Loading...
Answers
MenuWhat framework or process do you follow for planning your week, month, quarter, and year?
This question has no further details.
Answers
I've worked with a number of business coaches and used a few different frameworks. I also have a post coming up in Smallvile (http://smallville.com.au/) on just this topic in the next week or so!
The framework I like best is quite simple and I first heard about it from Taki Moore, although I just found it on another site (http://katelmccarthy.com/throw-the-business-plan-out-the-window-still-build-a-kickass-business/)
Basically, you create a grid. In the top left corner, you create your dream - where do you want to be in 3-5 years. What do you want your business to look like? What do you want your life to look like?
The next box is where you write your 12-month goals. In order to achieve your 3-year vision, where do you have to be in a year? What must you achieve?
The next box is for the next 90-days. Where do you have to be in 90-days in order to be on track for your 12-month goals? What key things do you need to have completed?
The last box is for this week, and you can use a post-it note for this. You list what tasks you have to have completed for you to stay on track for your quarterly goals. List 3-5 things you can do this week to ensure you're on track.
Each week, put a new post-it note on this box. At the end of the quarter you can flick through and see everything you've achieved! You can also put a post-it note on the 90-day plan so that you use the same plan for a year.
Each year, review your plan to ensure you're still going where you want to go, and making the progress you need to make. Use this tool to stay focused on and on track - but not to beat yourself up!
I hope this was useful! If you need more information, I'm happy to jump on a call with you. :-)
The best time management advice I have found was on Entrepreneur. Time management is in the real world not by clock time. Plans always change but goals are targets for which you aim to accomplish. Set realistic timeframes for those to complete. Look at the follow video on time management https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219553
Personally, I like David Allen's *Getting Things Done* system for short-term planning and task management. Taylor Pearson has written a useful essay on his "anti-fragile" planning process:
https://taylorpearson.me/planning/
Related Questions
-
What is the concept of strategic clarity in companies and what are its dimensions and strategies?
Strategic clarity is the ability to clearly define, quickly adapt, effectively communicate and properly implement the company's business strategies. It is the opposite of strategic ambiguity. Strategic clarity as a modern term or phrase most likely arises from a very real problem. That is, many businesses do not have a clear strategy or, the strategy they have is ambiguous. Frankly, I would bet that strategic clarity as a new term was probably coined by a business consultant or consultancy firm as a marketing ploy to differentiate themselves from their competitors. The term is catching on. Any business that does not have a clearly defined, adaptable, effectively communicated and properly implemented strategy is at best operating below its true potential, and at worst is in serious jepoardy. I offer free 30 minute consultations using the link below. Feel free to schedule a free call if you would like to discuss this further. https://clarity.fm/kevinmccarthy/FreeConsult All the best, Kevin McCarthy www.kevinmccarthy.comKM
-
What should be the top priorities for an entrepreneur when starting a company?
Making sales and figuring out what potential customers want. Really, everything else can be done after you've proven that there really is a business opportunity. www.DavidCBarnett.comDC
-
What is the best way of coming up with business name ideas?
A good name is unique, and stands out but should ideally create a positive association with it, especially your target demographic. When it comes to naming new products, companies will spend sometimes months and go through thousands of options before arriving on the one that they'll ultimately go with. Don't rush this process because its ultimately much more costly to have to go back or change, or ultimately fail because the name did not resonate enough with your target demographic. The name is not everything but it's a huge part. Go to techcrunch or cruncbase and look at any number of new start ups which are probably all great ideas or products but because they have either a dumb name or a not so unique name, they can fail. My personal pet peeve is the stilted and formulaic neologism of adding "ly" at the end of any noun or verb---perfectly hilariously noted throughout HBO's Silicon Valley. At this point, we are all more clever than this. Anyway, when you have only seconds to make an impression on a consumer, the last thing you want is cognitive dissonance caused by the name. Cognitive dissonance occurs when the signifier is not what is signified and vice versa; you're looking at a bicycle but someone insists it's a fish. And you're like, wtf. This happens when you're looking at a great product but then it unexpectedly has a weird or dumb name, a range of slight neorological impressions then occur, effecting the emotional relationship between consumer and product: confusion, annoyance, distrust, etc. All of these slight negative responses are not what you want associated with your product when you only have seconds to make an impression. That's why a good name matters. Now to your name: Dude Undies. Scrap this immediately. First of all, when it comes to men's underwear (I'm assuming this is your product), this is dangerous minefield territory because whether you like it or not, you're automatically dealing with issues of male insecurities involving self worth, virility, potency, etc Some light word association exercises (maybe among your friends) might be helpful in yielding an alternative to "undies" which i associate with: children, bedtime, potty training, etc.Absolutely not what men want to be wearing. You can see why this word next to "Dude" is cognitive dissonance in and of itself, never mind your product. I suggest you go back to the drawing board on this. Think about what makes your product different from your competitors', what value are you bringing to the market? Play with these ideas make a list of at least 50 words (thesaurus.com is very helpful) find a word or words that at least create that same impression. From my own observations, I've found that men love products with as few syllables as possible. If this is too daunting for you, enlist the help of a good copy writer with experience in product naming (I know a few if you need one), they should be able to give you a list of ad campaigns that they worked on. Paying them $100 for a good name is worth it in the long run. I hope this helps, best of luck to you!VG
-
How can entrepreneurs deal with information overload?
Keep your head down and work on your own project. Stop being a spectator to what other people are up to. Ignore all the noise. Start unsubscribing from mailing lists. Delete your memberships at social media platforms, or at least stop logging in. Stop paying attention to Twitter feeds. Treat them like TV channels. Watching TV and following tweets is not entrepreneurship! Want to read? Read a book. Divide your email into critical and non-critical inboxes. Make yourself a rule not to check the optional inbox except on Friday evenings between 4 and 9 p.m. With any luck, you'll be enjoying life too much to bother. Friday nights are a good laboratory for testing those priorities. Force your inbox and twitter feeds to compete for attention with your significant other, and see who wins! Soon you'll recognize how unimportant that stuff is. Information overload is an excuse addicts make for their addiction. It's akin to compulsive rubbish hoarding or an all-day TV binge. Endlessly following the latest startups is no different from endlessly following celebrity gossip. Just because the people you read about are accomplishing things does not mean you are. If you have any ambition, then you can create something while ignoring what other people are doing and saying. A novelist or an inventor will keep busy on their own work to an almost hermit-like extent. If 100 people started throwing 100 objects toward you simultaneously in a hopelessly mismatched game of dodge ball, why would you be under any obligation to catch them all? Stop paying attention. Stop following. Lead! Do something!JP
-
How do you come up with a clear action plan/ roadmap/ checklist to get you from idea to launching a business?
To start with, create a "No-To-List" of non-action items. It will help you keep your focus intact on the actual and planned goals. It will also help the team's focus to move in unison. Talking about "To-Do" list of laundry items, start with assessing your internal capability, external requirement, and map the two to find the loosened nuts and bolts. Once you finish up with above exercise, create a list of action plan items that could help you move from possessing idea to establishing business. However, do ensure to plan your business model in the beginning to prevent from doing recurring redundant task. Let me know if you've tried creating any such checklist. You can DM me the same or we can hop on a quick call to discuss the fine prints.SB
the startups.com platform
Copyright © 2025 Startups.com. All rights reserved.