Working on goals is a top to bottom process. Starting from life visions, going down to year intentions, breaking them down to quarter goals, and eventually to projects, week objectives, and actionable tasks.
Each time I move deeper in planning I’m on different horizon. I start at blue sky of life vision which is basically a dream unless I put in an effort to plan and act on it. From there I dive a bit to see landscape details and define year intentions. Then I’m moving down to sky-scrappers level (my past achieved goals) where I look for a place for new goal to reach. And at last I arrive at the ground and start building new sky-scrapper floor by floor.
For me life vision is not a part of planning horizons. That’s because life vision acts as a guidance to planning. There is no plan in life vision itself. Its purpose is to inspire, motivate, and navigate.
Let’s have a closer look at each of three horizons of planning.
Year
This is a foundation for all the other horizons. It gives me directions and targets for the whole year. At this level I don’t actually deal with goals yet. I don’t worry how to accomplish them. I simply define intentions for the year. For each of my areas of responsibility I put one to three statements saying what I want to achieve by the end of the year. E.g. for “Health” area this year I have three intentions: Sleep solid 8 hours a night, Treat teeth at a dentist, Short workout every workday.
With intentions I define a picture of lifestyle and achievements for the year. I use images and colors. So they appeal to me more on emotional than rational level.
Quarter
At this horizon I define goals. Some goals can be for a single quarter while others are spread across multiple quarters. Obviously this depends on the size of the goal and my projection on how quickly I can move it forward in the upcoming quarter.
I pick one or two goals for each area of responsibility. They don’t have to be equal. I may choose to concentrate on some specific areas. In this case I would take larger and more complex goals for those areas, while for others I would pick light goals. At this point I also outline projects for quarter goals. This gives me better understanding of actual goal size and great starting point for weekly plannings.
Week
That’s where rubber meets the road. Based on goals and projects I define week objectives. I start with projects related to my goals. Then I add objectives for other projects I have at hand. Finally each week objective gets broken down into actionable tasks.
For me week objectives are actually steps in projects. They are not actionable by themselves. They help me to navigate through and have better high-level overview of projects.
Tasks needed to complete week objectives then become my actions for the week. Once I have the list, I decide which tasks go to which day of the week. During the week I don’t need to worry about upper horizons. While in the trenches I want to focus on execution. When next week comes then it’s time to elevate and review higher picture.
Ever since I started using this approach I see consistent results and higher fulfilment in life. I encourage you to try it out as well.