How I Plan and Organize My Life & Business | The Planners and Routines I use Each Year
Being productive and organized is something that takes consistency, like anything else you may want to find success at in life, you have to put systems in place and keep those systems up and running. Being a productive and organized person isn’t something that you set up once and you are done forever. However, the systems you use can be decided on once and then all you have to do is show up to do the regular maintenance routines and it can be as simple as that. So, today I thought it would be helpful if I shared not only the planner and planning tools I’m using to stay productive and organized, but also the functional planning routines and the process I take to plan and organize my life and business on a regular basis.
Part 1: Yearly Plan
The purpose of my yearly planning routine is to set the vision and direction for my year. You can’t create the life you want unless you know what that life is and make a plan to get there and that is the function of my yearly planning routine.
So, on an annual basis, in December, I take the following steps in my Yearly Planning Routine.
- I set my goals for the new year
- Break larger or longer term goals into milestones
- Define objectives for precisely how I will achieve each goal and milestone and assign them to specific quarters and months of my year
- Populate my planner with known tasks, events and due dates
The tools I use to complete my Yearly Planning routine are my You Got Goals Workshop and Planner that helps me identify and break down my goals. I also use the CEO Retreat Workshop and Workbook to set my specific business goals and define my business plans for the year in terms of what work I will be focused on each month of the year.
My planners for 2024 are the 2024 Charmed Life Master Planner Vertical Digital Edition and the CEO Strategy Planner Digital Edition.
The Master Planner is the where I collect all relevant information for scheduling my time, and managing my tasks functionally.
The CEO Strategy Planner is a tool I use to supplement my main planner that gives me worksheets that help me create, outline and track business related information, but any tasks I define in that planner always get moved to the Master Planner. Yes, it’s a bit of duplication but it helps ensure I get individual tasks accomplished- so while I use the CEO Strategy Planner for working out my business plans and storing some important information, I need to integrate my business plans with the rest of my tasks and schedule in my Master Planner.
This process and these tools become the framework or outline for my plans for the year. Each subsequent step of my planning process is meant to fill out more specific details of plans and to prioritize tasks so my life is balanced and on track.
Part 2: Quarterly Plan
The purpose of my quarterly planning routine is to check my progress towards goals and create a 90 day plan of action to focus on. Many people get overwhelmed by their goals and plans because they try to make a plan to far in advance but in my functional planning system, I create more focused targets for 90 days at a time. 90 days or a quarter of planning at a time is often recognized as being a good amount of time to create more detailed plans for because its enough time to get a lot accomplished and to make adjustments to plans as you begin to take action.
So, on a quarterly basis, I take the following steps in my quarterly planning routine, and yes, this means that I am planning out Q1 not long after I set my goals because I need my 90 day plan in place before the quarter begins.
- Check progress towards my goals and milestones (Q2-4)
- Adjust plans as necessary to account for progress and obstacles
- Generate my quarterly business plan
- Populate action plans for objectives in the following quarter
- Allocate tasks from project plans to monthly trackers and monthly master task lists
For my quarterly planning routine, I use my Charmed Life Master Planner and my CEO Strategy Planner to fill in the action plans and specific details of plans that I simply assigned to specific quarters or months of the year during my Yearly Planning Routine.
For example: During my Yearly Planning Routine, I may have decided I wanted to put together a launch for a product in a specific month, let’s say January. So, during my Q1 planning session, I would now take the time to create the plan for that launch and once I have the plan made, the tasks would be distributed to the monthly trackers inside the Charmed Life Master Planner for the month they belong to.
So, during our yearly planning we are deciding on things we want to do, and then during the Quarterly Planning session, we actually make the action plans and start assigning the tasks to the right months.
Part 3: Monthly Plan
The purpose of my monthly planning routine is to set reasonable expectations for accomplishing my objectives and tasks each month. Often times, people will overload their monthly to do list with things and then fail to get much of it accomplished because you put too much on your plate at one time. So, this monthly routine is meant to capture all the tasks that belong to the month but also to ensure their is enough time to get it all done.
So, on a monthly basis, I take the following steps in my monthly planning routine.
- Brain dump to capture any additional new tasks that belong to my plans for the month
- Populate my monthly calendar with important dates
- Check the progress of project plans
- Fill in my master monthly tasks list and make sure my monthly tracker is fully populated
- Start assigning important projects and work to the specific weeks across the month
Something that has always set my functional planning process apart from other planning processes is that I use the month as the basic unit for task management. So, instead of having a long to do list with tasks that apply to various months of the year- I prefer a master monthly task list so as you are working day in and day out, you have a more reasonable to do list to work off of. Projects. systems and habits are also tracked on a monthly basis in my system and limited because when people make their plans for the month, I find they often overplan. They say they want to complete a whole list of projects, they want to start a whole list of new habits, they want to integrate all these new systems at once, but it’s too much and they fail. So, my Charmed Life Master Planner puts limits on how much you can plan for each month in order to help you self-edit and limit the plans you make each month. Because if you get overwhelmed, you will most likely fail to get everything done, and I’d prefer for you to at least get a reasonable amount of things done.
