How’s the year going so far?  High functioning people are typically goal-oriented and gauging their progress.  These people are always moving toward something, instead of away from it.  They possess a deliberate, paced, centered modus operendi, a sort of patient intentionality.

In my experience, achieving this kind of intention and action requires planning.  And I have a basic but powerful tool that clients have found highly effective to assist with the planning process, corporate and personal. Though I usually facilitate using this tool, it can also be very effective on the individual level.  Here’s the format:

Objective: Identify and prioritize your professional and personal objectives for a specific period of time.  (Don’t separate these out from each other.)

Set-Up:

• Carve out some alone time (probably will require several segments)
• Find a quiet place where you will not be interrupted
• You’ll need: 1) Flip-chart, preferably Post-It, 2) Index-card sized Post-It Notes, 3) Fine-point Sharpies

Process (each activity below gets a separate flip-chart page):

• Recent Accomplishments: List out your accomplishments over the past several years.  Don’t hold back!
• Challenges: Now, list out the challenges facing you (could be internal as well as external to you).  Don’t dwell or wallow in these.  Just write them down.  You’ll come back to them later. 
• Strengths: List out what you do well.  Take your time with this.  Bask in these. 
• Envision the End-State: Using the PostIts, write out your desired outcomes for the upcoming timeframe.  One outcome per PostIt.  If it’s a true mix of personal and professional you might end up with 20 or more.
• Four-Quadrant Priority Setting: Draw out the simple chart below and begin placing each note on the chart. Don’t overthink it.  Is it fairly easy to do and has a high value?  Then place it Quadrant I.  Hard to do and high value?  Then it goes in Quadrant II and so on.  Some may end up on a line.  Your call.

What you now have is a first draft priority list beginning with the highest impact and easiest to get done. The priority order begins with I through IV, with your hardest to do and low-impact last.

• Identify Accountabilities and Set Key Metrics: Now, one note at a time, begin listing these out in priority order on a separate piece of paper.  In a column next to each, identify 1) who, if anyone, you’re accountable to, 2) any partners on that priority, and 3) key metrics (i.e. timeframe).
• Drop Anything? Note Quadrant IV, lower value and hard to do.  Is there anything there that you should drop for now?

You now have the first draft of your personal and professional priorities!

• Refer to your Challenges list. What challenges have you addressed via your new priority list?  Chances are that most of them will be addressed.  If not, you may need to add the outstanding ones as a priority item.
• Refer to your Strengths or “what-you-do-well” list.  Note how many of the items on your priority list correspond to your strengths.  Note those where they don’t.  These might be “muscles” that you need to develop.

Follow-Up:

Refer, Review and Refresh