12 Key Attitudes for Success: Attitude to Planning

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4- Attitude to Planning

It may be a trite truism that failing to plan is planning to fail, but planning is an essential attitude for success. Planning is part of an overall process, often initiated by goal setting. I want to focus on a rhythm of planning that reflects a powerful attitude for success. The proper planning rhythm will enable you to move forward with a level of intent so that you move closer to your goal day by day.

SMART planning

When people talk about SMART goals, they are really talking about SMART plans (for various interpretations of SMART there is an excellent Wikipedia article?here ). To my thinking, goals are set out beyond your immediate planning horizons. I would suggest that planning should operate on several time horizons. Probably, for most of us, three years is about as far out as we are going to be able to do any significant planning for success. Beyond three years, we may struggle to thoroughly understand what the world will look like.?

Let's say your three-year goal is "I want to have established a workstyle that is fit for the future". This is an overarching goal. What are some of the key things I want to achieve within that overriding goal? It might be around the income level, career progression, flexible working or location. This set of achievements is a way of measuring success in three years.?

Now, let's step back and look at what the interim step would be in two years. If I want to be there in three years, what will I need to have achieved in two years? After reflecting on two years, let's step back and reflect on one year.

So, now we have a one-year milestone, a two-year milestone and a three-year achievement.?

From annual to monthly to weekly

For most of us, this needs to become a skeleton under which we build a rolling twelve-month plan. It may be that your rolling twelve-month plan is broken down by quarter. To achieve this one-year milestone, where must I be after nine, six, or three months? Or maybe your life revolves around academic terms, so "where do I want to be by the end of the spring term, the summer term, the summer holidays, the autumn term?".

Again, the details of what you will do are still relatively light. It is primarily looking at things in terms of milestones. You can get into the details now that you've got your quarterly or yearly plan. What are the achievements for the next three months each month? What are the results you need each week for the current month? What activities do you need to complete each day for the current week?

The power of daily planning versus monthly planning

This level of planning creates a very high level of intent. Daily planning is over and above the daily habits. Focus on the key things you want to achieve by the end of any day, week, or month. For most of us to focus on "the one thing I want to get done each day" is enough when it comes to planning for our success. We already have a substantial amount of time consumed by daily, weekly or monthly routines. Moving something forward a little bit each day can be enough. For some of us, it is more important to have a strong intent about where we will be at the end of the month. We need to operate flexibility within the month. We can't necessarily sit down and say we will get this done on Thursday 15th of the month, but we can say we want to make sure we get these things done by the end of the month. We flex things around to get the essential things done alongside the urgent. This might mean that, as we come towards the end of the month, we decide to work at the weekend to get caught up. Alternatively, we could clear the decks of important progress by the middle of the month and then ensure all the routine activities are completed by the end.

Planning and Reflection

But planning is not enough. Planning without reflecting on where we have got to, what we have achieved and then replanning to do the most valuable activities to meet our overarching goals is of limited value. Make sure you have a regular checkpoint each week and look at where things have got to, what you are doing, and how far things have gone. Review what has gone well and what could have gone better. What do you want to do more of? What do you want to do less of? What should you continue doing? Are there some things in your plan where you now want to change some of your activities or some of your goals? Are there some things you thought were important that are no longer important? Are there some things that you now need to give greater priority? Are there some things that you thought were hard to do that are easier to do than were expected? Are there other things that are much more complicated than you realised, and if you want to do them, you'll have to set aside more time? Are there some things that will cost you much more money than you expected, so you will have to delay them or reprioritise your financial spending?

You are much less likely to achieve your goal without reflecting on your plan (perhaps walking it through with someone else). I check in with many of the people I work with once a week to see how we are moving towards a plan. We reflect on what's going well and what could go better, and we refine our goals or even create new ones for those short-term milestones.?

It may also be helpful to do a deeper reflection on progress, perhaps once a term, to look back, see what you have achieved, and know where you are getting to. Often, it is helpful to have someone supporting you on that planning journey and challenging you to reflect deeply about how you are moving forward.?

Fail to plan, plan to fail?

I believe that failing to plan is planning to fail, but don't forget that other truism: "Any plan of battle will fail to survive the first shot". Replanning, adapting, revising, and reflecting are crucial attitudes to planning that will give you the right attitude for success.?