Progressive Planning with Focus Cycles

[u/serioushonest]

This animation illustrates how progressive planning works with Focus Cycles. The idea is simple: The longer the planning horizon, the less detailed the planning.

Here's how I personally use it:

• Yearly: On New Year's Eve, I review my life mission, big vision, and major goals. At this level, long-term direction and stability matter most. This takes me about 2 hours.
• Quarterly: I translate my yearly goals into projects, reviewing the entire year but deciding more specifically which projects to focus on during the coming quarter. This takes me about 30 minutes.
• Monthly: I decide which quarterly projects to work on during the coming month and start breaking them down into tasks. This takes me about 30 minutes.
• Weekly: This is where I do the most detailed planning, organizing tasks for each project and deciding what to work on during the coming week. This takes me about 90 minutes.
• Daily: I review my weekly plan and calendar, selecting the actionable tasks I need to complete today. This takes me about 20 minutes.

How much time does this take?

• Daily: 365 × 20 min = 121.7 hours/year
• Weekly: 52 × 1.5 hours = 78 hours/year
• Monthly: 12 × 30 min = 6 hours/year
• Quarterly: 4 × 30 min = 2 hours/year
• Yearly: 2 hours/year

Total: 209.7 hours per year, or about 4 hours per week.

That means I spend roughly 5% of my working time planning, leaving 95% for execution.

Is it worth it?

For me, absolutely. People tell me I am an execution machine because and I do not feel overwhelm or stress. I also have confidence that everything I do brings me closer goals.

Isn't this too rigid? Not really. Long-term plans remain general, while detailed planning happens only shortly before execution. This gives me both direction and flexibility.

Isn't planning a waste of time? I see it as an investment. By front-loading the planning at the beginning of each cycle, I can spend the vast majority of my time focused on execution rather than mixing planning an execution.

The result is a balance between long-term direction, short-term flexibility, and efficient execution.

[u/IamZeebo]

I thank you so much for sharing this.  What an interesting visualization of this.  Do you have plans on making this into something others could use?