Annual Planning your Life, a la Sarah Emerson
It’s January. I want goals, vision, new, plan, etc. What better time for my BFF Sarah Emerson to start a Substack newsletter. First topic - using corporate planning techniques to set a personal annual vision… or as Sarah puts it, “using the tools of corporate capitalism to organize our time and improve our lives.”
Original article so you can follow along. (while you are at it, go ahead and subscribe).
Sarah has never lead me wrong, so lets do this. I’m going to use her suggested techniques and write about the process as I go.
Step 1: Set a vision for the year.
Sarah suggests a couple methods, but I love the idea of writing the first letter of my 2021 holiday letter from an ideal version of the futures, so here goes:
Hello beloved friends and family. We saw many of you in person this spring and summer when we traveled across the country in our camper van, but for those we didn’t say hello to in person, here are some highlights of our year. Michele’s second year as a real estate agent was off to the races, and she was able to find homes for many happy Portland clients. Mike earned his ‘local icon’ status by bringing joy to the community through his many art installations. Neither got COVID. Michele has been back in the pool since spring, looking forward to competing with her team. We are blessed to have spent time with family, our two cats are best friends, Michele set up her sewing room and is making realllly cute clothing. Mike and Michele are happily expecting their first child in Spring, 2022.
Step 2: What high-level themes do you want to influence this year?
Personal Growth
Fulfillment
Health
Step 3: Program areas - things you can materially affect with your effort.
Sleep Quality
Daily Exercise
House Organization
Screen Time
Cooking
Hygiene
Cat time
Hobbies
Career Success
Step 4: Set smart goals
Set up my sewing corner and rug tufting area by one month past bedroom remodel completion date.
Shower at least three times a week, and after every time I exercise.
Stick to the mail sorting system Mike and I established.
Increase workouts from 10 times a month to 12 times a month.
Continue to post on instagram everyday and send email newsletter every month of 2021.
Check in whenever I catch myself watching Tiktok in bed and ask if it is bringing me joy.
Step 5: Track progress
Ummm. I’m going to tell Mike about the shower and the mail ones. He is good at those and can help keep me accountable. He can also help me with the sewing room. I have a peloton app to track workouts. I have instagram to tell me if I’m posting, and a weekly real estate meeting where I will ask to be help accountable for my newsletter. Tiktok feels like it’s up to me.
Step 6: Realize you skipped some important steps
Well, I believe I missed some steps that would lead me to building a spreadsheet of tasks to complete my goals. But you know what, Mike just asked ‘almost time to watch Survivor?’ and I want to watch Survivor.
This was already really helpful exercise for me - to see how bigger concepts in my life can be broken down into program areas and further into measurable, specific goals.
Thanks, Sarah, thanks corporate world!