievable Goals
Goal Setting Reflection Questions
Here are a few goal-setting reflection questions to help you:
- What’s your number one non-negotiable?
- Where do you want to be one year from now?
- What goal will change your life for the better?
- Achieving which goal will have the biggest impact?
- What matters the most to you right now?
So, where to? What’s your destination? What’s this one-year plan for?
Got it? Good. You need to know so you can figure out all the details, and lay out a clear plan to achieve it.
Don’t be stingy or vague with all the details either, describe your goal in detail and add any quantifiable measures (aka numbers) as much as you can.
Make Your Yearly Goals SMART
A great way to do this is to make your goal SMART: strategic, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound. Yes, yes I know you’ve heard of SMART goals before. There’s a reason for their popularity, they work!
Let’s simplify SMART goals with these key reflection questions.
- Specific: What is your goal exactly?
- Measurable: How will you measure your success?
- Attainable: Can you actually reach this goal in one year?
- Relevant: Why does this goal matter the most?
- Time-bound: When will you achieve your goal by?
Use these questions to reformulate your goal into a SMART goal.
Examples of Yearly Smart Goals
Here are a few examples of rewriting common goals into SMART goals. Bonus points for outlining strategies, but don’t worry we’ll cover that in steps 2 and 3.
Financial Goal: “To stop living paycheck to paycheck”
- “To save up a $3,500 balance by December so I can live a less stressful life, be more prepared for unexpected emergencies, and have financial security.”
Health Goal: “To lose weight and get fit”
- “I want to lose 30 lbs by Summer so that I can relieve the stress on my heart, lower my blood pressure and stay healthy for my family.
Student Goal: “To get better grades in college”
- “Increasing my GPA from a 3.0 to 3.5 in my junior year will allow me to get on the dean’s list and qualify for a scholarship, thus saving money on tuition.”
Business Goal: “To make more money in the new year”
- “In 2023, I will grow my monthly income to $5,000 USD per month enabling me to hire a virtual assistant, run business ads and pay off my credit card debt.”
👉🏽 RELATED POST: 5 Smart Goals for College Students
If you make your goal fail-proof, your plan can be too. Take “wishy-washy” goals and make them iron-clad SMART goals.
Plus, for bonus points, layer in the reasons (the Relevant in Smart) for achieving this goal. Knowing your why helps make achieving your goal all the more real to you, reinforcing your commitment to seeing it through.
I encourage you to take some time to get clear on what your priorities are for this year before you start planning.
Step #2: Figure Out What Works
It’s so important to have some idea of what actually works before you start planning your year. What will you be doing over the next 52 weeks? What actions will you take?
By what works, I mean having an idea of what strategies for success you will use to achieve your goal.
There are two main ways to figure out what works, and it all depends on whether or not this is a new goal for you. So, is this the first time you’re working towards achieving the goal you outlined in step one?
- If no, reviewing your year will help you figure out what works best and avoid making the same mistakes as last year.
- If yes, researching the best ways to achieve your goal will help you create a plan that is more likely to succeed.
Option 1: Reviewing Your Year
In this step, you’ll look backward. No matter what your goal is for the coming year, the odds are that you’re not starting from scratch.
Year after year our goals usually don’t change, just our approach. And even if this is a new goal for you, you’ve had successes in the past that could be relevant to reaching this one.
Think about it, how can you plan ahead if you haven’t taken note of the past? Even though the new year provides us with a new capture, we’re not blank canvases.
Here are a few quick end of year reflection questions:
- How have you made progress in the past?
- What was your goal for last year and did you achieve it?
- How did you take to reaching your goal?
- What strategies and tactics were effective?
- How did you overcome challenges?
- What valuable lessons did you learn?
The main question you need to answer is what worked and what didn’t work.
Don’t make the mistake of planning your year without reviewing your last year. Trust me, even if you feel like you failed, made mistakes, didn’t do well, or did nothing but struggle, you can build on that.
Option 2: Research ways to reach your goal
I know what you’re thinking. What if this is a goal you’ve set for the first time? What if you have no record of what works?
