Annual Planning

The practice of setting goals, priorities, and strategies for the year ahead at the start of each year or financial year, creating the high-level framework within which quarterly and monthly planning then operates.

Annual planning provides the north star that prevents reactive, short-term decision-making from dominating the year. Without it, founders respond to whatever is loudest rather than what matters most, arriving at year-end with little progress on meaningful goals.

A founder spends two days each January on annual planning: reviewing the previous year, setting three major goals for the year, defining the key projects that will achieve them, scheduling them across quarters, and identifying quarterly milestones. She refers to this plan monthly to stay on track.