Get access to my R4 Planning Worksheets
To achieve your dreams and enjoy your journey over the long haul, it’s important to practice some form of work-rest rhythm.
Try my R4 Planning Process to get in control of your schedule and workload.
Practice it annually, quarterly, weekly, and daily.
KEVIN KRUSIEWICZ
Business Coach & Consultant
Any time is a great time to take stock of what worked and didn’t work, reconnect with your long range vision and your WHY, and identify the most important priorities for the quarter or year ahead.
To do this, I use my R4 Planning System© that consists of Recharging, Reporting, Reflecting and Refocusing. In order to do this properly, it’s critical to take some time away from work. If you can, take a whole week off between quarters, roughly every thirteenth week of the year.
The periods between these weeks define your execution period (or your “quarter,” usually 11-12 weeks).
The parts of the R4 Planning System© are:
1. Recharge
Take time to let your brain and body rest and recover. You are human and you have limits. Get out of town. Eat. Drink. Make love. Sleep a lot. Have fun. Laugh. Exercise. Get lost in a nonfiction book. Get your endorphins going with some moderate exercise, or how about a little adventure? This might sound like a vacation, and it sort of is, but there’s one caveat: bring a journal and your last quarter’s or year’s reporting.
2. Report
On the last day or two of your Recharge period, look at your objective reporting from last quarter or year, including P&L, Balance Sheet, and other scorecard / dashboard metrics. Don’t do a deep dive – just find out if you accomplished your rocks and goals or not. Look at the objective data, and begin to reflect …
3. Reflect
Now that you have a bit of distance and hopefully perspective, have had some time to recharge, and have reviewed the objective reporting, get a journal and reflect, asking yourself some questions about the previous period
4. Refocus
Bring yourself, fully recharged, reported, and reflected to this last part of the R4 Planning Process. Define the 3-5 most important “Rocks” to accomplish in the next quarter / execution period (~12 weeks). Make them S.M.A.R.T. Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. Create weekly milestones that represent incremental progress toward the completion of each rock, up to the number of weeks in a quarter.
We are finite and bound by time. The biggest problem with execution is an over reliance on old school to-do lists that ignore the fact that it takes time to get these to-dos to-done. On your calendar, block out the time you will need to complete specific milestones for each Rock each week of the quarter.
To achieve your dreams and enjoy your journey over the long haul, it’s important to practice some form of work-rest rhythm. Try my R4 Planning Process to see if it helps you feel more in control and less chaotic. You can do it annually and quarterly.
Access the Worksheets
If you’re sick of being a slave to your business and would like my help implementing the R4 Process, start here.