How to write out a 5 year plan
Five year plans always tend to sound like a big thing that everybody should have. Itβs not that you need it, but it can definitely be helpful in reaching your goals faster. I case you have an afternoon to be deep in thoughts, here is how to write out a 5 year plan.
Life Goals
The first thing you need is an end goal or life goals to work towards. That can be a certain income per year, it can be as simple as writing a book, but it can also be a super big and expensive endeavour like a certain path of education or business. Itβs doesnβt have to follow societyβs ideas of what should be a life goal. Anything you want to achieve that takes more than 5-10 years is a life goal. If you need a guide for all of this I recommend my latest workbook HERE.
5 year plan
Big surprise, the next part of a βHow to write out a 5 year planβ post is, indeed, your five year goals. What big steps can you take within 5 years to get closer to your life goals. Write as much as you need to. This can go from saving for a house, over finishing med school, to getting investors for a business idea that you have. 5 years is a long time, but a time that is full of opportunities for you.
2 year plan
Now we can narrow down what you will be able to do in the next two years. Donβt overestimate it. My rule of thumb would be that you can only do 2-3 things when you wrote down 5. Unless you are a champion of time management and not procrastinating. Then go ahead and write down all of those things you will be doing in the next two years. That could be things like outlining a book idea or getting your debt paid off by making some sacrifices.
1 year plan
Now, what will you be able to do this year? The next 12 months are filled with possibilities. Iβd suggest writing down 12 steps you can take to the next big goal. One each month with the baby steps to the smaller goal planned throughout the month. If you plan correctly and not too much life comes in between you and those plans, you might even work ahead of yourself. Maybe you plan out your book protagonist one month, the scenery in month two but get done the learning for how to write emotions and fight scenes better in one instead of two months.
Quarterly plan
Now we are getting down to business. What can you do in the next 3 months to make your life better and get closer to your goal? Planning in quarters helps a lot with always having one main focus for the 3 months ahead, so you donβt get confused too much with other semi-important things that also need to get done. You can put those as side goals for the quarter but still focus on the tasks you need to get done to get to the main objective of the quarter.
Monthly plan
What big thing can you do this month to get closer to the one year goal? Which steps do you need to take towards it? How much time will those tasks need? Plan in your tasks over the next 4 weeks and make your calendar flexible enough to have a few days that could be for emergencies, sick days or simply a self care day. Sometimes our battery runs out on a random day and we need to spend time in our bed. Nothing wrong with that when you plan ahead with that in mind.
Weekly Review
My favorite things to talk about in the last months. This will be the system that keeps you on track. Set aside one day a week and review your week in about an hour. Go through what you got done, where you can improve and where you improved on your goals. I have an entire cheat sheet with all the questions I ask myself for my weekly review in my freebie library. Sign up for my newsletter for free to download that sheet and make your life a bit easier from here on out.
This was my post on how to write out a 5 year plan. The way I do it. Of course, there are different way to go about it based on if it is a business goal, a personal goal or a financial goal. At the end of the day it is in your hands how detailed you will make the plan and how you get there. You need to put in the time.
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How to write out a 5 year plan by Rabea
