There’s something so satisfying in setting up a planning system and goals for the next year. It’s like back-to-school for grown ups. I finished mine in the eleventh hour (or 31st day of the 12th month, as it were). Some years take more work than others, and some years I choose to put in more work. This year I left behind some old reliables and tried some completely new tools.
First, the planning system
How you do your planning is entirely personal. You have to consider every aspect of your life, from practical considerations, like commuting, to psychological considerations, such as ADHD, to emotional considerations, like colors. There is no one-size-fits-all planning approach, and sometimes it takes a lot of trial and error to find what works for you.
I had to work for my system this year. For the last handful of years, I have used a couple of different systems that were fabulous and really helped me grow and develop in so many ways. This year, however, I’ve run into some snags, so I had to dig deep and go my own way.
I used the Dragontree Dreambook and Planner for years. I adored it and the company that made it, and the community of users was wonderful. It really stretched how I thought about goals and dreams and, subsequently, how I made plans to achieve those. I loved that it was relatively small, small enough to put in a purse, anyway, and there was a lot of room to mark it up.
One of the things I wished were different about it was I wanted more scribble space. There is some in there, but I was really turning the book into a scrapbook as time went on. I ended up taping in extra pages, which was fine as long as I didn’t need an extra page every week! I decided to try the digital version, printing it out and putting it in a binder so I could add pages. I ended up quitting that system after a few months. It was just too cumbersome. I also outgrew the planning prompts. Following the same map year after year loses some of its impact. I had some thinking to do.
I decided to try the One-Year Powersheets Goal Planner from Cultivate What Matters. I had previously used their 90-Day Powersheets and really liked them. I’d almost purchased the one-year planner after those, but I found the Dreambook and decided to try it out. So last year was my first go with the one-year Powersheets planner. I loved the planner, but I didn’t use most of it. I did all of the goal prep work at the beginning of the year and got a lot out of it. It was very similar to the way the Dreambook and Planner does goal prep work, but slightly different, and the nuance of the Powersheets combined with my years using the Dreambook really helped me set better goals.
My favorite part of the Powersheets planning system was the monthly-specific goals and all of the color coding for goals. That is something that I have taken away from the Cultivate What Matters planner system and will use for the foreseeable future in any planner system I purchase or set up for myself. It really helps to have the intention of setting small goals each month that work toward your big goals.
I didn’t like how large the planner was, though. I ended up purchasing a small wire-bound planner from a box store to use for managing my day-to-day activities and tasks. Just as I set up my Powersheets every month with stickers and intentions for the month, each week I set up my small planner. The two books were my planning tag team.
Since I'm living in Ireland this year, I can't order either planner or most of the popular planners out there - or won’t because of shipping costs and customs fees, so this year I just got another little planner. I’ve found that I can do most of the Powersheets and Dreambook work on my own in the little planner, and I refer back to both when I am doing goal prep work and seasonal life reviews. If I want to do any journaling during goal prep or reviews, I do it in a small paper journal that I buy in bulk and completely wreck with stickers and stamps and sketches and scribbles and anything else I want. The best part of my new system is that both books - the planner and the journal - are small and portable.
Would I recommend the Dreambook and Planner or the Powersheets planner? Absolutely. They are both wonderful products, albeit not friendly to every budget. Both have great customer service and community groups on Facebook. Both companies have YouTube channels with videos about using the products. Powersheets has a leg up here, however, because so many users share their experiences online, especially on YouTube. That increases the sense of community and can be great inspiration.
Which one I would recommend would be totally personal. The Powersheets system is more prescriptive, so that can be good if you are very analytical or need step-by-step hand-holding, as we all do sometimes. The Dreambook does guide you well, but the whole system is more holistic than prescriptive. Both systems break the process down into similar life areas, both have quarterly check-ins with a numerical scale, both help you break down your big goals and dreams into manageable action steps, and, best of all, both encourage you to think beyond the to-do list, beyond this year, beyond measurable goals, and beyond your biggest dreams.
Whew. That was a sentence.
