Setting yourself up for success means planning for the entrepreneur you actually are

The signature quarterly planning method revealed in this episode delivers big results without burnout by focusing on planning for your actual capacity, not just your calendar. Setting too many goals splits your time, energy, and focus, resulting in minimal progress that feels unsatisfying and creates a constant feeling of being behind.

• Set no more than three goals total for the quarter
• Plan around the time you actually have, not the time you wish you had
• Create a "future parking lot" to store ideas and goals for later quarters
• Break goals into monthly milestones and weekly action steps
• Assign specific calendar time for tasks - "a task with no time assigned is a wish, not a plan"
• Be realistic about your capacity to avoid dropping commitments or delivering subpar work

Join me in my quarterly planning workshop "Plan your Quarter with Confidence" where we'll map out your entire quarter together in a plan-with-me style. Grab your spot at tanyalaustin.com/slash plan. Hit subscribe so you don't miss next week's episode and leave a review on your podcast platform of choice to help push this content out to other solopreneurs just like yourself.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Plan Like a Boss.
Today, I'm letting you in on mysignature quarterly planning
method, the one that gets bigresults without burning you out.
We're talking about how to planfor your capacity.
We're talking about how to planfor your capacity, not just
your calendar, and why settingtoo many goals is actually

(00:22):
what's keeping you stuck.
If you're one of the people whosets a list of 10 goals every
single January and you only hitone, or worse, you forget about
them all by the end of Februaryyou're going to want to hear
this Setting too many goalskeeps you stuck.
You heard me, I know.

(00:42):
I know.
Goals are a good thing, buthere's the thing when you set
too many goals, you split yourtime, your energy and your focus
and, instead of making progressin a few key areas, you end up
making tiny, unsatisfyingprogress on everything and feel

(01:02):
like you're going nowhere.
It's like watering 12 plantswith one small cup of water.
They may live, but none of themare going to thrive.
And for solopreneurs where,let's face it, your time is
already stretched, this isn'tjust insufficient, it's
exhausting, and it creates aconstant feeling of being behind

(01:24):
.
I've seen so many entrepreneursset themselves up for failure
by planning for an imaginaryversion of themselves who has
unlimited hours, unlimitedenergy and no life interruptions
.
And well, spoiler alert, thatperson doesn't exist.
Now here's my quarterlyplanning rule Set no more than

(01:48):
three goals for the quarter, notthree giant projects each month
.
Not three personal and threebusiness and three just for fun
goals.
Three total.
Why?
Because you want each goal toget the time and attention it
deserves.
Then and here's the key plan,around the time you actually

(02:12):
have, not the time you wish youhad.
Before you even sit down to planyour goals, I want you to look
at your quarter honestly.
Do you have any travel plans,any family obligations?
Is this quarter maybe a reallybusy season in your business?

(02:32):
Do you have health appointmentsor recovery time scheduled?
In short, what commitments arealready on your schedule?
Because these all affect yourcapacity and when you account
for them in advance, your planis instantly going to be more
realistic.
Once you see what kind of timeyou have, you can start planning

(02:55):
your goals.
Then I want you to actuallylook at your goals and see if
it's possible to achieve themwith the time you have.
And if the answer is no, that'sokay.
You're not saying no forever.
That is where your futureparking lot comes into play.
I want you to set up a futureparking lot.

(03:18):
This can be a page in yourplanner or your bullet journal.
This can be a note on yourphone.
This can be a Google Doc.
It doesn't matter where itlives, but set it up, because
then all these ideas and allthese goals that you have that
you just don't have the capacityto handle right now, you can
write them down so that they canbe scheduled for another

(03:41):
quarter.
You're not giving up on themforever.
You're giving up on them forright now, so that you can be
really good at the few thingsyou have scheduled intentionally
.
Now you have your goals basedon your time, so you're ready to
go right, not so fast.

(04:01):
Once you have your goals set,it's time to reverse engineer
them.
Now this is one of my favoritesystems you start with the end
in mind your goal, and then youwork backwards to see what steps
you need to take to actuallyachieve your goal.
So here's my process.
Step one you're going to takeyour goal and you're going to

(04:23):
break it into monthly milestones.
Ask yourself where do I need tobe at the end of month one,
month two and month three to hitthis goal by the end of the
quarter.
So this is going to give youthree clear checkpoints
throughout your quarter to makesure you're on track throughout

(04:46):
your quarter.
To make sure you're on track.
Step two you're going to takethose monthly milestones and
you're going to break them intoweekly action steps From each
milestone list the tasks thatyou're going to need to do every
week in order to achieve yourmilestone and make sure they're
doable within your actualschedule for that week.
And then, finally, step three,assign those actions.

(05:09):
Don't just list them out.
Put them on your calendar, notjust a big, long to-do list.
A task with no time assigned toit is a wish, not a plan.
So let's say, one of myquarterly goals is to do a
launch for my creative SEOmembership.
Now, obviously, that membershipalready exists, but we're going

(05:30):
to use it as an example.
My quarterly goal might belaunch my membership by the end
of quarter two.
So from that I'll do a monthlybreakdown.
By the end of month one, I needto finalize all core content
and set up my back end systems.
By the end of month two, I needto create a sales funnel and my

(05:53):
promotional content.
By the end of month three, I'vegot a marketing push and a
launch event happening, so theweekly breakdown for month one
could look something likeoutline the core training
modules, then, week two, recordthe first two modules.
Week three, upload the contentand set up my member portal.

(06:17):
And week four, write the emailsequence for my launch funnel.
Now each week has no more thantwo to three big tasks related
to the goal.
That way, I can still run mybusiness without dropping client
work or other commitments,because, let's face it, you have
other commitments that areimportant.

(06:39):
Don't overschedule yourself withunrealistic expectations,
because one of two things isgoing to happen Something will
get dropped or everything willbe subpar.
So here is your homework.
I want you to pick one big goalfor your next quarter and map

(06:59):
it out using this method.
I want you to ask yourself isthis goal realistic for my
capacity?
What are my three monthlymilestones that I need to make
sure I hit to achieve this goal,and what weekly action steps am
I going to take each month tohit my milestone?

(07:20):
And if you want to go deeper,join me in my quarterly planning
workshop.
Plan your Quarter withConfidence, where we will map
out your entire quarter, yourgoals, your milestones and your
weekly actions, and we'll do ittogether in a plan with me style
.
You can grab your spot attanyalaustincom slash plan.

(07:41):
Once again, that'stanyalaustincom slash plan
Because when you plan for yourcapacity, you set yourself up
for consistent progress, notconstant burnout.
All right, that's it for today.
Hit subscribe so you don't missnext week's episode.
And if you would leave me areview on your podcast platform
of choice, that would befabulous, because it will help

(08:03):
push this content out to othersolopreneurs just like yourself.
And until next time, keepplanning like a boss.