Is Backward Planning For Smart People?

When I first started working from home in Internet Marketing I realised never more so than at this point in my career, did I need the skill of planning and setting my goals.

New to working in the business opportunity arena, I simply didn’t know where to start.

Now I already knew if you are trying to get ahead in life you have to set goals. And by life I mean any part of your life.

Work goals, Health and Wellbeing goals, Financial goals, Spiritual goals......

Not only is goal setting a positive action to take but it really gives you clarity about how all the different areas of your life fit together. It shows how one area can seriously impact on another area-for good or bad.

You often hear it said “Oh yes I know all about setting goals” but amazingly so few of those people actually get around to doing it. It is hard for some people to get the concept of knowing how to set goals never mind actually achieving them.

Then for those who do set goals... there is the added frustration of not knowing how to work towards them and the feelings evoked if you don’t achieve them.

There is a lot of information about goal setting, which model to use and how to plan them out and as usual I would suggest doing your research and then testing what actually works for you.

Now I like to think I’m a pretty switched on person and having tried and tested many methods and formulas, I have come to realise my favourite and the most sensible to me, is to use the concept of Backward Planners.

So in theory, if you don’t know where to start, then how about starting at the end.

Often sitting and thinking about how to get going is totally bewildering and overwhelming. All those actions and skills that need to be brought together to get a result-almost makes you want to give up before you start!

So what do you need for this backward planning?

A calendar would be a good start. Get the end of project date set. I usually set this to the day before-well you want the comfort of relaxing and checking all’s well before the launch of the project.
Now imagine exactly what that end result will look like and write it down as specific and graphical as you can. Really imagine what it looks like in great detail in your mind. You will get used to doing this and realise the more detail makes it easier too break it down into components.

Now analyse the project and break it down into its various components for example
• Do you need to write scripts
• Do you need to make a video
• Do you need to set pricing
• Do you need to design something like a web page or logo.

Then prioritise all of the components into order and if necessary who will do what.

You should then be clearly able to see the flow of the plan from beginning to end.

Oh and don’t forget to think about little contingency plans for when plans don’t go exactly...know what I mean?

By: Julie Cockburn

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Julie Cockburn is founder member of The NetBiz Marketing Team An experienced Internet Marketer, Mentor and Business Coach. Are you new to Internet Marketing and would benefit from 10 weeks Free Training that will take the pain out of your planning for you. Go to www.julie-cockburn.com and sign up now. You will also get access to a comprehensive training site and forum.