I am also using the Notion app to organize my life this year. I have a page to track all of my yearly goals, and each goal has its own page. For each goal, I documented the type of goal, what the goal looks like, a big goal, and a follow-up goal, in case I reach the goal early, where applicable. I also listed the how and why for each goal: Methods/Steps, How it will be measured, What else I will get from pursuing this goal (e.g. reduced symptoms, writing material, improved spiritual practice), Additional thoughts (e.g. I have no control over getting published, but I do have control over practice, work, editing, and submissions!), and Action ideas (monthly/weekly/daily).
Finally, I set up quarterly reviews with the following questions:
What worked
What didn’t work
Biggest success
Biggest obstacle
What I learned
What I will take forward
I also have a database with all of my monthly goals for the year, and I set up a view for the current month's goals on my Notion home page. I have a lot more pages to support my system, but these are the main planning pages.
Now, how I created my goals
I have taken the 1-year, 3-year, 10-year approach from the Dreambook and the life-area approach from the Powersheets and mashed them into a messy mind map. I love mind maps. Ever since I learned about them in elementary school, I have used them for so many things. My favorite part is when I’ve written out all my goals and all the little steps I can think of to achieve them and then I draw the lines between everything that is connected and can immediately see what should take priority. (For what it’s worth, I’m a huge geek, and I also Pareto-analyze the heck out of my life on the regular. And I love spreadsheets.)
I don’t set a goal for each area of my life, and some of my goals greatly overlap. I do not settle on a goal until I have fully thought out how I might approach the goal over the next year. I have been known to defer goals, even though the goal seems perfect on paper, because life would prevent me from making worthwhile progress right now, like while I’m living abroad. I have also changed goals temporarily to accommodate my life at the moment. Three of my goals this year are specific to where I’m living. I would not have them, at least in the form they’re in, if I were living in the states. For example, my big dream of seeing the world was changed to “See Europe,” since I’m living here, and it’s so accessible.
Finally, the goals
In the interest of privacy, I will not be sharing an exhaustive list of my goals and plans for 2023. However, I am very proud of my planning and thought it might inspire some of you. Additionally, it might give you a peek into my brain.
My first goal is health-related and has been rolling over for a while. Achieving good health can be like peeling an onion: just when you fix one problem, you discover another one. I don’t feel bad carrying over the same goal for all these years. Nor do I think I have made any sort of misjudgment in setting the goal, as some "experts" might argue. The goal is completely achievable in the time-frame prescribed. However, until we find the reason or reasons I remain unhealthy, the start of said time-frame remains a mystery. So the goal gets pushed. Yet it remains because I am working toward it continuously. Don’t be afraid to set the big, unknown goals, because the steps you take toward achieving them advance you no matter what pace you are going.
My second goal, which has also rolled over, is not technically measurable. However, I have set smaller, measurable goals that show me I’m achieving the big dream goal. The goal is to build a writing career. I decided to measure it in different ways. I set small, medium, and big goals for each category. Income is the most obvious way of measuring career success. It’s not always the best way, though. If you’re trying to make a living, then it’s a necessary metric and can be used to make important decisions about your path. However, you can also measure the success of a career using other metrics, such as reaching a level on the corporate ladder or, in my case, getting published. I have tasted the success of having a short story published, so this metric excites me far more than income right now.
I have a couple of goals that are open-ended and related to learning. I have set up a self-guided education plan with a variety of learning methods represented, like field trips (yes, grown ups go on field trips, too), nonfiction books, historical fiction books, and online courses. These goals overlap a lot with my goal to travel Europe.
I have a total of eight goals this year. Some of my goals may seem vague and immeasurable. Regardless of whether you create daily tick boxes in a bullet journal or buy an expensive planner system or just carry around a discount-store wire notebook, the key is to keep checking in on your goals, making sure they’re still applicable, and continuing to take actions to achieve them. As long as you are doing this, your planning will advance you toward your goals and dreams. Goal setting isn’t passive, and goal achieving is even less so.
In conclusion, I’m a nerd
Did I totally just nerd-out about planning and goal setting? Yes, yes I did. I’ve always loved planners and planning and goal setting, but I’ve actually been making real progress these last few years, so my enthusiasm has grown exponentially.
Over the years, I've tried many tools and bits and bobs to make planning more fun and personal. But the bottom line is I know for a fact that the work I’m doing here will produce results, and quickly, in some cases. There’s nothing more motivating in goal work than seeing the fruits of your labor.
Stickers don’t hurt, though.
Happy planning!