Take this time to do some research instead of reviewing it. Your job is to figure out the best strategies for achieving your goal.
It’s not as difficult as you might think if you know where to look. Plus, you do not need to spend ages researching either, an hour or two online is more than enough.
Here’s how to know what works:
- Ask a friend
- Reach out to an expert
- Find a mentor or coach
- Join support groups
- Read blog posts
- Take a course
- Watch YouTube Videos
There’s so much valuable information out there, you just need a place to start. Learn from others’ mistakes so you can achieve your goal even faster.
Research by Asking the Right Questions
You want to know, what are the best ways to achieve your goal? The best place to find answers is on Google or Pinterest search. Then, make a list of anything you discover.
Here are some common search phrases:
- How do I [add goal here]?
- Best ways to [add objective here]?
- Tips to [add outcome here]?
- How to accomplish/achieve/reach [your goal here]?
- What are the worst ways to [goal here]?
- How to [goal here] as a beginner?
The point of this is to have a confident place to start, you’ll have to learn for yourself what works best for you. But why take a stab in the dark, if others can guide you?
Examples of Figuring out What Works
Financial Goal: “To stop living paycheck to paycheck”
Questions to ask yourself:
- How am I spending or wasting my paycheck?
- Am I living beyond my means?
- What services can I cancel?
- How can I reduce my monthly spending?
- Where can I save money?
- What bills am I overpaying?
- How can I make more money?
Research questions to ask:
- How do I stop living paycheck to paycheck?
- What are the best ways to save money on a tight budget?
- How can I make extra money on the side?
- How do I create a budget and stick to it?
- What are the worst ways to spend money?
Health Goal: “To lose weight and get fit”
Questions to ask yourself:
- What exercises have I done in the past?
- What are my unhealthy habits?
- How can I improve my health?
- What foods are causing weight gain?
- How did I lose weight in the past?
- What diets didn’t work?
👉🏽 RELATED POST: List of 10 Healthy Habits
Research questions to ask:
- What are the best ways to lose weight for good?
- How to lose weight as a beginner
- How do I reach my health and fitness goals?
- Ways to eat healthy when I’m too busy?
- How do I lose my gut?
- What are simple exercises to start?
- What are the ways to crush my new year’s fitness goal?
Student Goal: “To get better grades in college”
Questions to ask yourself:
- What are my study habits?
- Which classes am I doing the best, and worst in?
- Why are my grades so bad?
- What feedback have TAs and professors given me?
- How can I improve my grades?
Research questions to ask:
- How do I get better grades in college?
- What are the best college student study habits?
- How to get perfect grades?
- What SMART goals should I set in college?
- How do I get a 4.0 GPA?
Business Goal: “To make more money in the new year”
questions to ask yourself:
- What was my most profitable venture last year?
- Where does the majority of my income come from?
- What strategies have worked in the past?
- What was a waste of time, energy, or money?
Research questions to ask:
- How do I scale my business?
- How do online businesses make money?
- What’s the best way to increase business income?
- How can a small business increase income?
- What are profitable income streams?
👉🏽 RELATED POST: How to Start a Profitable Business
You get the idea! These are just possible ways to achieve each of the example goals. You’re just answering the “how-to” question on a high level. You don’t need all the details, you just need to know where to start.
A warning, don’t get overwhelmed. There are many ways to reach a goal, the key to success is choosing just a few strategies and sticking with them.
Step #3: Select 3-4 Strategies for Success
With your main goal for this year and your knowledge of what works, let’s settle on your main strategies for achieving your goal. These are the strategic steps you’ll plan out over the year.
How can you break down your goal over the year? Make it more manageable. Instead of just setting a goal, you need to also decide on HOW exactly you will reach it.
Not sure what strategies to choose? It’s part knowledge, part gut. Either way, the key here is to be decisive. Once you’ve made your choice, stick with it.
Whatever you decide, it’s the right choice. Don’t second-guess yourself all year long.
