Most people know what they want.
The challenge is they don’t know how to get it.
In this blog, I want to share my hacks, tactics and tools on how to avoid the pitfalls of failing to execute.
But before you execute, you need a plan.
I’ve personally found a useful structure in nominating 4 silos:
Business
Body/Mind/Spirit (Personal)
Finance
Projects
Within each of these 4 silos, I write a detailed list of over-arching actions and goals.
Then I detail what I want to ‘execute’ to achieve each of these goals within each silo.
This is my Strategic Plan for the year.
There is a Master Sheet summary at the start of my Strategic Plan summarizing each silo and stating the primary goals.
Behind the Master Plan, there is 1 individual page for each of the 4 silos nominating the Top 5 Goals for each silo.
This format captures my plan for the year ahead allowing me to check in on my progress monthly, quarterly and annually.
Of course, the Strategic Plan is just half of the exercise.
The other half is ‘Execution’.
Execution is critical.
Failing to execute is the biggest hurdle to overcome in achieving your goals and aspirations.
But how do we avoid failing to execute?
With your plans defined and documented, execution is based on scheduling and monitoring.
Some of my tools used to execute accurately and on a timely basis are:
Day Sheets (prepared on Mondays for the following Monday-Friday a week ahead) schedule all of my meetings, activities (all 4 silos) and planned actions. These are populated and updated on a rolling daily basis as new information merges
Activity Sheets show a daily scoreboard for the week ahead allocating points for all the actions and disciplines I executed for the week. I have a notional target goal points which I aim to beat each week. This keeps me accountable.
Apps help me to measure my performance in areas of focus (e.g. Fitbit for steps, Noom for caloric intake & Stand Up for taking breaks from desk.)
Week-in-Review is completed on Monday mornings reviewing how I performed last week noting the wins, losses, lessons, opportunities and areas to re-focus on
Month-in-Review is completed on Monday mornings reviewing how I performed last month noting the wins, losses, lessons, opportunities and areas to re-focus on
Quarterly/Annual Retreats to review and re-boot
This constant feedback loop on a micro and macro basis helps me tweak things in real time and change-up my execution to recalibrate my performance.
I find ‘gamifying’ execution makes it more fun and competitive with the scoreboards and metrics helping me celebrate the wins but also identify the performance gaps I want to close.
More commentary on this topic can be found in my blog ‘Taking Control of your Diary Architecture’ here https://darrenkbourke.com/blog/2024/5/28/taking-control-of-your-diary-architecture
Plan.
Schedule.
Execute.
Monitor.
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