Annual goal-setting is one of my favorite things to do and I look forward to it every year. However, I am always looking for new ways to streamline this process, since some years felt better than others. When I was first designing my customized, 99¢ notebook system that I lovingly refer to as my MAP Book, I kept seeing ads on Pinterest for something called PowerSheets by Cultivate What Matters. Every time I looked into them, I was definitely intrigued. That being said, I knew that I needed something more comprehensive and detailed for figuring out my day-to-day. I wasn’t ready for a year-long goal planning system. But finally, this year was the year I decided that I was finally ready to try PowerSheets. I am excited to share with you in today’s episode how I use PowerSheets as a busy mom.
Note: I am not an affiliate of PowerSheets or Cultivate What Matters and the opinions that I am sharing are from my own experience in 2022.
My favorite time of the year is January. I love resetting my goals, dreaming about the future and strategizing how to get there (this should surprise literally no one). Like a lot of my clients, I always found myself setting goals at the beginning of the year and then I wouldn’t be able to find them by June. I began writing them in the back of my MAP Book so that I could easily find them, but there were many years where I had completely forgotten what my goals were by September.
I was looking for a way to organize and track my annual goals, and also wanted a bit of hand-holding to walk through the process. That’s why I ultimately made the purchase for my first PowerSheets goal planner. This was quickly followed by purchasing one for my sister, who I knew would love it as much as I did!
My intention for using PowerSheets this year was to follow the process exactly as it was laid out before I made too many tweaks to it. So in November of 2021, when my PowerSheets arrived, I watched the videos that came along with it. In addition, I did the 5 day set-up training that Cultivate What Matters provides. In the front of the planner, there are a bunch of big questions about the kind of year you want to have. It helps you keep this year in the forefront of your mind as you visualize where you want to be in 1, 3 and 5 years from now. I really liked this process and I felt like it helped me remember the why behind some of my goals.
The planner encourages you to set as many as 8 goals, and you know me, of course I set 8. I regretted that about halfway through the year when I realized that I wasn’t making progress on a lot of them. This was because several of the goals that I had set were more of family goals than individual goals. About halfway through the year, I changed them to make sure they were goals that were within my hands alone.
One aspect that I really liked about the PowerSheets tending list pages were the habit trackers. At the beginning of the year, this was really helpful for me to get consistent with my progress. I would write down the habits that I was tracking and then leave the list open next to my bed. At night before I went to bed, I would remember to check these off to see how I was doing.
After I modified my goals in August, I was left with 4 goals that I wanted to focus on:
This felt like the right number of goals and I could strategize all of these. Some of the goals that I had set earlier in the year were really hard to track. For some, I realized that I accomplished them quickly so they no longer needed my attention. Overall, the planner did a great job of setting me up to reflect on these regularly in a way that wasn’t super overwhelming, which I appreciated!
As of right now, I am definitely planning to use PowerSheets again in 2023. I think this system would pair really nicely with a personal growth retreat at the beginning of the year. I also love the idea that I could potentially meet up with someone else using the same system and walk through it together. If the stars align, I may try to take a weekend away and bring my PowerSheets along for the ride!
Next year, I know that I will limit myself to 4-5 goals, instead of trying to tackle all 8. I also know that there are some months, such as July when we were on vacation the majority of the month, where the PowerSheets process will fall to the wayside.
All in all, I would definitely recommend checking out the PowerSheets goal planner if you are looking for a system to keep track of your annual goals and frequently check in on them. There is a certain level of needing to be purposeful about going in there to track them, but I made it a practice to leave my PowerSheets open next to my bed, so I can check my progress each night before going to bed.
Take a few minutes to think about your annual goals for 2023. Do you have a system for keeping track of them? If not, you may want to check out PowerSheets and give it a go for next year (I bought mine last year during the Black Friday sale, which I would recommend).
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe on Spotify or YouTube so you don’t miss next week’s episode, which is all about how I do an annual review in December each year. I’ve been doing this for YEARS now, so if you’re looking for a streamlined system, this is the episode for you!
If you want to connect between episodes, be sure to give me a follow over on Instagram – @sharonlegercoaching. I would love to support you on your personal growth journey!
If so, be sure to share it with a friend – this helps busy moms like you to find me!
And finally, you can also check out these related episodes that I think you’ll be obsessed with:
[…] the entire month of January to do this process? I first shared about how I set yearly goals using PowerSheets back in episode 25. If you’ve never used PowerSheets before, I definitely recommend them. I love the process that it […]
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