6 Steps To Plan Your Day, Goal By Goal

Ever feel like your days just slip away and you barely make progress on what truly matters? What if I told you there's a simple way to plan each day, goal by goal, so you wake up knowing exactly what to focus on to get closer to your ultimate goals and dreams?

Today, let’s talk about how to plan your day effectively, goal by goal. We'll break it down step by step, so you can create daily plans that balance your business, career, and personal goals. Whether you're hustling as a solopreneur or leading a team while chasing personal growth, this method will help you maximize every single day. And in doing so, you will consistently review your strategies and goals, and work on each on a daily basis.

The secret of success is not in being perfect now and then, it’s about consistently improving your best every day.

Here are my 6 steps to move you closer to your ultimate goals every day. You can watch a video of these steps on my YouTube channel by clicking on the image below.

Step 1: Reflect and Review.  

Start planning your day at the end of the previous day. Take 5-10 minutes to reflect on what you accomplished and what needs more focus. Look at your vision, purpose, and long-term and short-term goals. What are your business goals for the year? What personal milestones do you want to achieve? Get clear on your direction.

When you review the day before, also look at how you did things - are there better and more efficient processes that you can now take? And, when you’re reviewing your long-term goals - ask yourself if they are still relevant, or should you edit some of your milestones and objectives?

Better performance is not about chasing something set in stone - it’s about understanding what you have to do to succeed as your days and the times bring up new challenges.

Step 2: Identify Priorities.  

Having reviewed your goals and understood the actions you have to take over the longer term, ask yourself: What are the most critical tasks that, if completed tomorrow, will move me closer to my bigger goals? Choose 2-3 business or career-related goals and 1-2 personal goals, and identify their priorities.

Keep it realistic. Overloading yourself will just lead to frustration. You never eat the elephant by trying to eat it all in one sitting. 

Step 3: Break Down Each Goal. 

Take each priority and break it into smaller, actionable steps for the day ahead.

For example, if your business goal is to expand your client base, a step could be reaching out to three potential clients tomorrow. If your personal goal is weight loss, plan a 30-minute workout and prepare a healthy lunch in advance.

Each time you achieve something that contributes toward your ultimate goal, you are progressing and improving. Small steps lead to attainable targets.

Step 4: Schedule with Intention. 

Block out time for each of these actionable steps in your calendar. Treat them like appointments you can't miss. Balance your schedule — don’t just load up on work goals; integrate your personal growth too. Your aim is a productive, well-rounded day.

Obviously, as appointments you can’t miss, schedule them with a mind to be able to schedule appointments with other people, as well as time set aside to do your work, like writing that report or adding up those numbers. Balance is the key.

Don’t forget to leave blank blocks for emergencies! These will always come up, sooner or later. Don’t fill your day so that the smallest emergency unsettles you and you start dropping priorities. And hey, if they don’t happen, just move up some of your tasks to fill that time.

Here’s another tip. Always leave a 10 to 15 minute gap between blocks. This allows for over-runs and a cup of coffee every now and then!

Step 5: Set Your Focus with Purpose.  

In the morning, before you dive into your plan, take a moment to centre yourself. Use strong postures and mantras, like “I am Calm and Focused” or “I am Fit and Healthy,” to anchor your mindset. A clear focus sharpens your efforts, so remind yourself why you are doing this.

It’s not only about your ultimate goals, it’s also about your ultimate life. Remember your business purpose, your life purpose - your “Why”. Give yourself confidence that you can do this, that in many small ways building upon themselves, you have actually done it before. You have - with confidence - achieved many things in life!

Step 6: Review and Adjust. 

At the end of the day, review your progress. Celebrate what you achieved, no matter how small, and think about adjusting what didn’t work. Was there a better way to do it? Did you leave enough time for that difficult task? Can you use someone’s help in achieving more? What learning experience did you have and what can you learn from it?

When Thomas Edison was asked why he had failed 10,000 times in making an incandescent light bulb, he famously said “I did not fail - I found 10,000 ways not to do it”. Remember, you never fail - you are always learning what not to do. The tragedy however, would be not to learn that and keep repeating the wrong way.

This feedback loop strengthens your planning, and achievements,  over time.

SUMMARY 

There you have it — a simple, goal-by-goal way to plan your day that keeps you on track with your business, career, and personal growth.

Reflect and review on past efforts, identify priorities, break down each goal into actionable steps, schedule with intention, focus on your Purpose, and finally, review and adjust and learn from what didn’t work.

If this method resonates with you, let me know in the comments what goals you’re planning for tomorrow — I’d love to hear them!