How to Plan Your Next Quarter Effectively | ProductiveandFree

As a business owner, you most likely have big goals for yourself and your aim is to make significant progress on those goals.

Maybe you’ve set revenue goals for the entire year.

Maybe you’re looking to grow your team.

Maybe you’re planning to add more services or products to your offerings.

But now that April is around the corner, do you find yourself losing sight of your goals?

Perhaps you’re too busy with tasks that you no longer feel aligned with what you really want.

Or maybe you’re too caught up with #allthethings that you wonder why you’re doing them in the first place.

Whatever your reason, know that it’s perfectly normal during this time of the year.

If you’ve set big, annual goals back in January, you’re not alone if you feel like you’ve been losing momentum recently.

One solution we recommend is to break up those annual goals into quarterly goals.

Setting quarterly goals gives you a reasonable amount of time to stay motivated and make significant progress.

It’s also not too short that you’d feel too boxed in or too pressured to take action.

You get to take a step back and assess what’s going on.

You get to adjust and re-allocate your time, energy, and other resources.

You’ll be able to check in with your annual goals at least 3 more times during the year, see if you’re still aligned with those goals, and determine if you’re on the right track.

So before we welcome Q2, we encourage you to take this opportunity to:

Celebrate your wins from the previous quarter (both big and small achievements)
Learn from the past (so you don’t repeat mistakes and you can build on what works)
Aim for continuous improvement (the sustainable way to set goals and make plans)
Increase your accountability (so you can follow through with your plans and actually accomplish those goals!)

Here’s how to effectively plan your next quarter in four steps.

1. What went well?

The first step is to ask yourself what actually went well during the previous quarter.

Make a list of the good, great, or amazing things that happened by answering the following questions:

What did you accomplish?
What did you improve on?
What can you be proud of?
What big and small wins can you celebrate?
What positive things did you experience that you weren’t able to before?

By identifying all of the highlights from the previous quarter, you’re acknowledging the actions you’ve taken that brought you all the results you care about and can be proud of.

Doing this will help motivate you to repeat the same actions or build on them to achieve even better outcomes in the future.

Think about it. You won’t need to start from scratch because you already know what works!

2. What didn’t go so well?

The second step is to ask yourself what didn’t go so well.

I know this might be difficult for some people to hear but the goal here is to acknowledge our mistakes and learn from what’s not working.

What were your mistakes?
Where did you miss the mark?
What areas need improvement?
What did you waste too much time and energy doing?
What lessons can you take away from the previous quarter?

Take note that it doesn’t have to be a negative action that you did yourself.

You can acknowledge the things, events, or people that didn’t add value to your life so that you can avoid them, address them, or manage them better in the future.

3. What should you work on next?

At this point, you have an idea of what worked for you and what didn't so you can now plan out the steps you can take in the next quarter.

You’re more equipped to make informed decisions and answer the following questions:

What does your ideal day or week look like?
How do you want to feel every day?
What do you want more of and less of in your life?
What S.M.A.R.T. goals can you set for yourself in the next 90 days?
What are 3 things you should prioritize to accomplish by the end of the next quarter?

Take note that these are more for personal goals but if you’re a business owner, you can include more concrete targets for you and your team at this point.

Come up with goals based on your business’ past performance and what direction you want to take your business.

Then make a list of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) so you can measure your progress.

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4. How can you be accountable?

The final step to plan your next quarter is to ask yourself how can you be more accountable.

Setting goals sure is helpful but without any execution, this would all be a waste of time.

Here are some ways to increase your accountability.

Use a planner.
Assign rewards and/or consequences.
Think of possible obstacles and come up with solutions.
Share your goals with a friend or group of people and check in with them regularly.
Hire a coach.

Don’t forget that life can get in the way and it’s normal to lose motivation at some point during the next 90 days.

But what you can do is to be proactive right now and come up with ways for you to actually stick to your plan and hold yourself accountable to reach your goals.

Over to You

If you’ve set big, annual goals way back in January, know that it’s normal to lose momentum around March-April. What you can do is break them up into quarterly goals so you can stay aligned and motivated throughout the year. Ask yourself what went well, what didn’t go so well, what you should work on next, and how you can be more accountable.