How to Plan Your Life?

For the past six years, I have been working with a plan that organizes days, months, and years. In this article, I am going to talk about how I do that and what impact it has on my personal and professional lives.

Note: This article is from blogger Darius Foroux, who talks about how he plans his life and the benefits of this practice.

I was inspired to make long-term plans by entrepreneur Jim Rohn, who discusses this in his renowned seminar "How to Take Control of Your Life." Even though he delivered it 30 years ago, his advice is still more relevant today than ever.

There are so many opportunities and things that catch our attention that we might become confused and unable to make decisions. The majority of us live without a defined purpose, but by making plans, you can avoid wasting time and being aimless.

Personally, I have five main reasons why I plan for the days, months, and years ahead:

1. Clarity: I put things off, waste time, and get upset when I do not know what to do.
2. Save time: I am more productive when I plan my tasks ahead of time.
3. Fostering Creativity: Planning helps me do more creative things in my life, and it also helps me come up with creative solutions to the challenges I face.
4. Momentum: I rarely feel helpless because planning gives me the motivation to take action.
5. Deep Thinking: Planning forces you to carefully consider what you want to do and how you will do it, which enhances your ability to think critically.

Before describing the process, I would like to make one important point about planning: you can set goals and plan your life, but you cannot control the outcomes. Planning is actually more about starting than it is about controlling what happens.

I advise making a 5-year, 1-year, monthly, and daily plan in order to successfully plan your life and make sure you carry it out.

How to Create a 5-Year Plan?

Even if you have not yet precisely defined your goals, you must begin to consider the distant future. I will go over the five-year plan I made in 2015, before starting my blog and online career, to explain the procedure.

The plan is nothing more than a list of goals that you want to fulfill and the steps you will take to get there. Like most people who are setting goals for the first time, I began by choosing an overarching goal, which is to earn a lot of money.

I no longer set goals for things I cannot control, but doing so helped me change my perspective at the time, so it was beneficial to do so. If you want to make a lot of money, you have to be an entrepreneur, not an employee.

Simply put some major goals you want to concentrate on on paper to create your five-year plan. Your life's destination might not be obvious if you are unsure of your five-year plan or feel that your goals are unclear. That is alright; what matters is that you are aware of it now and are able to change for the better.

This is why I urge people to keep diaries because writing is a form of self-expression, and doing so helps you become better at expressing yourself and your desires. As a result, you can ultimately decide what kind of career you want for yourself, and I always advise readers to improve their writing abilities. Your thought process gets better the better writer you become.

Not to mention, to make more money, I wanted to live somewhere warm and have some employees. Note that my five-year plan was not very specific; for instance, there are a lot of options for that warm place, so I like to be adaptable because it is the most practical way to live.

I have not reached all of the goals I set for myself five years ago, but that is okay because I had a plan that led me in the right direction. I am now financially independent; I have two people working for me, and even though I do not currently live in a warm place, I am likely going to take this step soon.

How to Create a 1-Year Plan?

You might be surprised by the need to go from a 5-year plan to a 1-year plan right away, but making a plan for the upcoming 2, 3, or 4 years just does not seem necessary to me. The five-year plan's goal is to help you make your decision, and the one-year plan's goal is to help you progress in that direction.

Setting realistic and practical goals is always important. Creating a plan for a year forces you to evaluate whether your goals are achievable in that time frame. Consider the scenario where your annual goal is to quit your job and become an entrepreneur.

When we make plans, we have many goals in mind. For instance, you might want to create a website, hire some people, offer goods and services, and do other things.  But since it is unlikely that you will be able to accomplish all of that in a year, you should choose what to prioritize first. So consider what you need to accomplish this year to move a little closer to completing your five-year plan.

The biggest mistake I observe ambitious people making is overestimating what they can accomplish in a year. Always remember that taking small, steady steps forward is the key to progress. If you stick with it, you will be surprised at how much you can accomplish in five years.

How to Create a Monthly Plan?

Next, I started breaking down the goals into monthly actions. I began by writing a book, followed by creating a website, and so on. This entails deciding on something each month that you will concentrate on, something that will move you closer to realizing your goals for that year. At this point, it is all about work. Later on, you will see the advantage of organizing your goals' steps in this manner.

I prefer to concentrate on just one thing in every aspect of my life. Let's take the example of wanting to build a website this month. Clearly describe each action you must take in order to finish the project.

So far, I have been using the note app Evernote simply to write down my goals and to-dos in bulleted list form. I do not like apps that are heavy on visuals and aesthetically pleasing; a simple list will suffice.

However, I prefer to use Trello to manage my projects when it comes to my monthly plan. I use their boards and lists to outline everything I need to do; for instance, a website might have lists for the technical process, content creation, and design.

I will not go into details because everyone has a different way of thinking, and it is up to you to create a plan to reach your goal. All you need to do is ask yourself, What steps do I need to take to do that? Therefore, you must be certain of what needs to be done.

How to Create a Daily Plan?

Once you have identified all the steps you need to take that month, simply choose 3–4 actions that you will concentrate on each day. Every night, I usually spend a few minutes planning out my day for the following day, reviewing my monthly to-do list, and selecting the tasks that are most crucial to complete tomorrow.

I work on the important tasks first, then I work on the things I enjoy and find exciting. I take the same approach when I write. I go through a long list of article ideas and pick the one I feel like writing. It is much simpler to carry out a task when you are passionate about it.

The majority of us have already spent our entire lives doing things we detest, and let's face it, we still have to do things we detest on a regular basis. However, when it comes to working, try a different approach and focus on a task you truly enjoy. To do this, you will need a plan, so try this strategy.

In Conclusion

Avoid making a life plan, carrying it out, and strictly adhering to it. Your daily, monthly, and annual plans should be regularly reviewed and re-evaluated. If you notice that your plan is not producing any results, do not stick with it; instead, change it until it does.

We will not grow unless we reflect on the past and criticize ourselves. In the end, growing is the only real purpose of making a plan. Even if you don't accomplish everything you set out to do, you will still be better off than if you hadn't made any plans in the first place.