How to Make a Plan and Achieve Your Goals

Big ideas and grand projects are undeniably exciting, and they are what motivate many of us on those less-than-engaging workdays. However, achieving your vision is not always straightforward, and there’s always more to successfully realizing your projects than meets the eye.

The best way to bring those dreams into reality and follow through on long-term projects is to break them down into achievable goals and make a foolproof plan designed to push you through each stage. But what makes planning so important, and how can you do it effectively? 

Why is Planning Important?

Planning can be a drag, especially when it comes to an exciting project that you just want to dive right into, but it is an essential part of success. Planning has several significant benefits, for example: 

Start at the End: Setting Achievable Goals

The first step to good planning is knowing where you’re heading and what you’re trying to achieve, whether personal or professional, short-term or lifelong. Setting reasonable goals is a skill in itself, but the first stage of planning can be broken down into three main parts: 

These are now your goals. They are still pretty lofty but are starting to become achievable. To become plannable. 

Most professional and many personal aspirations, ideas, and ultimate objectives can’t be tackled alone, so there is a good chance that most goals are going to be shared goals. Online shared notes are the ideal way to collaborate with your team since it keeps everyone on the same page and able to contribute.

If you’re looking to take your goal setting to the next level, then you and your team should also explore productivity techniques such as using the SMART methodology. This methodology is based on creating goals that are: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. Hitting all those points at this stage will make planning simple and transparent. 

On that note, we’ve got our achievable goals, so it’s time to start planning how to reach them. 

Getting to Goals: The Planning Begins

Now that you’ve got your goals, the real planning begins—that is, you are almost ready to actually get down to work. The next step is to give each goal a stricter deadline, placing them on a logical path to your ultimate objective, and breaking them down into actionable items. 

Try to do this by looking at the steps you need to take and the order you need to take them in. Using productivity software like Spike, you can create Tasks for each of these steps, allowing you to monitor your progress through the stages: Open, In Progress, Stuck and Done. 

Each of these tasks (or steps) should contain a to-do list, and these are the small items that you are actually going to be ticking off on a daily (or hourly) basis. To bring even more structure, formatting and sub-lists can be really helpful. What’s more, you can set reminders for these goals to make sure you never miss any important deadlines again!

For example, if we are still aiming for that film festival, we might create: 

There is a good chance that as you work your way through these tasks and towards your objective, new problems and opportunities will pop up. Don’t be afraid to add new goals if they occur as you go. 

Find a System That Works for You

You’ve planned out what each chunk of work will be, but this still leaves out how you’re going to tackle each one. For some people, this isn’t a problem, but for a large portion of the population, procrastination and lack of focus are a blight on productivity. 

Build a productivity system into your plan such as The Pomodoro Technique or Don’t Break the Chain to give a more focussed approach to how you will stay on top of each of these small items. 

Stay on Track

An essential part of making a plan and achieving your goals is staying on track, and this should be done through daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly reviews. Remember to set reminders for each task, milestone, or chunk that will help you reach your ultimate goal, since this allows them to be front and center when needed, and out of mind when you’re focusing on other work.

Stay Accountable 

As well as reviews, another good way to stay on track is by staying accountable—to yourself, or better yet, to your team. Map your timelines and deadlines onto a shared calendar, which is then given to all team members. This will keep you accountable but also act as a reminder of how each member’s smaller tasks are coming together to achieve that bigger goal and objective. 

Effective planning to achieve your goals is an ongoing process, and one of the benefits that it brings is the ability to react and engage with the unknown. Start working towards your objectives with the steps above and then make it your own for ultimate productivity. 

For more information on how to stay productive with planning and goals, check out the Spike blog today or Tweet us @SpikeNowHQ and let us know what your big ambitions are.