Plan Your Year in Quarters
Here’s a pro tip! Choose a specific strategy for every three-month period. They can be sequential or escalating.
- Sequential strategies build on each other, step one is necessary for step two
- Escalating strategies increase in difficulty or intensity from level one to level two
By planning your year so you shift strategies quarterly you can also keep your goal fresh and exciting all year long.
You won’t bore yourself by doing the same thing all year long, nor will you be overwhelmed trying all the strategies at the same time. Say hello to avoid burnout from taking on too much, too fast.
Not to mention that you can plan your year to help you build momentum, starting slower, and building in difficulty as you go. With small wins out of the gate, you are more likely to stay committed and follow through.
Shifting strategies is a win-win!
👉🏽 RELATED POST: Quotes about Achieving Dreams and Goals
You can just as easily plan around the seasons or semesters if you’re a student. However, you decide, to plan your year you need to break it down into smaller periods of time.
Examples of Choosing Yearly Strategies
Financial Goal: “To stop living paycheck to paycheck”
Plan your year with escalating goals, starting simply with budgeting and ending by making more money.
- Q1: Learn to make a budget and stick to it
- Q2: Reduce unnecessary household expenses
- Q3: Pick up more shifts or overtime
- Q4: Start a profitable side-business
Health Goal: “To lose weight and get fit”
Plan your year with escalating goals, with easy, low-intensity exercises building towards more difficult levels of fitness by the end of the year.
- Spring: Start doing daily light exercises for 5 minutes
- Summer: Weekly meal prepping and proper nutrition
- Fall: Join an intermediate fitness program, team, or class
- Winter: Train for a marathon or competition
Student Goal: “To get better grades in college”
Plan your year with sequential goals that follow your semesters and course schedule.
- Winter term: Get help from TA, tutors, and Professors
- Summer term: Taking an extra course to improve my GPA
- Fall term: Starting your own study group
Business Goal: “To make more money in the new year”
Plan your year with sequential goals that build on work from earlier in the year and in previous years.
- Q1: Set up another passive income stream
- Q2: Update existing product and relaunch
- Q3: Grow website traffic with a social media strategy
- Q4: Use Facebook ads to scale sales
Bam! That’s how you start laying the groundwork for your yearly goals. Keep in mind these are just examples, I’m in no way saying they’re the best way to achieve these goals, that’s for you to decide.
Step #4: Make a List of Action Steps
Doesn’t it feel amazing to know how you will achieve your goal this year? We’ve outlined the high-level strategies, now it’s time to unpack each by outlining the actions required.
What do you need to do in order to use each strategy? What are the to-dos and tasks?
In order to fully plan your year, you need to know the step-by-step actions of what you need to do.
For your 3-4 strategies, write down all you need to do for each. Make each step as small as possible. By doing this, you’re immediately making your plan more manageable.
Instead of feeling as if you have to pull off something impossible, you’re figuring out the very-doable baby steps.
If you’re not sure how to do this, it will become clearer with the examples below.
👉🏽 RELATED POST: How to Crush Your To-Dos
Examples of Outlining Actions to Take
Financial Goal Strategy #1: “Learn to make a budget and stick to it ”
- Learn about budgeting
- Make a list of budget categories
- Create or find a budget spreadsheet
- Figure out how much you’re spending each month
- Use a daily budgeting app
- Set your daily, weekly, and monthly spending limit
Health Goal Strategy #2: “Weekly meal prepping and proper nutrition”
- Find healthy recipes to try
- Learn about healthy nutrition
- See a dietitian or nutritionist
- Clean out your fridge and pantry
- Stock up on healthy foods
Student Goal Strategy #3: “Starting your own study group”
- Recruit members from classmates
- Create a Facebook group
- Find a study group meeting location
- Organize study group snacks
Business Goal Strategy #4: “Use Facebook ads to scale sales”
- Learn about Facebook ads
- Take Facebook ads training
- Figure out your monthly ad spend
- Plan out ads funnel
- Create an image and ad copy
- Hire an Ads manager
Can you see from these examples how much more actionable each of these items is than the strategy above? Do the same for your goal, break it down into tiny, steps you can take.
