ACHIEVE MORE: HOW TO PLAN, EXECUTE AND STICK TO YOUR PLAN

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„It’s not the will to win that counts – everyone has that. What matters is the will to prepare to win“ – Paul Bryant, six-time American Football Coach

This article is on How to plan and execute effectively. Have you made this experience: the more commitments or goals you have, the more you feel like you’re going nowhere? You have to reorganize or nothing works anymore?

In this post, you discover how to plan achieving the things you want – not letting commitments “own you”. The annoying housework, this scientific work, this important call, your tax return. If we finish stuff, we enjoy more time with loved one’s. With certainty and without bad conscience. 

To do so, use effective planning and disciplined execution strategies. This is one of the best ways you’ll be the proactive controller of what happens in your life. Achievement plans are a game-changer in this respect. I don’t like to call them to-do lists as they are more than that. This blog shows how my achievement plan system works, how you can apply it easily. I also show you how to stick to the plan once you’ve begun.

I will show you how to get more things done in a shorter amount of time. On top, you’ll get the tools not to forget stuff and to not have to worry about procrastination. Procrastination is when you postpone things. Let’s go from reactive to proactive-mode and reach your goals earlier! Learn How to plan and execute effectively!

Let this natural method train your mind to finish more and achieve more in less time. After field-testing it for many years, I can confidently say: it works unbelievably well! Spoiler alarm: it uses ideas from Lean management, neuroscience , Steven Covey and brainstorming techniques.

I. Simplification is King: Organize in Simple and Feasible Ways

In order to learn How to plan and execute effectively let’s first make some simplifications between simlilar words. Here, I make no distinction between “action plan”, “achievement plan”, a “task management system” or “to-do list”.

Because simplification is the ultimate sophistication.

I like to call it achievement plan. This is because it sets the tone to achieve what you want in the end. It moves from to-do’s and comitments to your plans and active goals and projects.

The approach combines the best knowledge from the worlds of neuroscience and psychology.

In our age of overload we need proven, practical and feasible approach. Otherwise we won’t do it. The General Principles of Greater Returns on Time shows the science and insights from numerous influential authors behind this system.

II.  Effective Planning & Execution: a Proven Strategy for Daily Life

First note, that I use a different achievement plan privately than at daily work. The reason is that the requirements at daily work are different. You cannot set and define own goals, because somebody else (your boss, the company) does this for you. Therefore, most job achievement plans are more of a breakdown of tasks or work buckets. At the end, however, I will give you a little bonus of a job achievement plan too.

I prefer to have one regular, weekly achievement plan. I follow Stephen Covey’s recommendation regarding the weekly frequency. In his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People I learned some of the most effective planning methods. One idea he suggests in to plan the week in advance while maintaining flexibility to adapt for unforeseen events.

Yearly and monthly achievement plans cover a too long period to stay motivated in execution mode (including reviews and adaptations). Daily achievement plans on the other side are too short of a period. This is because the effort to always write new daily plans is too high for most of us. 

Weekly achievement plans in contrast are concrete enough and the effort is manageable.

But the achievement plan is not the only part. I have 2 more lists, that help me fill my regular weekly achievement plan:

1. The first is my digital Trello board. It doesn’t matter which digital tool you use or whether it’s handwritten or digital. The only thing that matters is that you use it wisely. I use it to to quickly note smaller tasks. Remember from the blog post Maximize Your Time: Transformative Principles for Greater Returns: these are the “sand” tasks. They can be done easily and quickly, but have to be done. I also use it to “park” ideas in a “pipeline”. 

In Trello you can create typical Kanban boards. A simple Kanban Board has three lists named “To Do”, “WIP” (Work in Progress), “Done”. So, explicitly my lists are called

“Pre-Pipeline” –> “Pipeline” –> “Next” –> “Today” and –> “Done”.

The pipeline lists only differ by long term and medium term goals. In “Next”, I put activities that can become goals on my achievement plan or sand goals for the next days. The “Today” list is filled with spontaneous small “sand” goals like doing the shopping, some household activities etc. – typical “to-do list” items.

You do not need the Pipelines and “Next” lists, this can be too complicated in the beginning. For me, it grew like this as it made sense for me. The Trello list I recommend nevertheless is the one for spontaneous small sand activities. This is to be flexible enough to fill in small things that are important and need to be preferred.

Sometimes ideas just pop into my head and I want to capture them directly. Since I have my mobile phone quicker at hand than the handwritten achievement plan I capture them in Trello first. This is not to forget them and having a natural flow of ideas or goals later. You do not want paper and pencil all the time, so digital tools are helpful when speed is necessary. If your project is to be planned, your pipeline goals can flow onto the achievement plan.

2. The second additional list is a yearly list of goals. Twice a year during vacation I screen that yearly list and cross things I achieved. Additionally I might create a new list of yearly goals and these new goals in my digital Trello “Pipeline”.

So, I have three lists: the yearly list of goals, the achievement Plan and the digital Trello Board. Each one serve’s for another one and has a purpose according to the size of the goal.

