5 Effective Ways To Plan Quarterly Goals
5 Effective Ways To Plan Quarterly Goals
It is that time of year again!
Fall is here, and winter is just around the corner. My favorite time of year is when the leaves start changing, the days get longer and colder. Also, it is the most celebratory time of year where friends and family gather together.
You know what else it brings?
The final quarter of the year! Where planning for the holidays and gearing up for next year takes place.
Since, we are approaching October, I figured I would share with you the 5 effective ways to Plan Quarterly Goals. Don’t worry if you don’t know what Quarterly Goal planning is, why it’s important or why it is the best goal planning concept out there! I will answer all your questions in this post!
What Is Quarterly Planning?
So, you are thinking to yourself… but Katryna, what is quarterly goal planning? Why is it the best goal planning concept out there?! How do I start? Where do I start!? Well, I am here to tell you my dear friends!
Quarterly goal planning is a plan to set out and achieve your goals within 3 months. There are 12 months in a year (And 4 quarters in that year), and how it works is you make a plan or list of goals you want to accomplish for the 3 month quarter.
- 1st Quarter starts: Jan/Feb/Mar
- 2nd Quarter starts: Apr/May/June
- 3rd Quarter starts: Jul/Aug/Sept
- 4th Quarter starts: Oct/Nov/Dec
In my opinion, I think the 4th quarter is the best time to start quarterly goal planning… actually scratch that anytime is a PERFECT time to start quarterly planning! However, the good thing about beginning NOW at the 4th quarter is because, its the last 3 months of the year and you can start planning for the first 3 months of the new year!
How Do You Set Quarterly Goals?
Now that you know what quarterly planning is, lets get into how you set quarterly goals!
There isn’t necessarily a right or wrong way to set quarterly goals, or any goal for that matter. Just find something that works for you that is attainable and achievable! But while also keeping these things in mind that I am about to explain now.
Scroll below to read the 5 Effective Ways To Plan Quarterly Goals
#1 Identify what goals you want to accomplish this quarter
Question #1 I am assuming you’re wondering “How do I write down my goals?”
Question #2 I am assuming you’re wondering “What are examples of goals?”
- Think: Think annually, if you had a general sense of what you want to achieve in a year what would it consist of? (Simply brainstorm a list of everything you want done in a year) and after you do that pick the ones you would want to achieve this upcoming quarter and break it down that way.
Tip! You can gather all your list of goal ideas and categorize them by the areas of your life.
- If you could achieve or accomplish anything in the next 3 months what would it be? Try thinking of the areas in your life that you want to progress in, for the next 3 months… such as personal goals, professional goals, spiritual goals, health and wellness goals, finance goals etc…
I recommend having 3 goals max to focus on every quarter! That way you can solely focus on a few things at a time without being overwhelmed with many goals in a certain amount of time.
Quality of quantity right!?
- Visualize: Visualize where you see yourself in the next 3- 6 months. Mentally create an image or scenario in your mind of all of your desired goals already being accomplished. Whatever you are thinking, visualizing or dreaming about is the determining factor of what you see yourself having, wanting or doing. That can help you also figure out what goals you desire to want to be accomplished.
- When I say visualize where you see yourself in the next 3-6 months is, because I think in the beginning or mid of your quarterly goals you should have in the back of your mind what your next quarterly goals will be and start planning for that. Ex: If I accomplish XYZ this quarter then next quarter I will be in XYZ position.
- Think of something you always wanted to do or learn, or maybe its a deadline you set for yourself to finish.
Here are some examples of goals...
- Career/ Professional/Business goals
-If you have a business maybe your goal is to find 3 more clients in the next 3 months.
-If you work for a retail company maybe you want to increase your sales or productivity numbers.
- Finances
-If you’re a college student or a young adult maybe you want to create a budget and save more money in the next 3 months.
- Personal
-If you’re like me maybe you want to be proficient in learning Spanish or any other language in the next 3 months
-If you’re someone who has an interest in something you wanted to do for awhile, maybe its joining a club membership
- Health/ Wellness
-If you’re someone who is struggling with eating healthy or working out consistently maybe its developing a plan in the next 30 days or today, and then the next 2 months being fully consistent
-The list goes on and on and there are way more areas of life you can include in your goals, and you can break them up any way you like!
#2 Know what you have to do to execute these goals
- Once you have you completed step 1 of figuring out what you want your goals to be for the quarter, begin writing underneath each goal on what the daily/weekly actions will look like in order to get to your end result.
- After you write down the tasks and action that will need to be taken, start planning and outlining your days and weeks! (So I suggest having a physical or digital planner or journal to track these daily/ weekly routines and habits) I also have a free habit tracker worksheet you can download at the end of this post!
Tip! Don’t forget when you’re in the middle of executing these goals to never forget your “why” Life can get in the way and things get hard at times. We are all humans so whenever you feel down about accomplishing your goals or doubt yourself always remember why you started this and what the exciting reward will be after you achieve your goals! Go back to when you wrote down your goals in the first place
# 3 Smart Goals
Question #1 “What goals should I set for myself?”
Question #2 ” How do you set achievable goals
Still assuming you have some questions that need to be answered…
What goals you should set for yourself? SMART GOALS!!!
How you set achievable goals? By being specific, having measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound goals
SMART GOALS is something I learned back while I was in high school, and it is the key in setting effective and successful goals. SMART GOALS stand for…
- S= Specific
- M= Measurable
- A= Attainable
- R= Relevant
- T= Time-Bound
#4 What are your goals for the next quarter?
- Great! You identified at least 3 pillar goals you want to accomplish this quarter. And you know EXACTLY what it takes to get your goals accomplished! You have an understanding of Smart GOALS Now, its time to start thinking about the next quarter, as I mentioned earlier in this post.
Once you are at the start or mid of your current quarter, I suggest it would be a good idea to start thinking of the next 6 or 6 1/2 months from then, so you are always one step ahead. And another thing I wanted to mention is that its okay if your goals change or fluctuate a little bit as long as you are making the progress you want to see in the end. You can really change your life in 3 months!
#5 Review quarterly goal & Celebrate!
Finally the fifth effective way to plan quarterly goals! Which I won’t make this long, but as you can tell from the title…. it is time to review the end of your quarterly months, what did you accomplish? What have you learned? What were the results? What did your end result look like? How do you feel now that you reached your goal? These are things you want to answer for yourself to see how far you’ve came!
For my blog journal, I create a little checklist and mark off every single thing I completed within my time-frame. Now, the celebratory moment that you have been waiting for. This is the time to reward yourself for achieving your goal, and this part is totally up to you!
Thank you for reading! Catch you in the next post...
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