My Goal Planning Method for 2024
With Notion and Sunsama
It’s that time of year — the kids will be out of school soon, the holiday season chaos is just beginning, and I’m itching to start in my new planner. I love planning my year based on my goals; while they often change and evolve as the year goes on, having a plan for at least the first quarter always gets me through those slushy-snowy winter days.
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I use Notion primarily for my project and content planning, but earlier this year, I bought Thomas Frank’s Ultimate Brain template, and his goal planning section convinced me to try my goal planning in Notion. I’ve made a few minor changes, but for the most part, if you want to replicate my setup, you can check out his templates here.
I also use Sunsama to schedule the action steps I write into the goal plans. Sunsama is my daily planner app; you can read more about it here, but you can use any task manager for this step.
Yearly Resolutions
I have five major goals for 2024:
- Earn 90k for debt + savings
- Read 100 Books
- Complete my web development courses
- Complete my bachelor’s degree
- Complete a 5k every week (using my walking pad)
Most of my goals will not technically be checked off as “complete” until the end of the year — so I need to set up milestones and monthly check-ins to be sure I’m on track to hit these goals. For example, to read at least 100 books this year, I must aim for two books a week and plan accordingly. For larger goals like coming up with $90,000, it will require some more planning and likely a lot of changes along the way.
Even if my goals change over the year, these are reflections of my priorities today — and likely will be consistent for at least a few months, so I like to focus on one quarter at a time and leave room to adjust my goals as I see fit with each new quarter. I may hit goals early on, like completing my web development course, so I might want to add a new goal or adjust it to fit my current lessons.
Goal Plan
I have used Notion for a long time, but primarily for business goals and work projects. This year, I finally purchased Thomas Frank’s Ultimate Brain and Creator’s Companion Bundle. They are notion templates that hold all your tasks, notes, projects, and goals. While I’ve taken some time to make it my own, I’ll use the basic structure of the goals template for this year if you’d like to follow along.
I start by creating a goal using the template that is broken into four parts:
- Overview: Why you’re doing it, what success looks like, the benefits of completing the goal, and ideas to help you succeed.
- Milestones: A list of achievements you will hit to keep you on track. These progress steps aren’t actions but more of a mini-goal that will be completed as the goal progresses. For example, if my goal is to read 100 books, the milestones may be 10, 20, or 30 books read.
- Journal: This is a place for quick notes that can be accessed within the goal. It’s a good spot for putting your thoughts and journaling at various milestones throughout the goal process.
- Projects relating to the goal: This is where we can break the goal into smaller, more actionable pieces. I use the Ultimate Brain template in a hierarchy like this: Goals (with milestones) > Projects > Tasks.
Project Breakdown
Goals without a plan are rarely met. Let’s use the 100 book goal as an example for this step. I want to read 100 books, but tracking and finding 100 books can take a little planning. I’m going to create two projects:
Create a TBR (to be read) list for 2024
My TBR will live in Notion, and I’ll pull the data from the almost 600 “want to read” list on my Goodreads account. I like to pull closer to 90 ideas, so I have room to add new books over the year. Many of these books will not end up on my final list, but it helps me better plan my subsequent reads and ensure I’m not purchasing books I own or can get on the Libby app for free.
Create a reading journal for 2024
While I love Notion (and usually track my books on Goodreads), I enjoy physically writing about my books in a journal. I started this last year, and it was a fun outlet. This process also helps me remember the books better — when you read as much as I do, you can forget certain elements, and it’s nice to have a physical journal to flip through now and then. I print mini sticker versions of the book covers on my TBR to add them to my journal over the year, so naturally, this takes some prep work.
Action Plans
The last piece of my goal planning puzzle is incorporating Sunsama for scheduling action steps. While I love my Notion database — things would not get completed if they didn’t live on my Google Calendar. I use Sunsama to time block and plan daily, so once my projects (with their tasks) are in my Notion, I pull it all into my Sunsama account.
I take some time each month to add my tasks to my Sunsama calendar (which copies it over to Google Calendar as well). This helps me see my tasks as a priority. I also take this chance to add objectives relating to my goals to my Sunsama account so that I can see the progression of my goals in both of my dashboards.
Goal Tracking and Progress
One of the key benefits of using Notion and Sunsama together is the ability to track and monitor your progress toward your goals with actionable steps. Setting milestones and breaking down your goals into smaller, actionable tasks allows you to easily see how far you’ve come and what needs to be done. Additionally, Sunsama’s scheduling feature allows you to allocate specific time blocks for working on your goals, ensuring that you stay on track and make consistent progress. So, whether it’s reading 100 books or making a career change, the combination of Notion and Sunsama can help you achieve your goals for 2024.
