Each year on the US Thanksgiving holiday I take a day out to plan for the coming year.

I’m based in the UK, and I don’t celebrate the holiday, but most of my clients are US based so it’s a very quiet day and the ideal opportunity to plan 2018.

A lot of you may be getting into planning mode for next year so I thought I would share my process.

The Run Up To Thanksgiving

At the start of November, I begin to get excited about my planning day, it’s something I really look forward to for some bizarre reason.

I start scribbling lots of notes about how I would like next year to be, and throw them into a folder, this is a kind of planning brain dump which I will read through and use to set my plan.  As I go into my planning session I have a rough idea of how 2018 will look, the planning day will set that in concrete with a formal plan and actionable items will come from that.

This pre-planning phase takes place over a couple of weeks in November. I have a stack of notes about 50 pages high with ideas.

Some hints, a re-brand is in the planning, I’m looking into the way I do my quotes and my blogging next year will have a new theme.

Business & Personal Planning

My planning day is not just about how I want to see my business in 2018 but also personal goals.

I’ll not talk much about my personal goals in these posts because, erm, they are personal, but I’ll share my business plans on my next blog post.

The tools I use for my planning session are pretty basic, a pad of A4 paper, pens and coloured pencils and Evernote to write up my formal plan.  Nothing fancy.

Re-read my 2016 / 2017 Diaries

On the morning of my planning day, I skim over my late 2016 & 2017 diary to date over breakfast, to see what went well, and what went wrong during the past year.  I’ll look at the work I’m doing and issues I have had.

I re-read my previous years planning from the same process to see how on target I am (erm did you see any info prods from me this year? I’m not on target for that part of my previous plan).

Get Out Of The Office

This is a hugely important part of the process, I get out of my home office and do the planning offsite.

The change of scenery makes the process like a holiday for me, almost a day off from client work.

I don’t answer any emails on my planning day.  I don’t do any client work other than to ensure my ongoing maintenance clients are all okay and their updates were done and backups have worked and nothing has crashed.

I have two locations for my planning day, the first is a coffee shop within walking distance of my home and the other is my local pub, where I have lunch, and a celebratory pint once I’m done planning, it’s thirsty work after all.

Being in a new location really does create a divide between the planning process and normal day to day client activities, so I heartily recommend getting out of your normal working environment to do this process.

Morning Routine

My morning routine starts at the coffee shop or rather two coffee shops.  It’s not very glamorous, but the nearest coffee place is in Washington motorway services.  So I have a coffee shop on the northbound side and another on the southbound side.  I’ll spend a couple of hours in each shop.  I do my business planning on one side of the motorway (freeway for my US chums) and personal planning on the other.

For the history buffs Washington is the family home of the famous George Washington, here’s a picture of his ancestral home.

What Went Well & Wrong in The Last Year

This is the first part of my day, I do a retrospective on what worked and what failed last year.  I make notes on doing more of the stuff that went well and creating controls on how to stop messing up again next year.

If you are not making mistakes you are not trying new things, so I don’t beat myself up on mistakes, I learn from them.

It’s also a chance to look at things that went well but I’m not that keen on doing any more.

Business Planning

Next, I move onto how my business will look next year.  Next year’s focus is how my business can serve me, not creating some mythical business from an e-book with someones else’s vision of a great business.

I look at major projects I want to start, hint I want to write a book.

I look at changes in how my business works, my marketing, the services I deliver and how they are delivered and my µAgency to deliver those services.

I set income goals and other targets.

I look at how to automate and streamline my business.  I think about any new tools I need.

I look at any legislative changes required.

Personal

The second part of the morning is all about my personal goals for next year.

I like to do both these planning sessions at the same time so my business can facilitate the lifestyle I want, not be an all-consuming thing with a personal life stuffed in at the end of the day.

Lunch & Afternoon

As lunchtime approaches, I take the mile or so walk from the coffee shops up to my local pub the Mill House.  This again is part of my routine, I can mull on my plan created in the morning during the 30 or so minute walk to my lunch destination.  Does it sit well with me and will it serve me well during the next year?

The walking/thinking/meditative state really helps to make my mind up about the plan I created in the morning.  I get to think it through and see any problems.

For the history buffs, the Mill house started life as a water-powered grain mill in the 18th century, became an Inn in the late nineteenth century.  It’s reputedly haunted and it is my local pub, I love it.

The Action Plan

The afternoon is spent creating an actionable plan to implement what I have planned on paper during the morning session.

I document this in Evernote.  I set deliverables timescales and targets.

Targets

I like to create a series of targets from my planning so I can judge how well I performed against my plan, some are hard targets such as a £income goal, others are soft targets such as how I want my business to look and service me, here are some of my planned targets.

• Income goal
• Maintenance clients signed up
• Team size and formation
• Take time off an maintain income level
• Sabbatical next summer

Not To Do List

This is a new thing for me for 2018, I’m also creating a not to do list, things I have done by habit over the years and need to stop doing.

Things like impulsively buying domain names for projects I might, and usually do not, end up starting is definitely going on the not to so list,  wpzaps.com for example?

2018 Theme

I like to boil everything down into a yearly theme.  This year is all about reducing stress so working in wpdude (or whatever it will be called next year ????) is a pleasurable thing for me.

Congratutorial Pint

It would be rude not to have a pint or two of beer after all that thirsty work planning my year, now the hard work begins to implement my plan. The Deuchars IPA is especially fine at the Mill House.

Wrap Up – Thanksgiving Business Planning

Happy Thanksgiving to my US readers, I’m thankful you have given your most precious and finite resource; your time, to reading this post from across the pond.

I hope you have enjoyed the rich history lessons from my part of the world :).

I’ll update you on my plans in my next blog post.