I’m currently in Tahiti for a vacation with my family. Right now, we’re staying on a small, remote, and stunning island called Taha’a.
Yesterday, we spent a whole day on the boat, just cruising over the lovely reef. And this morning, I jumped into the water and swam with a big moray eel. It was unbelievable!
Now, why am I talking about this?
It’s because our vacation inspired me to talk about planning.
Bonjour, this is Cyril from Work Smarter: Live Better. In this video, I want to make two simple suggestions about planning that’ll make an impact on your life.
When I work with leaders, we often talk about their business calendars. After all, it’s a must for them to take time to plan for their big business events for the year.
Now, during the planning stage, they tell me that they ask themselves questions like:
“What will my year look like?”
“What are my goals for the year?”
“What will my yearly calendar look like?”
Then, they list all the events that they’ll be doing and slot them into their calendars.
It’s a great process, right?
And then, I ask them this:
“Do you do the same for your personal life? Do you organise a yearly calendar of your personal life?”
Most of them say, “Not really.”
Why? Why do we spend so much time and energy planning our business life and so little planning our personal life?
Here’s what I do:
At the start of the year, I download a yearly calendar in Excel format.
I chose this format because I can see the whole year on one page. Then, I can see smaller blocks representing the months. And I can also see smaller squares representing the days.
That way, it becomes easy for me to get an overall view of what my year, month, and day look like.
Now, here are my two simple suggestions for planning your year:
#1. Identify your important dates
To fill out my yearly calendar, I block out all the important dates first – like our kids’ school holidays and any family events we have.
And if already possible, block out the important dates involving your business as well.
#2. Identify the big things or events you want to do for the year
This is something that my wife, TK, and I also do to start the year. We sit down and discuss the things we want to do for the year – the high-level ones or big events.
What we did earlier this year is talk about going on a family vacation. We said in January, “Well, around September or October, it will be really amazing to go to French Polynesia.”
And here we are. Enjoying our family in French Polynesia.
To be clear, planning is never 100% perfect. But with planning, you’ll get an overview of what your year will be like. That way, you can ensure that you’ll accomplish all the big events you’ve planned for the year – both in your business and in your personal life.
And it’s a bit like a wedding. Once you’ve got the date and location, you start putting things into traction, right?
But it all started with this – mapping your calendar.
So, this is this week’s Work Smarter: Live Better tip:
When planning your year, don’t forget to plan for your personal life.
Include the time for your holidays, like vacations with your loved ones. It’s so worth it.
If TK and I hadn’t dreamt of Tahiti at the start of this year, we wouldn’t be here today.
You have a lovely day. Take care.
A bientôt,
Cyril
