Be Happiful Annual Planning

Enjoy this free unlocked lesson!

In the Happiful system, we write 5-Year Goals that make your 5-Year Vision clear, specific and measurable.

Jason Selk shares a mind-blowing statistic in his book ‘Executive Toughness’: “David Kohl, professor emeritus at Virginia Tech University, has found that individuals who write down their goals will have nine times the success of those who don’t put their goals on paper.”

Give yourself nine times the success of everyone else and write down your goals! If you don’t have time to do it today, then at least go into your calendar right now and schedule 30-60 minutes for this life-changing exercise.

Annual Goals

Once you have your 5-Year Goals, the next step is to determine your Annual Goals. The Happiful Annual Planning process takes place in November or December of each year, but for most people, the first time through this program will occur at some other time of year. Do NOT wait until the Annual Planning time for next year – go ahead and do your Annual Planning now for the rest of the current year.

Since you just set your 5-Year Goals, this one is going to be simple. Experts say to limit your goals to 5 or fewer to increase the likelihood of achievement, so pick 5 of your 5-Year Goals (ideally the 5 most important ones!) and ask yourself what you need to accomplish to be ⅕ of the way towards achieving that particular 5-year goal. That ⅕ milestone should then be your 1-year goal. Do that every year, and you will achieve your 5-Year Goals and be living your Ideal Future Life!

Once again, you want to use the SMART system (Specific, Measurable, Action-Oriented, Realistic, and Time-based) in writing down your goals for this year. 

Once you create your Weekly Plan Template, you will add your Annual Goals; it will then have your Values, your 5-Year Goals, and your current 1-Year Goals. And then each year during Annual Planning, you’ll edit your Weekly Plan Template to update it with your new Annual Goals.

Your Annual Goals are your major milestones on your journey to living your ideal future life.

Set Work Schedule

In addition to determining your 1-Year SMART Goals, the rest of the Annual Planning process consists of two parts: determining your work schedule and identifying any Key Initiatives for the year.

Many people, especially entrepreneurs, freelancers, and remote workers, are connected to their email and “sort of working” whenever they are awake. If this sounds familiar, you need to know that this negatively impacts both your quality of life and your productivity.

It’s obvious how limiting your work hours will improve your quality of life: when you’re not working, you get to spend more and focused time with friends and family, on hobbies and personal interests, on your health and fitness, and so on.

But why does it improve your productivity? It’s simple: if you believe you have unlimited time to work, then you are willing to do any and all tasks, rather than focusing on just your highest priority tasks. As a result, you end up spending your time on unimportant things and NOT doing the things that really matter. When you limit your work hours, you are forced to do only the most important things. Furthermore, if you believe you have unlimited time, then you are willing to allow distractions and time-wasting activities into your life (online news, social media, YouTube, TikTok, reading email newsletters and blogs – any of this sound familiar?). And finally, if you believe you have unlimited time, you will spend too much time on each task, trying to make things “perfect” (when no such thing exists, and even if it did, it wouldn’t be worth the effort).

With the “always sort of working” approach, people feel guilty all the time: if doing something for themselves, they feel like they should be working, and when working, they feel guilty for neglecting their family. Instead, decide on your work schedule, and protect that schedule. During work hours, focus on work, and otherwise, focus on your personal life – both without guilt. When you are outside of those work days and hours, rest and relax and refuse to even dabble in working. Yes, this means not checking your email, slack, or other work-related communications.

There are 3 steps to having a set work schedule for the year:   

  1. Choose the days you will work, and those you’ll take off every week. Write this down to make it real. 

  2. Establish specific set work hours for each day. Write this down as well. Now put this in your calendar, so that you have an alert that tells you when to start work each day, and one that tells you when to stop work each day.

  3. Now, plan your vacations and holidays in advance for the year, and put those days off in your calendar.

Key Initiatives

The next critical element in your Annual Planning process is to decide on your Key Initiatives for the year. An Initiative is a major project that has a beginning and an end to it; it likely has several steps to it that will take weeks or months to complete.

Your Key Initiatives for the year will usually be those that are necessary or important to achieving your 1-Year Goals, your 5-Year Goals, and/or your Vision, and – like goals – to increase the likelihood of your success, you should have 5 or fewer for the year. It’s possible that you’ll only have one big Key Initiative for a given year that will take up all your available time. Examples of Key Initiatives: 

  • Start a new “side hustle” business

  • Buy a rental property

  • Write a book

  • Hire your first-ever assistant

  • Get a degree or certification

  • Start a non-profit

  • Renovate your home

You may already have a few ideas in mind. If not, look at your Vision, your 1-Year Goals and your 5-Year Goals, and consider what needs to happen to reach those goals. Now add these to your Weekly Plan so you can see them frequently.

Annual Tuneup

The final element of Annual Planning is an Annual Tuneup, a slightly more extensive process than we do in Quarterly Planning, to review things to see if you need to make any changes. Some years you may not change anything; other years you may want to make several changes. So here’s the Tuneup:

  1. Review your Values and consider if you want to make any changes.

  2. Review your 5-Year Vision and consider if it needs any updating. 

  3. Review and update your 5-Year Goals. You may have achieved one or more, or if you changed your Vision that may lead to adding, removing, or changing one of your Goals. Make sure that your Goals are aligned with your Values and Vision.

  4. Any new Habits you could benefit from adding this year?

  5. Any bad Habits you could benefit by stopping this year?

Now, based on any changes you just made to your Values, Vision, Goals, and Habits, you want to consider the following:

  1. Do your Key Activities on your Daily Commitments Checklist need to be updated?

  2. Any changes to make to your Morning Routine on your Daily Commitments Checklist?

  3. Any changes to make to your Evening Routine on your Daily Commitments Checklist?

  4. Review your Time-Block Calendar to see if you would benefit from any changes. Make sure it reflects your Values, your Goals, and your Key Activities.

  5. Considering your Goals and any Habit changes, do you need to add or change any Affirmations?

This Annual Tuneup process takes about 30 minutes, and it ensures that you are now in full alignment and ready to have a Happiful year!

▢ Here’s our Annual Planning Checklist. I recommend you go through the Annual Planning process now for whatever is left of the current year, and then do it every November to plan for the next year. Doing your Annual Planning in November ensures that it is done before the holidays kick in and you are unable to plan prior to the next year having already begun. So block some time on your calendar now to go through the Annual Planning process.