So, for my monthly routine, of course I use my Charmed Life Master Planner, and I will manage work for my business inside the CEO Strategy Planner, but again, any specific tasks are always moved into my master planner for actual scheduling to ensure the task gets done.
Part 4: Weekly Plan
The purpose of my weekly planning routine is to outline a schedule for accomplishing tasks and meeting expectations across the week. I love using the week as my basic unit for time management, similar to the way that I prefer to use the month as the basic unit for task management. We all get 24 hours in a day, but for most of us, 24 hours is just not enough time to plan to get the bulk of our tasks accomplished. Instead, by zooming out from the day to the week, we suddenly have 168 hours to use instead and a place in our week we can schedule in for nearly every priority and habit we want to complete.
So, on a weekly basis, I take the following steps in my weekly planning routine.
- Get clear on the weeks objectives/priorities
- Assign tasks, events and due dates across the week
- Make a weekly to-do list
- Ensure I have planned for self-care and other essential habits
- Optional but impactful: Check with the important people in your life who have the ability to affect your plans and ensure you are on the same page with expectations.
When it comes to creating my weekly plan, this usually isn’t something I am doing from scratch each week. As part of my Charmed Life Master Planner, I keep my ideal weekly schedule laid out that becomes the template for me to organize my week by. My ideal weekly schedule is a default schedule I create at the start of the year that includes time blocks for priority tasks and habits. On it you will find time blocked off for meal planning, grocery shopping, meal prepping, cleaning, self-care, laundry, and other recurring activities in my week. The ideal weekly schedule also includes the plan for my themed workdays, which are time blocks I use to manage work for my business. So, using this default template, I already have a consistent plan for my week, and so on a weekly basis I just need to fill in specific projects, tasks and appointments that vary.
Part 5: Daily Plan
The purpose of my daily planning routine is to create a prioritized schedule and plan for tasks to accomplish each day. Once we get to the daily planning portion of this process, my tasks have been organized so I know what actions I need to take, my time has been allocated so can feel confident showing up each day knowing that the things on my to do list today are all I need to accomplish to move my plan forward, and so all that’s left for me to do is show up, trust the plan and take action.
So, on a daily basis, I take the following steps in my daily planning routine.
- Review my ideal daily schedule plus any scheduled items for the day and my weekly to do list
- Assign my top 3 daily tasks
- Identify other tasks to worn on to fill my time for the day
- Ensure I have white space in my schedule in case new urgent items or interruptions cause delays
When it comes to creating my daily plan, just as my weekly plan is not something built from scratch, neither is my daily routine. In my Charmed Life Master Planner I have an insert for my Ideal Daily Routine- which is the schedule break down for my time each day that includes time blocks for my morning routine, daily work blocks, meals, self-care and other daily non-negotiable tasks. So, that forms the outline for my day that remains consistent day over day, and then all I need to do is fill in my specific top 3 daily tasks for the day and populate a plan for my work blocks. Everything else in my day is part of a system, part of a routine that I show up for consistently and it makes managing my days so much easier because my routine becomes second nature for me. So, I will plan my days usually within my week on two pages agenda in my master planner, since I am using the digital master planner this year, it also has day on a page inserts as well, so if I need to map out a more detailed day, I have the space to do so, but usually working off my daily top 3, my ideal daily routine and my weekly to do list is all I need to stay on top of my tasks.
I will of course use my CEO Strategy Planner for reference if needed, but I don’t plan my day from my business planner, I plan it from my Master Planner.
WATCH: How I Plan and Organize My Life and Business in 2024
So, that is my complete functional planning routine that I perform on a yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily basis. I realize it may seem like a lot, but this is a complete functional planning system from start to finish, and over time as I’ve used this routine, it’s made planning and getting things done so much easier for me because things are almost formulaic for me. As long as I show up and do these planning routines, I know I’m set to take action fully knowing and trusting that what is on my to do list for a day truly is exactly what I need to do to build the life I want and create all the wonderful things I want to see in the world as part of my business.
Obviously, you know, I do a lot as a solo business owner who creates regular content across multiple platforms, who has multiple different offers and products that I market throughout the year and who hosts live classes and coaching multiple times per month, and this system is what helps me get it all done without working myself to the bone. You know I’m not afraid to hustle when I need to, but thanks to this system, my days are usually very relaxed, I miss very few tasks or obligations in the year, and I make the time for so many lovely things in my life from personal self-care to spending time with friends and family and my own interests and hobbies offline.
So, if the way I manage my life sounds good to you, if you would also like to live your life more intentionally and more balanced, I welcome you to pick up some of my tools, my planners, my Goal Setting classes or even enroll in my Charmed Life Master Mind and spend a year inside my world getting classes, coaching and ready made resources to help you live your version of a Charmed Life as well.
Everything has been linked within this post, and if you have any questions, leave me a comment or feel free to email me, and I’d love to help you discover my products and decide how best you can work with me moving forward into this new year so you can experience a new level of productivity, success and enjoyment from you life!
xoxo,
Alexis Giostra @MissTrenchcoat, Founder of Strange & Charmed
