Whatever your financial calendar or project you´re working on, you´ll want to know about this planning method to achieve your goals.

The 90 day year is a system that recommends breaking the year into quarters and setting goals for each quarter, rather than yearly goals. This technique is popular because it feels more tangible. Many coaches use it with their clients. Below is an overview of how it works, but first let’s credit where credit is due…

Who came up with the 90-day year plan?

Credit where it´s due…

It’s difficult to establish whose brains are behind the concept. It seems like it’s been used for a while, and has enjoyed a resurgence amongst coaches and online gurus in recent years.

Todd Herman, high-performance coach to professional and Olympic athletes, has a programme called The 90 day year.

Brian Moran’s 12 Week Year by is an influential book on the subject.

And there are a number of variations on the concept in between.

How to implement the 90 day year

In simple terms…

Think about what you want to achieve by the end of the year – those big meaty goals that can transform your business. Think aspirational but achievable if you put in the work
Break those big goals down into quarterly goals (say, three per quarter)
Reverse engineer by thinking about what you need to do to make that those goals happen. What actions do you need to take? When do you need to take them? Plot them in your calendar.
You can break those down even further into daily actions or to do lists and block chunks of time in the diary to complete each task.
At the end of each quarter review progress and adjust if necessary

Final tips

Be cautious with putting too much detail, especially in step 4, or the exercise could end up cannibalising the time you have to implement it!
I strongly recommend doing this annually, in Q4 to prepare for the year ahead. Though, of course, you could start any time of the year – the same process applies.
When planning, take yourself somewhere where you won’t be interrupted. If you have a team, do it together. Consider going somewhere off site.
Allow enough time, say a couple of hours or half a day.
Before starting the planning process, make sure you’ve reviewed progress so far. How did you do in the previous year? What opportunities are there for growth? Is there anything you should be doing less of?

Need help?

I can help you with your strategic planning and goal setting. Get in touch to find out how I can support you.