The new year is rapidly approaching, so I took the time out to prep and plan a few weekends ago. Three years ago I began what I now call the โLauren Myers & Co. Annual Planning Retreatโ where I book a hotel room for a few days, hunker down and plan out my content and other initiatives for the upcoming year. This is the core of my monthly planning sessions as well as my weekly task list. I would like to share with you why I started this retreat, why it can be helpful for you and how you can approach your annual retreat.
Why to Have an Annual Planning Retreat
1/ Uninterrupted Dedicated Planning
The best reason I can give to have a planning retreat is to have dedicated planning time with no interruptions or distractions. There are waaaayyyy too many distractions at home, so stepping away for even just one day will do wonders for focusing. I understand that there are instances where you may be unable to leave your home overnight alone, so even if you are home, try to find a window of time to focus on your annual planning hopefully in a quiet setting.
2/ Refocus for the new year
The best way to enter a new year is with clarity. You want to enter the year knowing what goals you will be tackling and how you plan to accomplish them. Dedicating a focused block of time to plan all of this out will also get you pumped for the new year and initiatives ahead.
3/ Re-evaluate existing goals
This is also a great time to review your previous goals for the year and see if they are still aligned with your ultimate goals for your business. Maybe you had a goal of creating an e-course, but have since decided that you no longer want to take that route. Dedicating time to re-evaluate what you thought you wanted to do is a great place to start because it will guide the remaining planning session in the right direction.
4/ Set new goals
Once the existing goals have been established, you can then move on to setting new goals that are more aligned with what you want to do and the kind of content you want to create. Businesses move through different stages, and at a certain point new goals will be made not only to align with what youโre passionate about, but also with the changing world and technology. Just a few years ago, the majority of people had no concept of ChatGPT, and now it is huge! Many businesses decided to make adjustments to involve AI in their content creation as a result. This is just one example of technology shift and how quickly things can change, so itโs important to also align with the times.
What to do on Your Planning Retreat
What you decide to do on your planning retreat is all up to you and the type of plans you want to create. You could be planning for your business, household lifestyle/schedule, or 9-5. Here are a few things that you can focus on for business:
1/ High level creation of content calendar
I plan all of my blog post topics and email marketing topics for the year during my retreat, then schedule each post on my Trello calendar. I mentioned earlier that this is the core of my monthly planning sessions because I already know what to post about and work on for the month. This is a huge upfront investment in time that will give you a great ROI in the long run because you wonโt be wasting time trying to decide what to post, and instead will be creating your planned content.
2/ Weekly Schedule
I was never a schedule girlie, but now I understand the importance of having some sort of structure to your life. Iโm not a hard core scheduler, but I do like to lay out what needs to be done each day. Iโve realized that I donโt work well in chaos or in confusion, so I need some kind of structure to stick to. This is why I had to create a weekly content creation schedule, because without it I wouldnโt post as I should. My schedule has changed over the years, and I even changed it again during this retreat. The goal here is to create a schedule that works for your life, not societyโs standards. Maybe you donโt work a traditional 9-5, so evening and night time schedules donโt work for you. Maybe you work on weekends so time to focus on your content canโt be on weekends. However your life is set up, you have to make a schedule that works appropriately for you.
3/ Establish/Reestablish Business Pillars
Business pillars are the foundation of content topics that you post about. Itโs good to have no more than four business pillars so you can stay focused on your niche and create dedicated content around it. You also donโt want to have scattered content and end up with no area of expertise. If you donโt have content pillars, you can create them during your session, because the content you plan for the year will be built from them. If you already have content pillars, now is a good time to review them to determine if they still resonate with you and your audience or if any of them need to change.
4/ Review wins of the year and build on them
This planning session is a great time to review your wins and shortcomings from the previous year. Make note of the things you did that worked well for you and your audience, and think of ways to expand on them for the new year to make them even better.
On the other hand, acknowledging your shortcomings and areas in need of improvement is also important. Review these things so you know what you need to put more focus on to improve it, or to scrap from your business model completely.
5/ Enjoy some self-care
This entire time away doesnโt have to be all work and no play. Itโs important to carve out time for self-care as well which could simply be ordering room service, getting a massage, taking a walk, etc. Sliding self-care into your retreat will give your brain a good break and reset from all the planning youโve been doing!
There are so many more ideas of what you can plan during your Annual Planning Retreat such as recording bulk content to use throughout the year, taking plenty of photos to use throughout the year for social posts, creating social media post descriptions in bulk, working on new products and services, updating your website, updating your branding items, etc. Itโs all about being prepared and having things planned out for the year to help further you along in your goals!
Do you have an annual planning session to prepare for the new year? Let me know what you do in the comments section!