These are the to-dos you’ll plan to achieve on a weekly or daily basis. Remember, by planning your year for success you’re taking the big yearly goal and anchoring it into daily tasks.
Step #5: Note Important Dates and Deadlines
You simply cannot plan your year, without taking into account important dates and deadlines throughout the year.
With your 12-month planner open, block off any important dates you need to plan around. These “busy” days could include holidays, vacations, weddings, retreats, birthdays, and any other days of note.
This way, when you’re working on your day-to-day tasks you won’t be surprised by life getting in the way. In case you missed it, it ALWAYS gets in the way. No excuse for not being prepared.
Plus, it’s good to rest and take a break from working on your goals. And you can maintain balance in your life and not feel guilty for taking “time off.”
Set Deadlines for Your Goal
The other part of this is to set and note any deadlines or due dates for your goal. There’s a reason you’re setting this goal, and often times it’s a timely reason.
When do you need to achieve your goal? And what are the meaningful milestones along the way?
Examples of Planning Around Deadlines
- If you want to stop living paycheck to paycheck and save up $3,500, a meaningful milestone could be saving your first $1,000, or even $100. Whatever is motivating for you!
- Want to get fit and lose weight for a wedding in the summer? Your deadline would be the date of the wedding and a milestone could be losing half the weight.
- Say you’re a student and you need to improve your GPA by the end of the semester, that’s your deadline. A meaningful milestone for you would be to improve your midterm marks or get an A on an important paper.
- Planning your year to make more money from your business? You’ve set $5,00 per month as your goal and say you want to quit your job before Christmas. That’s your deadline and a meaningful milestone would be hitting $2,500 per month.
Now that you have examples, what are your meaningful milestones and deadlines? Mark them in your calendar.
Why Deadlines and Milestones Matter
Remember when I said that 365 days can feel like a long time to achieve your goal? And that having all this time can make us feel lazy, procrastinate, and as if we have all the time in the world to get started?
That’s why these part-way targets are so important. They put the pressure on! Instead of always thinking about your end goal, you set your sites on your “mini” goals (aka your milestones).
Don’t make the mistake of skipping this step. It’s extremely important to help you focus and follow through to have these tangible targets and records of achievement along the way.
Plus, they act as an early warning system that somethings is wrong. If you’re unable to reach your mid-point then it lets you know that you need to make changes to your approach or tactics. Enabling you to get support if needed and before it’s too late.
That way you’re not waiting until the end of the year to realize you can’t achieve your goal.
Step #6. Set Monthly and Weekly Targets
You’re almost finished planning your year! Your next step is to make your one-year plan, all about the months and weeks.
With your end goal, milestones, and deadlines set, it’s time to strategically fill in the blanks with your action steps. I recommend you click and get your 12-month printable planner to make this even easier.
You know exactly what you need to do by when, so start adding in your to-dos and tasks for each month. I find it best to choose a theme, or the main objective for each month, then fill in the weeks with the action steps.
Plan Each Quarter as You Go
Here’s a pro tip, you could plan the entire year now, or you could plot out just your first quarter. By planning three months at a time, you’re able to review your progress quarterly.
At the end of the first quarter, see if you’re on track to hit your milestones and deadlines. Have you completed your action items? Or do you need more time? If so, you can readjust your plan for the next three-month period.
Review and reflection are other important ways to successfully plan your year. Plus, you’ll know so much more about what works and what doesn’t in a few months.
