The action planner is a clever tool to help you get into action. It takes some of the most recent research and distils it down to a simple but effective A4 sheet of paper. It helps you clarify your goals with practical actions and gives you a timeline to schedule when these actions will get done.
If you want to read our in-depth article on how to use the Next Few Steps Action Planner, then you might want to check it out here: How to crush your goals with action planning.
This blog post also has the free downloadable PDF template for you to use.
Our action planner is designed to help you once you have set your SMART goal. It combines a series of 5 simple steps to help you decide what actions to take and in what order. Here is a summary of how our Action Planner works.
Step 1: Brain Dump
We have all sorts of ideas floating around our heads and this can often take up valuable mental capacity. By getting down all the possible steps you need to take in a brain dump, you remove this obstacle to clear thinking as we are able to process it more easily when it is written down in black and white.
Step 2: Daily Habits
Taking the author James Clear’s idea from his hugely successful book, ‘Atomic Habits’, he suggests that rather than focusing on goals, we create habits. This daily habit is one that will, when actioned regularly, ensure you are always making progress towards your big goal. So whether you are writing, exercising, eating healthily or learning a new skill. Small daily habits are the system that you will use relentlessly to achieve your goals.
If you want some motivation for developing new habits, check out this TED Talk by Christine Carter on the 1 minute secret to developing new habits.
Step 3: The 4 Levels of Commitment
Some days are hectic and we find we hardly have a moment to ourselves. Other days seem to open up and allow us a great deal of latitude to work on our goals. By writing down 4 different levels of commitment, you know that you will always be able to make at least some progress every day. Level 1 is the minimum effective dose (M.E.D -the smallest single task you can think of to move you closer to achieving a goal. Level 2 is the amount you can get done on a busy day. Level 3 can be used on a day when you have more time to devote to your goals and Level 4 is a day when you smash your progress out of the park.
By having these 4 levels of commitment, you can ensure that, no matter how busy you get, you achieve at ;east the first level of progress. It is also designed to trick your mind into doing more. If your Level 1 (M.E.D.) is to write just one single word for your dissertation, you may find that you end up writing a paragraph, rather than just a word. Hey, every word counts!
Step 4 Setting Priorities.
Even if you perform your daily habit religiously, never missing a single session, you will only get you so far. There are always other tasks to complete that are not covered by the daily habit. Research, word processing, editing, creating a bibliography, proof-reading etc. These are all extra tasks needed to be carried out to get your dissertation completed by the deadline that you won’t get done by just focusing on your daily habit.
So here, you look through your brain dump of other ideas and prioritise them in any way you think suitable. Ordering them from 1-7 allows you to see which jobs you need to tackle first and which can be left until later.
Step 5: Create a Timeline.
Finally, you can create a timeline that works for you (1 week, a fortnight, a month?) and decide when you can schedule these extra tasks to be as productive as possible.
So you have got your action planner in front of you and you know your goal. However, you are new to this process of action planning, so here’s a little bit more guidance.
When you have read the action planning article, it might be useful to have some examples from different areas of our lives as a kick-starter when we are wracked with indecision or find it difficult to get into action.
Action Planner A: A goal to lose weight
Action Planner B: A goal to write a draft of a book
Action Planner C: A goal to start a blog
Action Planner D: A savings goal.
Each one of these examples shows you possible steps you might take to reach your goal (brain dump), possible daily habits and the 4 levels of commitment associated with them, the other tasks, prioritised and scheduled in the timeline.
This should give you more idea of how to approach the task if you are struggling to fill in the Action Planner for each of your specific goals.
Conclusion
Many people start off with good intentions to learn a musical instrument, start a business or learn a language. However, just like the ubiquitous New Year’s Resolution, many of the goals fall by the wayside midway through January. The reason? There was no plan. Nothing was scheduled. It was simply a crap-shoot. Some days you might get lots done, but as January trundles on, we lose motivation. One missed day becomes 2, Then a week. Finally, you get to Valentine’s Day and the goal you ambitiously set for yourself at the start of the year is just a memory that picks away at your sense of pride. Don’t let this happen to you!
Use the Action Planner to inspire you to small, daily wins and achieve whatever goals you set for yourself!
The ideas in this post may just help if you are looking for more inspiration about how to craft your actions to knock any goal out of the park.
If you have any comments about the Action Planner or how you crush your goals, please feel free to share them with me in the comments section below.