“Know how to choose. Most things in life depend on it.
You need good taste and an upright judgement; intelligence and application are
not enough. There is no perfection without discernment and selection.”
Baltasar
Gracian, philosopher and aphorist
To achieve what you want in
life, you generally need to do three things:
1. Identify what you really want. (Not what others want or
what you think you should want.)
2.
Decide what’s
most important, so you can start working on it.
3. Act to make progress on your most important priorities.
Creating a “Personal
Masterplan” is the best way I’ve found to stop dreaming about what you want and
start making progress.
What Is A
Personal Masterplan?
A “Personal Masterplan” is
a short planning document that captures what you want to achieve most within
the next three years, then systematically breaks down those goals into the most
important actions you need to take this week in order to
achieve them.
Once you’ve created your
Masterplan, planning your day is a simple matter of choosing 2-3 things to
accomplish today from your weekly list (your Most Important Tasks), then doing them before you do anything else that day. Why the
three-year time horizon? Simple: it’s short enough to be able to visualize
clearly, but long enough for you to be able to make drastic changes and
accomplish major goals. It’s a good rough estimate for the “foreseeable future,”
which makes it useful for this type of planning exercise. Writing down your
goals and having a clear plan of action is critical if you want to make the
best use of your finite time and energy. This process is the most effective
means I’ve found to identify what I really want and focus on what really
matters. After creating your Masterplan, you’ll be amazed at how clearly you’ll
be able to visualize what you want to achieve and what you need to do right now
to move forward.
Phase #1:
Dreaming on Paper
First, you’ll need to spend
some time thinking of all of the things you’d like to accomplish. The best way
to do that is to write down everythingyou think you’d ever (even
remotely) like to do, without editing or censoring yourself in any way.
It’s easier to prune your
list of active projects than to feel vaguely uncertain if you’ve captured
everything, so err on the side of completeness.
Also err on the side of
being completely honest with yourself about what you want: if your lists
contain things you’d be embarrassed about if someone else reads it, you can
always destroy your notes when you’re done.
1.1: Gather
Materials
For this exercise, you’ll
need at least 5 sheets of paper, your favorite writing instrument, and at least
an hour of uninterrupted personal time. (Depending on how deep you go in this
process, it can take longer: 2-3 hours is typical. It’s a great process to go
through over the course of a long lunch break or similar block of time alone.)
Label each piece of paper
paper as follows:
· Health
/ Fitness
· Relationships
· Skills
/ Personal Growth
· Wealth
/ Career
· Enjoyment
Resist the temptation to do
this on your computer: there’s too much potential for distraction, and writing
longhand will help you think in a more relaxed way.
1.2: Brain
Dump
Pick up one of the papers,
consider the topic area, and ask yourself the following question:
“What are all of the things
I might want to accomplish in this area within the next three years?”
Write down everything that
comes to mind - avoid self-editing as much as possible. Think and write as fast
as you can, and fill all five pieces of paper with as many ideas as you can
muster.
1.3: Apply
the “Five-Fold Why”
Once you’re done, go back
and read over one of your lists. Look at each desire you’ve recorded and ask
yourself:
“Why do I really want
this?”
When you think of an
answer, ask yourself the question again. You should ask yourself this question
at least five times or until you absolutely can’t come up with another answer.
(That usually comes in the form of a reply like “because I want to.”)
When you’ve reached this
point, ask yourself:
“Is the original wording of
this goal the best way to capture the essence of what I actually want?”
The point of this step is
to help you question your assumptions and focus on the true intent of each of
your goals instead of getting caught up in arbitrary specifics or social
conditioning.
For example, many people
have the goal of earning an arbitrary large sum of money. (Let’s say $10
million.) After asking themselves why, they often find that
it’s freedom or security they really want,
and they don’t need need $10 million to achieve their true objective, making
their desire attainable in a much shorter period of time. A better goal might
be to find a reliable way to earn enough income to meet their financial needs
using a minimum of time and energy, thereby giving themselves the freedom to
invest their time as they see fit. Once
you know the root of your desires, you can go about pursuing them in a more
effective manner.
1.4: Is it
Positive, Immediate, Concrete, and Specific? (PICS)
To ensure your goals are
well-formed and clear, ask yourself:
“Is this desire Positive,
Immediate, Concrete, and Specific?”
Positive is something you can pursue vs. something you want to avoid. “I
want to exercise every day” is positive. “I want to stop sitting on the couch
all day” is not.
Immediate is something that you can pursue now vs. something that might
happen in the future if other things happen first. “I want to land a lead role
in a movie” is immediate. “I want to become a famous actor” is not.
Concrete is something that can be defined in objective terms. “I want to
visit Russia this year” is concrete. “I want to travel the world” is not.
Specific is something that has defined parameters. “I want to earn at least
$8,000 each month” is specific. “I want to make a lot of money” is not.
Rewrite your desires in
Positive, Immediate, Concrete, and Specific language. If you can’t, discard
that desire for now by crossing it off.
1.5: Is it
Ambitious, Meaningful, and Exciting? (AME)
This step ensures you’re
stretching yourself and engaging your emotions appropriately in forming your
goals. Ask yourself:
“Is this goal Ambitious,
Meaningful, and Exciting?”
Most of us are far too
conservative when it comes to planning for the future. If your desire doesn’t
push your limits and give you a strong sense of anticipation, reword it until
it does.
Here’s an example of a
well-formed goal:
Within the next three
years, I want to write a book about {TOPIC} and sell 20,000 copies worldwide.
