When it comes to goal planning I have always been a huge fan of it. January starts drawing near and it’s time to start planning for the new year and setting up awesome goals.
And I think that’s what most people think of when they think of goal planning. You start at the beginning of the year and you hope that in the next 12 months you achieve them. But how often do these ambitious goals get left behind after several months have passed? Life starts to happen and goals get left behind.
I believe a lot of us have placed goal planning in a box. It wasn’t until I read The 12 Week Year that my goal box was shattered. In short, the concept is to create goals with a timeline or shelf life of only three months (90 days or 12 weeks). So, the idea of having 12 months to achieve something is thrown out the window.
That almost sounds scary but it’s not it’s actually empowering. Let me tell you why!
When we create or shorter shelf life for our goal it creates a level of urgency. It’s easy to slack off when you’re like, “Well, I got 12 months to achieve that. I really don’t need to do something today for that goal. So, we move our daily and weekly tasks to later on thinking we have all this time.
You can’t really do that when you only have three months to get something done. Your deadline has shortened tremendously and every day counts. You really can’t afford to slack off.
You could be thinking, but my goal can’t be achieved in only 3 months. It’s too big! First off I commend you on dreaming BIG! The thing is that even big goals can be used with this system. You can easily take a large goal and break it down into smaller goals to achieve in 3-month spans. Below is a small chart that I have made to show you how you can break up your year and use this system:
As you can see in the chart above you can easily take a big goal like writing a book and break it down into 3, 3-month plans. This helps you stay focus on the tasks you need to accomplish in the designated time frame.
And another great thing about this system is that doing it every 3 months doesn’t mean you have to stay within a year you can make a goal that needs to be achieved in a year and a half or only in 6 months. You are no longer stuck in a timeline box of January-December. You can start and stop whenever. You stay in control of the timeline.
Since this goal planning creates a sense urgency and is within a short timeline you have the ability to actually achieve more than with your standard one-year goal plan. That was a huge deal for me. I tend to get caught up in the idea of a new year and feel stuck midyear when things are not moving forward. Breaking that mindset of needing a clean slate to start something has truly been empowering.
This is why I created a 3-month goal planning worksheet. I really want to help others break that 1-year goal planning mentality and start achieving what they desire at any time in the year. Now, just to clarify I don’t think 1-year goal plans are bad. I will still use them on some level, but this method here helps me tremendously when I am stuck.
So, if this sounds like something you want to try then encourage you grab your copy below. Just lick the link! Also, if you want to go deeper into this method of goal planning grab a copy of The 12 Week Year by Brain Moran here!
3 Month Goal Planning Printable
If go planning is hard for you but you feel a desire to grow and achieve more. I highly recommend checking out my goal setting wheel. You can learn more about it on my post: THIS YEAR CRUSH YOUR GOALS: TIPS & TRICKS
You can sign up one time and have access to both printables!
God has good plans for you, friend. Take a step of faith and make some goals. Please leave me a comment below and share your thoughts about gold planning and productivity!
Melissa is a passionate minister, speaker and an ongoing learner of the Bible. She has been involved in church and vocational ministry for over 18 years. And is the founder of Think About Such Things. She has the heart to equip the saints by helping them get into the Word of God and fall more in love with Jesus. She also enjoys family, cooking, and reading.
She has spoken in churches in California, Oregon, Texas, and Mexico and has been featured in Guidepost Magazine and All Recipes Magazine. Read More…