In a post on DIY MFA, Richelle Lyn shares her RRR framework – Reflect, Reboot, and Reprioritize – for planning her creative goals.
- Reflect. “Spending one hour up front to reflect on the past year will help you more efficiently plan what steps you can take next year to move your small business forward without sacrificing your personal happiness and satisfaction,” Lyn says. Examine your goals, whether you reached them, and how long it took. What deadlines did you miss? Which milestones weren’t reached? What big achievements did you reach? Celebrate your successes, identify your roadblocks or skills gaps, and strategize for next year.
- Reboot. “Spend 30 minutes brainstorming what you desire for you and your business,” Lyn suggests “Be bold. Do not self-edit.” Write down your biggest goals, your vision for 1, 3, or 5 years in the future, and why you want to achieve these milestones. Map out near-term goals for the coming year, including learning goals that will help you overcome the obstacles that prevented you from reaching any of this year’s goals. Be sure to balance your work-life goals so that your health and relationships don’t suffer.
- Re-prioritize. Lyn suggests adopting a four quarter perspective on your yearly goals. Pick 1 or 2 big goals or 3 to 4 smaller goals for each quarter, prioritizing and placing them in logical chronological order. Build lax time into your calendar to ensure your goals are realistic. Once you have your quarterly goals, break down your Q1 goals into smaller tasks and assign deadlines. Build extra time into your deadlines to account for the unexpected and schedule a day off here and there. At the end of Q1, review how you did and refine your Q2 calendar accordingly.
