Plan Your Year with the Annual Plan Template

If you don’t make time for the important stuff first, it will be crowded out by the less important – every time – guaranteed!

This article is part of the series – Get Your Life Back!
Take Control of Your Schedule
4 Tips for Managing Your Calendar More Effectively
Plan Your Year with the Annual Plan Template
Create Your Best Week
You Can Keep Up With Your Email
The Secret for Managing Email More Efficiently

If you want to find more fulfillment in your life and work, do the important stuff first. Stephen Covey illustrated this concept brilliantly in First Things First.

I’ve found this to be true for me over and over. My role demands that I spend much of my time on strategic planning and significant projects. Yet the small, urgent day-to-day challenges and problem-solving seem to crowd my days.

Time flies

Before I realize it, another day is gone. Then another week. Another month. Another year!

I’ve arrived at the end of the year many times only to realize that I have a substantial amount of unused vacation time and personal time. And that it’s been months since I spoke with or spent time with my closest friends. The people I value most – my family and friends – took a back seat to my work.

I’ve written about the value of the Life Plan and how it’s helped me achieve better results in nearly every area of my life. This is one of those areas. I realized that, to have the greatest impact in my role, I needed to get more specific and more proactive in planning the important things – before my days and weeks became crowded with the priorities of others.

So, I created an Annual Plan to use during my annual review (each year between Christmas and New Years). My template was originally based on using a simple Microsoft Excel template developed by Michael Hyatt.

You save a ton of time and click here to download my Annual Plan Guide and Template for planning your year.

There are several tabs in the template (which you can download and easily edit). I have included two years of my own calendar as an example along with a blank tab, which you can copy and edit.

What I plan for…

You will notice that I plan only major items – the highest priority items in my life and work. More discretionary items and projects are included in my Best Week and in my weekly calendar. Here are the items that are included in my annual plan:

1. Company Holidays
2. Industry Events & Conferences
3. Family Vacations & Events
4. Board Meetings
5. Business Review Meetings (Monthly & Quarterly)
6. Travel
7. Church Meetings/Events
8. Time with Friends

If you have an assistant, developing an annual plan will help immensely with managing your calendar and appointment schedule. This one exercise has been transformational for me and my assistant.

While your list may differ, these items ensure that I block out these high priorities before they fall prey to the priorities of someone else. If you don’t proactively plan your life, someone else will.

Click here to download the Annual Plan Guide and Template to plan and prepare for your best year ever.

Question: What other ideas do you have for taking control of your priorities and schedule? Share them in the comments.