When you are ready or need to.
I know that seems like the most flippant answer in the world, but it is very true.
The normal; calendar year has markers that seem to indicate that NOW is the right time to plan your Strategic Life Map or strategy (if a Corporate)
Personally, I plan my Strategic Life Map for the next 12 months and beyond in November. I have found with Christmas and my birthday in early January, if I do not have my plan sorted, it is like around Feb/March before I really start. I have learnt over the last 7 years of creating my Strategic Life Map, that it is the best time for me.
The other Gregorian calendar markers:
Brand Spanking New Year
Each Quarter
Beginning or end of each Month
But you can literally start on a Weds in the middle of May.
For my Corporate clients the best time to plan could be….
When you have your full team on board or new team members
With an acquisition or merger
Post a crisis or to plan a change in direction.
Planning myth busters
THE WORLD IS CHANGING SO FAST, SO NO POINT PLANNING
Ok, this one I find a little odd (raise the one eyebrow odd), because it is a plan, not a tattoo. You can change your mind, if this is not what you want to do once you have more information. Literally a plan, not concrete and can change.
Once you have clarity about what you are doing, it’s much easier to rally troops, and assistance if you know what you are focusing on. If you are really worried that you will get stuck on a plan, that is not working. Set some time to review, whether it is working or not 1 month in.
ARGH, THEN I HAVE TO UPDATE PROJECT PLAN/SPREADSHEET
If you want to sure, and some plans do require much more focus and detail to track progress. But your plan does not need to be especially detailed. It can have a focus per quarter or month. It can even have a for the next month I am going to do X and then evaluate what to do next – stage gate it, simple.
My Strategic Life Map is a drawing I create of my focus areas, a mindmap and then 12 boxes drawn with where my focus will be over the year.
WHAT YOU MISS OUT ON BY NOT PLANNING
Have you ever looked a purchasing something and then you see if it everywhere? Think before the internet seemed to track your eyeballs and thoughts and represented you with advertising. Think of the example of looking at buying a new car and all of a sudden you see them everywhere.
This is called Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon or Frequency Illusion or Bias, the same thing happens when you create a plan. You have said to your brain, this is where I am focusing and low and behold you start to see all these opportunities that you did not see before, like magic.
I find planning calming for when I feel overwhelmed by what is coming up or what I want to get done. By visually displaying it, it is much easier for me to make decisions and what I can and more importantly cannot fit in. I have precious little time (like we all do) and I want to make sure that time is focused on what I want out of this glorious life.
I hope I have convinced you that planning is a helpful thing to have in your life and that having your own Strategic Life Map or Strategic Plan is a worthwhile exercise.
Come along to my next Design Your Life on Purpose program to get your very own Strategic Life Map.
Yours Collaboratively
CMM
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