PDCA: Plan, Do, Check, Act

The execution of this achievement plan system follows a general principle from the Lean Management Philosophy. It’s called the “PDCA-Cycle”, standing for: Plan-Do-Check-Act.

The “P” reflects the planning process as described above. “Do” are your daily actions trying to achieve (cross) goals from your list. “Check” is a review or reflection on what you have achieved compared to what you wanted to achieve. Lastly, “Act” refers to the act upon the review, i.e. adapting activities and goals. If necessary, the original plan is adapted based on what you achieved and what’s still to do.

So, let’ me explain to you’s dive deep into how the achievement plan process works in detail. We will now cover all the steps “P” for “Plan”, “D” for “Do”, “C” for “Check” and “A” for “Act”.

“P” – Plan

The planning process is simple, intuitive and always the same:

1. Goal gathering

2. Goal clustering

3. Goal scheduling

1. Goal gathering

Write the weekly timeframe on the achievement plan (e.g. 29/07/2024 – 04/08/2024). Start gathering goals that come directly as an idea from your mind, from the pipeline, pre-planning or yearly planning lists.

It doesn’t matter so much for now, it’s just to start at all. It’s important to just gather these goals randomly for your weekly achievement plan, in no specific order. If you do not have any “pipeline” list, just brainstorm on what you want to achieve in the upcoming week. Also think about regular routines.

For example, I put sports on my list. And I put a tick box before it and write the weekdays under it. So I can tick it when it’s done for a specific weekday. I cross the whole line, when I ticked all the boxes.

2. Goal clustering

You need a suitable cluster system, these can depend on your purposes. I’ve tried several clustering methods, but I only go for one now. If you like, here’s what I’ve tried in the past, not all concepts worked – I’ve clustered…

• … in sequence/ by urgency (1st, 2nd, 3rd, …). If you know the activities very well and can foresee how long it takes you, e.g. housework.
• … by effort. If you don’t want or cannot estimate the time duration, then you separate them by big/medium/small goals. → at first, I thought, it fosters the pareto thinking and the rule-of-3. But it ended up being hard to schedule these goals, if you are not estimating the duration. That’s why I discarded this approach in the past. If you don’t know yet pareto thinking or the rule-of-3, read about Maximize Your Time: Transformative Principles for Greater Returns.
• … by duration (30Min, 1h, 2h, 4h, 8h, 2 days, …1 week, …). → This is the one for me that works really well! You can always estimate the duration of a goal. It doesn’t matter, if you can estimate it reliably; 
• … by scheduled periods, i.e. time periods when the work takes place (e.g. Day 1, day 2, … CW1, 2, 3…, July, August, …). → I would not recommend this except for days within the week. But still then you don’t know the duration and therefore when to do it (scheduling issue). I’ve tried it for yearly planning activities in the past, but it’s not recommendable as well. The first months you stick to it, and then over the year you lack behind it. The plan has to be changed and creates lots of planning revision effort. So, what I searched for was a “procrastination protection mechanism”.
• … into content buckets (“Order” for handcraft activities or household, “Finances & Investment”, “Family”, “Purchases”, “Vacations”, “Morning routines, etc.). → I used this for a yearly planning, where goals had to be transferred to the weekly achievement plan. Still, it worked for me. I did this, when I found I didn’t use a system for a long time and gathered so many activities. So many, that it made sense to cluster them in order to see their relevance. By relevance I then scheduled them.

Of course, types of clustering can be combined with each other and so on… But: the simpler, the better. 

I figured out that duration clusters are best. The reasons are closely related to scheduling: 

• By estimating a duration, you explicitly define what needs to be scheduled well.
• You implicitly know the effort (small/medium/high). The high effort goals (longest duration) can be identified as the ones that have to be scheduled inevitably. Otherwise they won’t happen, as they take too long. Even if you cannot finish them at that dated time, at least the scheduling helps you to begin with them. I even began to mark these goals with a color in order to identify them quickly.
• The duration clustering leads to scheduling, which is a process that helps you train yourself to “think Pareto“. You often need to “kill” the hardest parts of a problem first, before you can tackle other parts. In constrast, for “new territory” goals you do not even know what the parts of the problem are. But think about the duration and you’ll get a clue on the effort behind it. However, remember: the biggest effort does not necessarily mean that it is the most effective task. Sometimes the most effective task is just a phone call. Learn on what effectiveness means and how you can be more effective in your daily life!

3. Goal scheduling

The last planning step is to think about where in the week these goals can be scheduled. Where to begin them or to finish them. Try out what works best for you: specific times in a day or just “in the evening”. It depends since everyone’s life is different.

The more goals you can schedule, the better. Some goals are schedulable, others not and have to be done day-by-day or when another one is done. Be flexible. However, this point is really important. If you attach a day or a time to the goal, your achievement plan has so much more binding force. You feel committed more and that’s important to achieve more!

D – “Do” 

I like to cross the goals when I finish them. Science tells us that every time we finish something dopamine is released, the “feel-good” hormone. It makes us happy and keeps us motivated. This burst of happiness from completing something not only feels great. It also fuels your motivation further, creating a positive cycle of productivity and satisfaction.

