One personal annual planning it can serve as your compass: a document that sets out your goals and objectives, and be a guide with the necessary means to achieve them.
So, with deadlines and everything duly noted on paper, you get organized, create discipline and get away from risks and temptations, because a good model not only points the way forward, but which shortcuts should be avoided, right?
To help, we've prepared this post on how to plan a year. See, below, what we will address throughout the content:
- The importance of personal annual planning;
- The development of personal planning;
- The 8 aspects to consider when making an annual personal planning;
- Define your goals;
- Create an organization routine;
- Keep your feet on the ground;
- Also focus on risks and challenges;
- Identify points of assistance;
- Develop a financial reserve;
- Exercise focus and motivation;
- Review your planning periodically.
All ready? So, join us throughout this reading!
The importance of personal annual planning
The most fundamental part of this process is positioning priorities and tasks that are really important for your development. And this can be something private, professional or even to guarantee improvements in financial assets.
So, understand that before learning how to make a personal plan for the next year, it is worth noting that it is a powerful tool to guide you towards your goals.
With personal planning, you can analyze the direction of your actions and make your dreams and desires more palpable.
It doesn't have to be anything immediate: with the ideas that we will give you to put together your annual planning model, you will realize that all goals, be they short, medium or long term, will become much easier to achieve.
The development of personal planning
So that you understand how an annual planning model works in practice, imagine that your family has the objective of leaving the rent to acquire their own house.
To achieve this goal, it will be necessary to settle some debts, plan financially and establish a monthly average of savings.
When you have a personal plan, achieving that goal becomes much easier. With good date control and enough discipline to follow the guidelines set out in this document, you and your family will achieve the goal of home ownership much more easily.
The same goes for many other goals, such as:
- start investing in the financial market;
- to develop a long-term trip or vacation;
- organizing a wedding, birthday or graduation party;
- dprofessional and / or academic development;
- cut or acquire a few pounds to achieve the desired body weight.
Before we start to see which items cannot be missing in the composition of your personal annual planning, here is the tip for you to diagnose not only the present and what you want for the future, but the past.
Through the past two or three years, you can see everything that may have influenced you (positively and negatively) in the pursuit of your current goals.
In addition, this exercise can serve for you to assess what has been left out and that can not be missing in leading a life with more quality and willingness to achieve new achievements.
For example: do you intend to grow in your career, but have you put emotional well-being aside for that? Something is wrong with the process. It is worth reviewing this strategy, and having these factors of the past clearly defined in your personal annual planning.
The 8 aspects to consider when making an annual personal planning
You already write down the most basic tip for setting up your personal planning. Make sure you know:
- what do you want;
- as you wish;
- when you want;
- why do you want?
Having answered the questions above, it's time to get your hands dirty!
1. Define your goals
We have already insisted on the need for a goal, but it is necessary to list it at the top of the tips of an annual personal planning because, without it, you lose the “north” of your compass, as we said at the beginning of the article.
So, the first thing to do is to sit down to reflect and think about what goals you can pursue throughout the year. AND here's a tip: If you can, set goals that involve more people, like your family. After all, good support to stay focused on goals is always welcome.
2. Create an organization routine
Regardless of the “size” of your goal, divide it. Remember that you must do this activity in your time – and respecting the deadline for this goal, if any – but it is important to fragment it so that it is easier to compose a calendar.
In this way, it is possible to divide the amount of time each day, week or month, even, to create the habit of accomplishment whenever you get your hands dirty.
This is important even for long-term tasks. therefore, small achievements keep the motivation high to go after the next challenges, even if the final goal is still far away.
Now, if this stage is still unfamiliar to you, then accept the invitation and visit our article that explains how to turn dreams into goals! It can be of great help 🙂
3. Keep your feet on the ground
The temptation is strong, but control the urge to set almost impossible goals or unreal goals. This will only discourage your efforts, whether in the short or medium term.
The truth is that it doesn't matter how big the goals you set, as long as you know you can accomplish them along with the other day-to-day obligations and responsibilities.
Only the tip is valid: start small. Take a taste for the change in habits and tasks, on a daily basis, and increase as you feel more secure in dividing the hours of the day into different activities.
4. Focus also on risks and challenges
In your personal annual planning, not only the objectives are included: the points of improvement are so relevant, since they will interfere in the pursuit of your objectives.
For example: if the idea is to reduce spending and impulse purchases they are usually the villains of your domestic economy, always keep them in mind in your planning. Thus, it is easy to identify them and create defense mechanisms to avoid surrendering to them.
The same goes for other obstacles so common in our path, such as procrastination and self-sabotage, among others. The first step is to recognize them. Then, learn how to deal with them to make the journey to success even more enjoyable.
5. Identify help points
See how you can enrich the pursuit of your goals set out in your annual personal planning.
For example: is it possible to take a specialization course to covet such a professional promotion with even more resources? Or, in the circumstance of a lean budget for the desired wedding party, is there not a loved one who can grant the space of your property to the party?
You are not alone, and personal planning is a great way to remind us of that. Exercise this practice!
6. Develop a financial reserve
Unforeseen events happen. Many of them, in fact, are inevitable. Only it is possible to prepare themselves so that they do not put their projects to waste, you know?
For this, make it a habit to feed a financial reserve. In general, it is worth three to six months of your total monthly expenses to ensure that you can use that money for any unexpected needs.
But you don't have to compose an emergency reserve right away. It should be composed month by month, with what you can save after paying off all bills and expenses.
It is also worth mentioning that this habit can already serve as an item of your annual personal planning, since the habit of saving is not so common in the country. Want to see an example? More than half of UK citizens entered the quarantine caused by the pandemic without any financial reserve.
In other words: it can do very well to take that first step, regardless of what your main goal for this year is.
See too: how to do financial planning for 2021
7. Exercise focus and motivation
We know that the search for personal goals can be exhausting and, from time to time, we feel the motivation down there. But keep in mind that this should only be a mood swings and not a constant in your life.
In general, it is important that your commitment is unshakable. But, if this is not possible, choose to reread item 4 of this list: diagnose the resistance that you may encounter along the way and identify the solutions so that your motivation, focus and determination are unbreakable!
8. Review your planning periodically
Finally, there is a tip that can also be one of the most valuable ones for your annual personal planning to yield from start to finish: reviewing yourself.
This means that, at a certain point in the month or every two months – you decide – it is worthwhile to sit down and analyze the goals, the commitment in that period and what worked and also what needed adjustments or was not satisfactory.
In this way, you learn more about yourself, organize the planning and prepare yourself more vigorously so that, in the next period, these problems encountered will not be repeated. And the hits can be even better!
Now, how about taking it a step further and starting your personal annual planning on the right foot? For this, share this post on your social networks and create a motivational connection with others who can also stimulate themselves to seek new goals for this year!
