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Planning is the second most important part of any project, second only to doing. Without a good plan, without a goalset, you will invariably lose your path and fail. The key to success is planning an adequate amount, but not over doing it. A plan that is too complex will be to restraining, and one of two things will happen. Either:

1) You’ll deviate from it once, twice, a few times, and eventually give it up altogether.

2) You’ll miss out on good opportunities, or not adapt to changing situations, in order to hold fast to the original plan.

Set a goal: So, to start off, the very first thing you should do is decide what your goal is. Make it realistic, but make it a stretch. For instance, if your current business is netting you $5000 per month, a good goal would be to shoot for $8500 (a 70% increase) in a timeframe of, say, 7 months. This is an attainable goal, but its not something that will just come to you if you sit back and do nothing, you’ll have to strive. At the same time make it something worth working for, something noticeable to you, something that will affect you in a positive way.

Setting an overall timeframe is a good idea, however, I have found that breaking that increase down OVER the timeframe is not. For instance, in the above example, don’t try to figure out if you are on pace to reach the goal. Don’t break it down in to 10% per month, and then work on how much of an increase you need per week, thats not the goal. The goal is 70% over 7 months, how you get there is immaterial.

Work backwards: You already have the end to the story, now you need to write the prequel. What do you need to do to achieve your goal? Look at it from both ends, if we’re still using money as an example, don’t only look at how you can make more, look at how you can save more.

Write it all down: Be detailed, write the whole things final draft and read it over at the beginning and end of each day. Write a condensed version on an index card and carry it with you, or in your Hipster PDA. It should dominate your thinking throughout your work time, it should be in the back of your mind the rest of the time.

Start right away: Start right now, start furiously. Have you ever noticed that you always seem to gaim tremendous amount of progress when the pressure is really on? You know that feeling you have when you’re really plugging away, trying to reach a deadline? Thats the feeling you should have every day for the duration of your plan. You should be working as if every day is the last day, is the due date.

Overall, this whole entry can be summed up in to one sentence: “Know your goals, plot your course, attack with force.”