If you’ve ever heard, schedule it or it won’t happen (and laughed) – this is for you.

I know many people (including myself) who have put things on the calendar, launches, new product ideas, upcoming promotions, webinars…and then they still didn’t happen.

If you find yourself making big launch plans and not following through, then you might start feeling like planning is pointless.

So you stop doing it.

You decide to do things “organically” and by the seat of your pants.

You’ll find out fast that this is also not the way to go.

So how do we become better planners?

If there’s one thing that my Fearless Launching alum say over and over to me–it’s that they finally had a map, could stop cobbling together their launches, and finally started getting things done.

It’s probably because I kind of make it my mission to get people to take their unique next step.

But today I simply want to help you avoid the pointless plan.

So, let me lay out my #1 secret so you can get off this site and back to making your ideas a reality.

I call it – the revisit and revision planning. But you might also know it as scrum.

Two Steps To More Effective Planning

So the secret to this type of planning is actually two-fold…

First – there’s the focus. And that focus, clarity, real commitment to a project is what it’s going to take.

No one is born with focus – it’s a skill you have to develop over time. Many people (okay, most really) struggle with focus at some point in their life. Learning how to focus is something you have to keep working at. I’ve listed a few resources below that have been helpful for me…scroll down if you feel like this is your main issue!

Second – the actually how to implement this today looks like this:

1. Make your big plan: If you don’t have that yet… please go to my launch planning workbook and start the process of writing out your plan. This has been insanely helpful to me and many others I’ve worked with. Write it all out. Your goals, your ideas, your big dates, potential partners, all the tech you need to create.
2. Break your plan into weekly bundles of tasks: Once you’ve got the plan down on paper (or google docs) – time to create your weekly task lists – don’t worry too much about getting this perfect, just split apart the work. Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, and so on.
3. Revisit & Revise: This is by far the best thing that you can do for your launch or any type of project. Start by revisiting your current week’s task list every few days. Set specific dates to review the to-dos. Decide if anything’s changed and:
   • Get rid of stuff that no longer seems important or you don’t want to do
   • Reschedule what you know won’t get done or doesn’t need to get done
   • Review next week’s work and pick a few things you might be able to get done now.

[youtube width=”600″ height=”338″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ08NjylUUg[/youtube]

You’ll get better at planning if you practice this process a few times every week. In fact, after you’ve done several revisit and revision sessions with yourself or your project manager, you’ll get better at making the initial plan and then be able to revise & revisit only weekly.

And that is it.

Revise & Revisit Works No Matter How You Like To Plan

This will work if you like to plan out your year, your quarter, your month…whatever…

Your check-ins will be different for different kinds of plans – you might only need to look at your yearly goals/plans once a month. You might want to look at your quarterly revenue goals every 2 weeks.

Start with a few weekly check-ins, then scale back to whatever frequency works for you.

It’s just like money – you want to look at your incoming/outgoing financials often. Not once every few months or every year.

What you measure will grow and improve, right?

So, start today, by looking at what you want to get done this week toward your one clear goal/focus. Then check back in in a few days – see where things are and move anything that really doesn’t need to get done this week to next week.

Get Focused Resources:

The One Thing (Book): http://amzn.to/1Iogcm4
Essentialism: http://amzn.to/1GL8XAa
Focus App: http://www.focusapp.io/#focus-ios
Focus for Chrome: https://goo.gl/l77nfF

Launch Resources:

Launch Planning Workbook: https://goo.gl/biLHkv
Fearless Launching: http://goo.gl/eloSMq

What’s your biggest planning challenge?

Is it sticking to the plan? Or sitting down and writing it all out? Is it getting things done once you make the plan? Is it having the plan in too many different formats?

Leave a comment below and share your biggest planning challenge!