Planning for 2009: Exercise 5--Write your plan

Happy New Year, everyone! It is time to do the really hard work of putting your plan together.

Once you have your lifetime goals identified, the next bit of work is project planning. Here you determine what you need to do, by when, to achieve your lifetime goals. For each lifetime goal, respond to the following questions, in this order, with a list of goals and corresponding due dates:

• What must I do in 10 years to meet my lifetime goals?

• What must I do in 5 years to meet my 10-year goals?

• What must I do in 3 years to meet my 5-year goals?

• What must I do in 1 year to meet my 3-year goals?

• What must I do in 6 months to meet my 1-year goals?

• What must I do this month to meet my 6-month goals?

• What must I do this week to meet my 1-month goals?

• What must I do today to meet my 1-week goals?

Example

Here is an example from my own life. When I developed this process over 20 years ago, I had a lifetime goal to get my Ph.D. However, I didn't put a timeframe on it until July 2004. Here is what my plan looked like on July 1, 2004.

Lifetime goal identified in 2004 planning: Have my Ph.D. before my 60th birthday
[Note: I was 53 in 2004 and didn't yet have a Masters degree.]

• What must I do in 10 years (by 2014) to meet my lifetime goals?
  Complete dissertation and defense by May 2011.
  Get my Ph.D. by July 1, 2011 (my 60th birthday).

• What must I do in 5 years (by 2009) to meet my 10-year goals?
  Complete Ph.D. coursework by May 2009.
  Begin dissertation research.

• What must I do in 3 years (by 2007) to meet my 5-year goals?
  Get my Masters degree by December 2006.
  Get enrolled in a Ph.D. program to start in September of 2007.

• What must I do in 1 year (by July 2005) to meet my 3-year goals?
  Apply to Masters degree program by Jauary 2005 to start in September 2005.
  Apply for financial aid by April 2005.

• What must I do in 6 months (by January 1, 2005) to meet my 1-year goals?
  Choose Masters degree program by July 2004.
  Investigate financial aid options.

• What must I do this month (July 2004) to meet my 6-month goals?
  Investigate Masters degree programs by February 2004.

• What must I do this week (July 1-7, 2004) to meet my 1-month goals?
  Investigate Masters degree programs.

• What must I do today (July 1, 2004) to meet my 1-week goals?
  By the time I got to this point, I was so excited about the possibilities, I wanted to do the investigation that day.

So far, I am right on track to meet this goal.

Tomorrow: Sustaining the Plan

Comments

[MSC management dissertation]

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