I love this insight as it basically tells us that the reward itself already is finishing things. It’s simply more fun when we complete things. You cross a goal from the list – it releases more dopamine. You move a goal into the “done” column in Trello – feels good.

In fact, I do that as much as possible. I tick days for routines, crossing whole goals by pen and digitally move goals into the “done” column. Multiple boost 😉 Crossing is most satisfying to me. It’s like getting the goal out of your head as you don’t see it anymore on the remaining list.

C – “Check” and A – “Act”

This step is so important, but it can be summarized into one because it’s one flow of thinking.

So, as mentioned before, the Check is a review on the passed week’s achievement plan. What did you want to achieve and what did you actually achieve? Oftentimes the reason is obvious: something else was more important. But sometimes you can ask yourself whether you misjudged some activities (e.g. in duration) and learn from it.

“Act” means the act upon the review, so you adapt and enhance your activities and goals. The original plan is adapted based on what you achieved, what’s still to do and what new goals are included.

Simply speaking, you always adapt your plan and stay flexible. You only need to take a couple of minutes of time to review your plan and make these adaptations. Think about regular check-in’s and check-out’s. The PDCA-cycle can only be realized by a regular check-in and a check-out.

I love this so much, and it’s really critical. From the moment you start these check-in’s and check-out’s you start sticking to your plan. Do this and you take control and become more proactive. Life not just happens to you, but you start to shape it.

Let me describe the check-in and check-out within a PDCA-cycle: 

1. Check-in: before the week begins (e.g. Sunday evening) write your weekly achievement plan, i.e. do the planning steps of goal gathering, clustering and  scheduling. Also do a daily check-in in the morning. Look at your achievement plan and decide what you want to achieve today.

2. Check-out: in the evening, cross the goals that have been achieved. If you don’t have time for a daily check-out, only do the really necessary weekly check-out. In a check-out you cross achieved goals and look at what’s still missing. However, the weekly check out should be combined with the new check-in, which completes the cycle:

3. New Check-in: basically, this is similar to the check-in from before. But I want to emphasize the cycle process here. You write your plan for the next week based on the results from this week (i.e. from the weekly check-out).

So, goals that remained uncrossed still have to be done. Therefore these have to be carried into the next week. New goals can only come into the list, if enough “old” goals were achieved. As mentioned, don’t overload yourself, rule-of-3.

This is important as you otherwise start to procrastinate. The list gets longer and you get demotivated.

III. Bonus: Job Achievements Lists

I promised an excursion to job achievement lists. So here it is.

In my daily jobs I have always used a slightly different planning system where I also use duration clusters. But in this case you work for someone else’s goals. You do not have to worry so much about finding time slots. Because you have plenty of time in a row and work buckets are often rather comprehensible.

My achievement list for project-based job environments contains the following: 

Date and day of the week

• tasks or goals, that are crossed later
• Estimated hours for the goal (duration clustering). Here, it’s not just a feasible estimation, but rather an allowed time or a target time for that goal. Everything above that needs adaptations for the plan. This moment is an important chance to think about why it took you longer. You analyze what went wrong and what you can improve next time. You will realize that often it is a distraction, working on minor tasks or getting off topic.
• Secret tip: I also use this list for “stopping points”: you write down at which activity you stopped your work. The you write down the next 1-3 necessary tasks. So that when you come back the next day you immediately know what to do. You don’t lose time familiarizing yourself again and get back into the flow faster.

For non-project-related jobs, it’s helpful to have mulitple lists:

1. Lasting to do’s that depend on others and including waiting and pressing the issue
2. A weekly list of to do’s, combined with dates / meetings from your calendar
3. A daily checklist of must-do’s

IV. Summary: How to Execute Achievement Lists and Stick to them

So it’s as simple as that: 

• On Sunday evening gather your planned activities. 
• Cluster them mostly by duration (don’t be too strict in your first clustering tries),
• Think about my week and where the most important activities are possible. For the short-duration tasks you can find a slot usually quickly. The longer-duration one’s have to be scheduled or maybe even broken down. At least you start with them and see.
• Day by day you cross scheduled activities from that list and your daily digital list for small things. Like shopping or household activities. If you could not make even 1 from the achievement plan, in your check-out you analyze the reason. Maybe the daily job kept you too busy today and it’s okay. Let it be okay.
• As long as you do the check-out and check-in you are focused on your goals.

Read about the psychology and principles behind this planning system: Principles on Returns on Time. An important thing is not to put yourself under stress or pressure in this whole adventure.

When you cannot finish certain tasks, it’s fine. It wasn’t meant to be today or this week. So these goals stay on the list for next week. It is not important to perfectly stick to a plan, it’s important to have a plan. Having a plan and staying on it makes the difference! 

Supportive to the achievement plan system, apply Goal-Setting Methods. They further help you finding the long and medium term goals on your achievement plan.

What are your experiences? Maybe you use another system and you are happy with it. Leave me a comment below or contact me via the contact form.