Have you been following my goal setting series? If you have, then you know it’s time for the really exciting part: developing your own, personal goal action plan. {If you haven’t, part 1 and part 2 of this series are just a click away! Don’t forget to grab a copy of my workbook to help you track your progress.}

 

Okay Fanette, but what is a goal action plan, exactly?

 

I thought you’d never ask! A goal action plan is a personalized roadmap to success. It’s a step-by-step method you will create that is tailored to your goals and the way you work. You’ll take into consideration both long-term and short-term goals, and you’ll set specific milestones and tasks along the way to hold yourself accountable. I’m just here to show you the “how”.

 

Why should I develop an action plan?

 

An action plan is a way to break up your goals into actionable tasks. It allows you to take the big, overwhelming goal and to divide it into quarterly or monthly to-dos.

 

Besides the fact that it helps with the overwhelm, creating a goal action plan is a great way to keep track of your progress. By breaking up your goals into time sensitive tasks, you are more likely to get more done, as ell as keep track on your progress.

 

How does a goal action plan work?

 

We start with 1 year goals. It’s just easier to think of goals in terms of years. For one thing, you have all that time to break it down into manageable tasks. For another, you probably already have a habit of reflecting on the past 12 months and planning for the upcoming ones at the end of each year, even if you haven’t been doing it on purpose. Although December and January aren’t the only months you can implement this method, they’re a great way to bookend those yearly goals.

 

Once I have my 1 year goals, I like to look at my quarterly goals. There are 2 ways to go about this. First, you can assign one goal per quarter. Or, if there are bigger goals, I break them down into smaller parts for each quarter.

 

For example, one of my goals for 2019 was to publish an ebook. Because it’s a pretty big goal, I divided it up to make it less overwhelming:

 

1. Find a topic. – I looked for a subject that would interest my followers and help them develop their businesses.
2. Research. – Once I had my topic, I did the research, gathered information, and put together an outline.
3. Write, write, write! – Finally, I actually wrote the content and created the graphics.
4. Polish and Promote. – Then it was time to proofread, design the actual ebook, and develop a marketing campaign.

 

I even broke down the quarterly goals into monthly goals. For example, step 3 looked something like this:

 

• Month 1 – Write the intro and chapter 1.
• Month 2 – Write chapters 2 and 3.
• Month 3 – Write chapter 4 and the conclusion.

 

Do you see how doable each of those steps seems? When you look at your goal like it’s a wall, it’s hard to imagine how you’ll get to the top. When when you look at it like a staircase, you have a concrete plan for getting there.

 

How can I make sure I stick with my goals?

 

Start by getting even more granular about it. Add goal-oriented tasks for every week that will help you get closer to your monthly goal.

 

Let’s say my goal is to to bring 50% of my goal revenue from food photography work this year. My monthly goal could be to reach out to 5 brands I want to work with. To make it actionable and to make sure I don’t lose focus of my goals, I actually schedule them into the next few weeks:

 

Week 1

 

Find 5 brands I want to reach out to.

 

Week 2

 

Look for the right point of contact for each brand and find out the best way to get in touch.

 

Week 3

 

Research each brand to figure out useful information about them (such as values, mission, and/or recent campaigns).

 

Week 4

 

Reach out using the information I uncovered in the previous weeks, perhaps via a personalized email that includes some of the information I found about the company.

 

 

How I keep track of goals:

 

When you’re going into such minute detail, it’s important to record your goal action plan. Personally, I love using Trello for this. I use a board that details all my yearly, quarterly and monthly goals, then I schedule the monthly and weekly tasks using Sunsama. This creates a detailed but flexible workflow that I can easily access anywhere I go with the Trello app.

Want to see what my goal action board looks like? Better yet, want to customize for your own use and get the most out of this goal setting series? Get my free Goal Action Plan Trello board and workbook. And of course, subscribe to my email list to always have my latest freebies sent straight to your inbox!