Examples of Planning Months and Weeks
Financial Goal Strategy #1: “Learn to make a budget and stick to it ”
- Month 1: Create your first budget
- Week 1: Learn about budgeting
- Week 2: Find a budgeting app or software
- Week 3: Calculate typical spending
- Week 4: Create your first working budget
- Month 2: Reduce monthly spending by 25%
- Month 3: Save your first $500
Health Goal Strategy #2: “Weekly meal prepping and proper nutrition”
- Month 1: Learn about healthy nutrition
- Week 1: Book an appointment with a nutritionist
- Week 2: Research healthy nutrition + recipes
- Week 3: Clean out fridge and pantry
- Week 4: Find healthy foods
- Month 2: Start doing light exercise
- Month 3: Try more healthy recipes
Student Goal Strategy #3: “Starting your own study group”
- Month 1: Recruit members from classmates
- Week 1-2: Get to know your classmates
- Week 3: Choose a location for the group
- Week 4-5: Recruit new members
- Month 2-3: Host bi-weekly study sessions
- Month 4: Organize exam prep teams
Business Goal Strategy #4: “Use Facebook ads to scale sales”
- Month 1: Create an evergreen sales funnel
- Week 1: Plan out your sales funnel
- Week 2-3: Create landing pages and email sequences
- Week 4: Learn about Facebook ads
- Month 2: Test out Facebook Ads
- Month 3: Scale Facebook Ads
Make a Plan for Every Month and Week
Can you see how this works? To plan your year, you need to know what you’re doing every month and week.
By giving yourself something to do, you’re removing uncertainty and confusion from the equation. Every week and month you will know exactly what to focus on.
Then after your first quarter, start planning out the next strategy from step 3.
Step #7: Make a Daily Commitment to Action
Congrats, you’re almost finished planning your year! This final step is the most important. No plan is complete without a commitment to take action daily.
I’m sure you can relate to setting goals and making plans that you never actually get started on. I call this the “planning trap.” It’s the dangerous side of planning. So many of us are great at writing it all down and not so great at getting started.
So, naturally, you want to know how I stay focused on my goals. How can I stop being so lazy and beat procrastination?
It’s as simple as making a choice every single day to do something that brings you closer to your goal. This simple commitment is to take action no matter what, even for just five minutes.
To wake up and in the morning tell yourself, “yes, today I will take action” and then actually do it.
It’s Not Complicated
The power of creating a plan for your year is that you don’t have to overthink it anymore. You know what you need to do, you just have to do it!
Remember those reasons you outlined in step one for why this goal is so important to you? Focus on that, not the challenges that come your way.
We can drive ourselves mad by second-guessing and wasting time. You’ve done the hard work, you created your plan, so stay committed to it.
Don’t overcomplicate it!
👉🏽 RELATED POST: How to Stop Procrastinating
Create Daily Habits for Action
Every single day for the next year you need to take action, even for five minutes. It’s helpful to think of these as your daily habits. Actions you repeat day in and day out that bring your closer to achieving your goal.
- What can you do today to help you accomplish your plan?
- What are those small actions that you do throughout your day?
Habits are what make people successful. It’s not doing something once that makes it happen, but the repetition and commitment.
Examples of Daily Action Habits
Let’s revisit our example goals for one last time and brainstorm possible daily actions.
Financial Goal: “To stop living paycheck to paycheck”
- Using cash only
- Adding spare change to coin jar
- Making coffee instead of buying it
- Cooking instead of eating out
Health Goal: “To lose weight and get fit”
- Walking instead of taking the elevator
- Going for a walk after work instead of TV
- Replacing juice and pop with water
- Eating more fruits and veggies
Student Goal: “To get better grades in college”
- Taking better notes
- Participating in class
- Doing your readings before class
- Getting your papers done early
Business Goal: “To make more money in the new year”
- Promoting your products
- Posting to social media
- Keeping notifications off
- Creating content
Doing any of these daily actions just once, on their own won’t make your yearly goal come to pass. Instead, there’s power in creating daily routines that repeat!
That’s your pathway to success in the new year.
Get Your Free 12-Month Printable Planner
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Well, now you know exactly how to plan your year!
Not just that, but what it takes to make it your best year yet!
Promise me one thing, you’ll take action even more seriously than your take planning!
Need help planning your next year in advance? Click here for how to plan your year in one day, including examples. Plus, get your free 1-year plan template. #Planning #NewYearGoals #PlanYourYear
How do you plan your year in advance?
Last Updated on August 8, 2024
