Speaker 1: 0:25

Welcome to Plan Like a Boss. Today, I'm letting you in on my signature quarterly planning method, the one that gets big results without burning you out. We're talking about how to plan for your capacity. We're talking about how to plan for your capacity, not just your calendar, and why setting too many goals is actually what's keeping you stuck. If you're one of the people who sets a list of 10 goals every single January and you only hit one, or worse, you forget about them all by the end of February you're going to want to hear this Setting too many goals keeps you stuck. You heard me, I know. I know. Goals are a good thing, but here's the thing when you set too many goals, you split your time, your energy and your focus and, instead of making progress in a few key areas, you end up making tiny, unsatisfying progress on everything and feel like you're going nowhere. It's like watering 12 plants with one small cup of water. They may live, but none of them are going to thrive. And for solopreneurs where, let's face it, your time is already stretched, this isn't just insufficient, it's exhausting, and it creates a constant feeling of being behind. I've seen so many entrepreneurs set themselves up for failure by planning for an imaginary version of themselves who has unlimited hours, unlimited energy and no life interruptions. And well, spoiler alert, that person doesn't exist. Now here's my quarterly planning rule Set no more than three goals for the quarter, not three giant projects each month. Not three personal and three business and three just for fun goals. Three total. Why? Because you want each goal to get the time and attention it deserves. Then and here's the key plan, around the time you actually have, not the time you wish you had.

Speaker 1: 2:42

Before you even sit down to plan your goals, I want you to look at your quarter honestly. Do you have any travel plans, any family obligations? Is this quarter maybe a really busy season in your business? Do you have health appointments or recovery time scheduled? In short, what commitments are already on your schedule? Because these all affect your capacity and when you account for them in advance, your plan is instantly going to be more realistic. Once you see what kind of time you have, you can start planning your goals. Then I want you to actually look at your goals and see if it's possible to achieve them with the time you have. And if the answer is no, that's okay. You're not saying no forever. That is where your future parking lot comes into play. I want you to set up a future parking lot.

Speaker 1: 3:43

This can be a page in your planner or your bullet journal. This can be a note on your phone. This can be a Google Doc. It doesn't matter where it lives, but set it up, because then all these ideas and all these goals that you have that you just don't have the capacity to handle right now, you can write them down so that they can be scheduled for another quarter. You're not giving up on them forever. You're giving up on them for right now, so that you can be really good at the few things you have scheduled intentionally. Now you have your goals based on your time, so you're ready to go right, not so fast.

Speaker 1: 4:27

Once you have your goals set, it's time to reverse engineer them. Now this is one of my favorite systems you start with the end in mind your goal, and then you work backwards to see what steps you need to take to actually achieve your goal. So here's my process. Step one you're going to take your goal and you're going to break it into monthly milestones. Ask yourself where do I need to be at the end of month one, month two and month three to hit this goal by the end of the quarter. So this is going to give you three clear checkpoints throughout your quarter to make sure you're on track throughout your quarter. To make sure you're on track. Step two you're going to take those monthly milestones and you're going to break them into weekly action steps From each milestone list the tasks that you're going to need to do every week in order to achieve your milestone and make sure they're doable within your actual schedule for that week. And then, finally, step three, assign those actions. Don't just list them out. Put them on your calendar, not just a big, long to-do list. A task with no time assigned to it is a wish, not a plan.

Speaker 1: 5:46

So let's say, one of my quarterly goals is to do a launch for my creative SEO membership. Now, obviously, that membership already exists, but we're going to use it as an example. My quarterly goal might be launch my membership by the end of quarter two. So from that I'll do a monthly breakdown. By the end of month one, I need to finalize all core content and set up my back end systems. By the end of month two, I need to create a sales funnel and my promotional content. By the end of month three, I've got a marketing push and a launch event happening, so the weekly breakdown for month one could look something like outline the core training modules, then, week two, record the first two modules. Week three, upload the content and set up my member portal. And week four, write the email sequence for my launch funnel. Now each week has no more than two to three big tasks related to the goal. That way, I can still run my business without dropping client work or other commitments, because, let's face it, you have other commitments that are important.

Speaker 1: 7:04

Don't overschedule yourself with unrealistic expectations, because one of two things is going to happen Something will get dropped or everything will be subpar. So here is your homework. I want you to pick one big goal for your next quarter and map it out using this method. I want you to ask yourself is this goal realistic for my capacity? What are my three monthly milestones that I need to make sure I hit to achieve this goal, and what weekly action steps am I going to take each month to hit my milestone? And if you want to go deeper, join me in my quarterly planning workshop.

Speaker 1: 7:51

Plan your Quarter with Confidence, where we will map out your entire quarter, your goals, your milestones and your weekly actions, and we'll do it together in a plan with me style. You can grab your spot at tanyalaustincom slash plan. Once again, that's tanyalaustincom slash plan Because when you plan for your capacity, you set yourself up for consistent progress, not constant burnout. All right, that's it for today. Hit subscribe so you don't miss next week's episode. And if you would leave me a review on your podcast platform of choice, that would be fabulous, because it will help push this content out to other solopreneurs just like yourself. And until next time, keep planning like a boss.