It’s the season for new planners, new goals and maybe even some New Year’s resolutions. How do you like to plan your coming year?
I have a system that has morphed just a little each year but the last several it has served me well. Read on if you’d like to test it for yourself.
Look back You have to know where you’ve been to figure out where to go. So, where were you? Look at each month of the past year. Make note of what went well, what didn’t and what income you brought in.
Dream in color Now. What are your big dreams and goals? Brain dump them all out and then circle the top few to go after in the new year. Now brain dump again the steps, projects and tasks needed to get there.
Look Forward Before we plan your work, put your important LIFE events on the calendar: graduations, vacations, big anniversaries, etc. Now, take those tasks from the brain dump and number them and start plugging them into the coming months. Write in any specific promos or launches you’d like to have so you can work backward on the tasks.
Monthly Themes
I like to then create a theme for each month to have all my marketing content work together for repurposing. This is very simple to do once you determine what launches when. For instance, if you have a new fiction book launching in March, January could be all about the prior book, characters and some quotes. Then maybe February could then have content all around the new book such as your writing process, BTS photos and maybe even a sample chapter lead magnet. You get the idea.
I like to have a strong outline of my whole year together at least down to content buckets for the week. So that means taking the above sample even further for February we might have: #MondayMotivation- motivational quotes, quotes from the book, photos of what motivates me in my writing. #WorkingWednesday- photos of my writing space, my favorite pen, etc. #FlashbackFriday- might contain a backlist book, a photo of a past book signing, etc. In this example, my content “buckets” are Monday Motivation, Working Wednesday and Flashback Friday.
I don’t necessarily work out what all the posts are going to be yet for the whole year but getting the above at least outlined in pencil really helps me to know where I’m planning on going. This way, as I’m out and about or reading things online, I can snap photos and save things to a future content file so they are ready to go when I do sit down to create the content.
Speaking of that, I know it’s tough to do but, if you are able to plan and do your content at least a month ahead, this really prepares you for “life” happenings like illness [thanks C19], vacations, and anything else that may come up.
We love doing this for others so if you need help, hit us up. In the meantime, click click here for a copy of our free planning worksheets. These are the actual sheets I use when planning out my year.
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Rebecca Paciorek is an Online Business Manager specializing in assisting in the growth of your business through traditional and digital means.