How To Integrate Broad Goals With Multi-Scale Planning

00:00:00.000 | All right, there we go.

00:00:02.920 | Let's see here.

00:00:03.920 | That's two questions.

00:00:04.920 | We're on to number three.

00:00:05.920 | All right, sir, what do we got for number three?

00:00:08.600 | Okay, next question.

00:00:10.280 | We have a question about New Year's resolutions.

00:00:14.400 | I know it's a couple months past then, but he's got some good points here and he talks

00:00:18.400 | about going back to his guiding documents.

00:00:20.120 | So be interested to hear what you think about that.

00:00:24.000 | Hey, Cal, this is Matt.

00:00:28.480 | I'm a private wealth advisor in Texas.

00:00:32.720 | Really enjoy the podcast.

00:00:34.640 | I'm on your fourth book right now.

00:00:38.560 | And I have a question.

00:00:39.560 | Given that it's the start of a new year, how would you recommend to someone who is, let's

00:00:45.800 | just say, relatively new to time block planning and to some of your ideas, how would you recommend

00:00:51.120 | they go about tackling New Year's resolutions in conjunction with coming up with the guiding

00:00:59.000 | document for their personal life and also for their professional lives?

00:01:05.000 | And then how they would then work through goals related to the four or five Cs, then

00:01:13.640 | distill those down into quarterly plans.

00:01:17.760 | And then how frequently should one be checking these kind of overarching guiding documents

00:01:24.360 | and annual plans so that they can feel like they are staying true to these overarching

00:01:31.520 | principles and goals, but being able to action them on a quarterly basis and then down into

00:01:39.360 | a weekly basis?

00:01:40.360 | Thanks so much.

00:01:41.360 | I really appreciate it.

00:01:43.360 | So Matt, I'm going to try to simplify some of what you're talking about here.

00:01:47.880 | And so maybe that'll help.

00:01:48.880 | I'm going to reduce the number of documents.

00:01:50.800 | I'm gonna try to reduce friction here a little bit.

00:01:54.320 | So at the core of all of this is my multi-scale time management strategy.

00:02:00.480 | And again, for people who are new to my strategy, watch the time management core ideas video

00:02:07.180 | on my YouTube channel.

00:02:08.180 | So that's youtube.com/calnewportmedia.

00:02:10.440 | Go to the core ideas playlist, play the video on time management, and I get into this in

00:02:13.920 | detail.

00:02:14.920 | But when I'm talking about my time management system, there's this one part where I say

00:02:18.400 | you should be doing multi-scale planning, which is daily, weekly, quarterly planning.

00:02:23.520 | So let's start with that.

00:02:26.300 | So each day, your time block plan your day.

00:02:30.000 | When you build that time block plan, you're referencing your weekly plan that you write

00:02:33.560 | at the front of each week, which helps you figure out what you should be doing that day.

00:02:37.760 | When you write that weekly plan each week, you are checking out your quarterly plan,

00:02:42.080 | which is aiming you towards your bigger picture initiatives or any types of habits or heuristics

00:02:46.960 | or strategies that you're running during that quarter.

00:02:48.800 | And then you update that quarterly plan every quarter.

00:02:51.320 | I'm going to suggest that these different planning documents you're talking about that

00:02:56.040 | exist above this scale, these annual plans, these guiding documents that for the most

00:03:00.760 | part for now, Matt, integrate them into your quarterly plan.

00:03:05.200 | So you can have a quarterly plan for your work and a quarterly plan for your life outside

00:03:08.400 | of work, just have at the top of the plan.

00:03:10.240 | And if you're using something like Google Docs or some such, put it in like a box frame,

00:03:14.240 | like a one cell table to differentiate it.

00:03:16.520 | I think visual matters.

00:03:17.880 | And you have this sort of bigger picture plan right there at the top of your quarterly plan

00:03:22.440 | documents.

00:03:23.440 | So you know what, you see it just every quarter when you work on your quarterly plan, you

00:03:26.520 | see that annual plan, like what you're working on that year, what's important to you.

00:03:30.320 | And when you build your plan for that quarter, it's based on that.

00:03:33.220 | And then you just see it and you don't have to worry about it's not a separate document.

00:03:35.600 | So when it comes to something like New Year's resolutions, that's just going to go into

00:03:39.860 | naturally those bigger picture plans, that bigger picture annual picture.

00:03:44.320 | So you're just going to see that every single week when you build your weekly plan.

00:03:48.820 | And then when you update your quarterly plan every quarter, you might seriously rejigger

00:03:52.140 | that annual plan.

00:03:53.220 | That's how I would suggest to simplify things, Matt.

00:03:54.940 | So you just have those quarterly planning documents that influence weekly, influence

00:03:58.860 | daily, that's much simpler.

00:04:00.940 | And that's the way I largely describe it in that time management video.

00:04:04.540 | The one guiding document though, that you probably do want to keep separate is a values

00:04:09.060 | document is a much more timeless.

00:04:12.380 | These are the values by which I run my life.

00:04:14.860 | I like to have that as a separate document.

00:04:17.480 | And I would suggest you review that every week.

00:04:18.980 | So when you do your weekly plan, I just think it should be more precious.

00:04:21.660 | And if you want to print it and put it in like a laminated folder type thing, so you

00:04:26.220 | have a physical copy you can take out and look at.

00:04:28.700 | I think that's not a bad idea.

00:04:31.380 | And that's just good.

00:04:32.380 | I do it on Fridays at the end of the week.

00:04:34.900 | Just remind yourself what you're all about.

00:04:36.100 | I think that's important and that's important to be in its own document, but annual plans,

00:04:39.760 | any type of guiding plans that persist on a scale beyond the quarter, throw them at

00:04:44.060 | the top of the quarterly plan.

00:04:45.220 | Yes, they're not going to change much from quarter to quarter, but you're going to see

00:04:48.140 | them a lot and it's going to sear in.

00:04:50.620 | So that's what I'd recommend.

00:04:51.620 | And so your new year's resolutions just exist in that ecosystem.

00:04:54.620 | It's nothing special.

00:04:55.620 | You don't have to do something special for it.

00:04:57.200 | It's just a tweak to your annual plan, gets reflected in the quarterly plans, gets reflected

00:05:00.340 | in your weekly plans, gets reflected in your time block plans, gets reflected in what you're

00:05:03.440 | doing right now in this very moment.

00:05:06.380 | It all links together.

00:05:08.900 | [MUSIC]

How To Integrate Broad Goals With Multi-Scale Planning | Deep Questions With Cal Newport

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