At the end of last year, we were focusing on Your Year in Review and Your Action Plan to help make this year run smoothly and efficiently. By now, your goal-planning calendar should be unfolding and your action plan set in motion. Are your goals progressing the way you were expecting? Are you finding some of your categories a little bit easier to work through than others? Are your timelines obtainable and working sufficiently?
Conducting a regular assessment of your action plan is important to help you effectively allocate your time and to decide if things need adjusting. You may find you need to reprioritize, scale back, or perhaps add a few items. You may discover an area where you could accomplish even more. Whether you do your assessment weekly, every ten days, or something else, you need to assess regularly in order to stay on top of everything you are capable of. Otherwise, your time won’t be productive, and you could end up feeling like a person stuck in those work meetings where the individual running it doesn’t have an agenda, nothing gets accomplished, and the next meeting is as unproductive as the last. Sound familiar? Since you are the one in charge of your personal action plan, realize that you can manage what needs to be done and avoid being like that individual who lacks meeting skills.
Once you determine how your action plan is progressing, you will be able to continue shaping it as necessary. If your action plan has been challenging and is difficult to stay on top of, then take some time to reassess and update your planning. On the other hand, if your action plan is moving along without complication, then stay on this track and keep advancing. If you feel that you can accomplish something in addition, then determine where you can insert this into your calendar. Just be sure that by adding that item, your action plan won’t become unmanageable and impede your progress. The key is to regularly assess how your action plan is evolving so you can make the most of your time and goals throughout the year.
Another step in your evaluation is to weigh the balance of the number of short-term goals and long-term goals you currently have in your calendar. Having a balanced structure will give your action plan an optimal flow. For instance, it might be discouraging to have nothing but long-term goals in your calendar this year as some of those goals might have an eighteen month, or three-year timeline. Therefore, by the end of this year, you may feel like your goals are not being accomplished. On the other hand, if you only have short-term goals in your calendar, you could risk the opportunity for accomplishing larger goals. Just keep in mind that for any long-term goals you add to your list, each one will require consistent planning with intermediate goals that have shorter deadlines. Staying on track is extremely important. For these reasons, it is important to balance short-term goals with long-term goals so that you feel a sense of accomplishment and you make maximal use of your time.
Wouldn’t it be great if at the end of the year you could look back and see how much was checked off your list and benefit from how many goals were accomplished? It is completely attainable! It will require consistent discipline and steady motivation, but the more you practice these processes, the easier they will become. As you accomplish more goals, you’ll soon find that being efficient in your day-to-day life becomes natural. Remember, your goals will continue to develop and as you work through this process, your planning will become easier and easier.
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