Phase #2:
Focusing Your Efforts
2.1: Pruning
Your Lists
As tempting as it is to try
to accomplish everything on your lists all at once, it’s far more productive to
consciously restrain yourself so that you can focus your time, energy, and
attention on just a few important things at a time.
When you divide your
efforts and attention across several projects, it’s difficult to achieve the
critical mass of thought and action necessary to accomplish what you set out to
achieve.
By temporarily eliminating
non-critical projects, you’re freeing yourself to focus on the small core of
projects that are most important to you right now, allowing you to accomplish
more with less effort.
The goal of this phase of
the Masterplanning process is to reduce your list of active goals to five:
1. One health / fitness goal
2.
One
relationship goal
3.
One skill
acquisition / personal growth goal
4.
One wealth /
career goal
5. One enjoyment goal
By focusing on these five
goals, you’ll enjoy the benefits of a productive, sustainable, and balanced
life.
2.2: Choosing
What’s Most Important
Pick up one of your lists
and ask yourself the following question:
“If I could only accomplish
half of these things in the next three years, which ones would I choose to
accomplish?”
Cross out the goals that
don’t make the cut.
2.3:
Recursive Elimination
Apply the same selection
process to your remaining goals:
“If I could only accomplish
half of these things in the next three years, which would I
choose?”
Again, cross out all of the
goals that don’t make the cut. Continue asking this question until you have one goal
remaining, hen move on to the next list.
2.4: Build
Your “Someday / Maybe” List
Don’t completely discard
the goals you decide aren’t important enough to focus on right now: they’re
still useful, since they represent things you’d like to do at some point in
your life. Place your items on a “Someday / Maybe” List so you can easily refer
to them at a later date. (For more on “Someday / Maybe” lists, read Getting Things Done by David Allen.)
2.5: Finalize
Your Most Important Goals
At the end of this phase,
you’ll have five goals you’ve identified as the accomplishment that will make
the largest positive difference in your life. These goals will form the basis
for the next phase in the process: creating an action plan that will help you
achieve them quickly.
2.6:
Self-Check - How Do You Feel?
After making these edits,
check your current emotional state - how do you feel? If you’re excited, happy,
and relaxed, you’re on the right track, and the goals you have are well-formed.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, depressed, anxious, or apathetic, re-examine
your choices before moving onto the next phase.
Phase #3:
What Can I Do Right Now?
Now that you’ve identified
your single most important goal in each of the five areas, it’s time to use
them to build an action plan you can use to decide what to spend time doing
right now. The process is simple: we’re going to break down your long-term goals
into manageable steps you can accomplish immediately.
3.1: Define
Objectives For This Year
For each of the five
objectives, create a single goal that expresses the most
important thing you can do to move yourself towards the accomplishment of the
three-year goal in the coming year.
Example
Three-Year Goal: “Within the next three
years, I want to create a cash-flow positive business that allows me to earn at
least $10,000 each month.”
Example
One-Year Goal: “I want to launch my
online waffle iron store and generate at least $3,000 in profit per month
before January 1 of the coming year.”
3.2: Define
Objectives For This Month
Once you know what you need
to accomplish this year, define what you need to accomplish this month to keep
you on track:
Example
One-Year Objective: “I want to
launch my online waffle iron store and generate at least $3,000 in profit per
month before January 1 of the coming year.”
Example
Monthly Objective: “I will
launch the new WaffleMaster 5000 via an online and direct marketing campaign by
the end of this month.”
3.3: Define
Objectives For This Week
Once you know what you need
to accomplish this month, define what you need to accomplish this week:
Example
Monthly Objectives: “ I will
launch the new WaffleMaster 5000 via an online direct marketing campaign by the
end of this month.”
Example
Weekly Objective: “This week, I will
develop three drafts of sales copy for the WaffleMaster 5000 and pre-test
response rates using pay-per-click advertising.”
3.4: Test
Your Objectives
Examine your yearly,
monthly, and weekly goals to ensure they pass the Five-Fold Why, PICS, and AME
tests. Once all of your goals have passed, review the entire list and check
your emotional state. Are you excited to get started? If not, re-examine your
intermediate goals and adjust as necessary until you find yourself itching stop
writing and start making progress.
Phase #4:
Getting the Most From Your Master Plan
Your Masterplan is only
valuable if you use it. Here are a few tips that will help:
4.1: Morning
Routine
Make reviewing your
Personal Master Plan a part of your daily routine. I review my plan every day,
immediately after exercising, showering, and eating breakfast. By reviewing
your plan every day, you’ll strongly reinforce what you want to accomplish,
making it easier to stay motivated and on track. Establishing this habit is
critical.
4.2: Most
Important Tasks
Immediately after reviewing
your Masterplan in the morning, write out the two or three most important tasks
for you to accomplish that day, then commit to completing them by 11:00 am,
before checking e-mail or working on less important tasks. To plan your day, I
highly recommend using David Seah’s free
“Emergent Task Planner” worksheet.
Filling out an ETP each morning is a great way to plan your day’s tasks and
visualize how your time will be invested.
4.3: Weekly
Review
In Getting Things Done, David Allen recommends setting aside a few hours every week to do a
thorough review of all of your outstanding commitments. A few minutes of review
every week will help you keep yourself clear, calm, and focused. Using this
time to review your Masterplan and make updates as necessary is an excellent
way to ensure your immediate actions are leading to the fulfillment of your
long-range goals. You can also use this time to update your “Someday / Maybe”
list as necessary.
Create Your
Personal Masterplan Now
Creating a Personal
Masterplan takes a few hours, but they’ll be some of the most productive hours
you spend this year.
Happy planning, and good
luck.
Josh Kaufman
