How to set focus areas for next quarter

Deciding what to work on (set priority areas for next quarter) and why is the most important factor for your success in an upcoming quarter.

Before we get into the nuts and bolts, let’s cover 4 key allowances we must make before we set priority areas for next quarter.

  1. Allocate sufficient time to quarterly planning & strategy execution
    Upfront: Allocate at least a few uninterrupted hours to get started. Each quarter, you’ll become more and more efficient and proficient at planning the next quarter. On going: Dedicate 15mins per day to check on & journal progress against your goals & initiatives

  2. Get into the right mindset
    Start your Quarterly planning with a strategic view, and prepare to get into the details. Start first thing in the morning – before getting heads down in the nitty-gritty, technical aspects of your role.

  3. Take it one step at a time, remember this process is fluid
    There are layers to planning quarterly, we start with high-level goals, then how we want to measure those goals, then how we want to achieve those goals.

  4. Prepare to adapt
    Recent years have been living, breathing examples of expecting the unexpected.

Enough groundwork - let’s plan your quarter.

Take stock of what you were working on/towards in this past quarter

This is the easiest way to get started – for most businesses and products – there are certain goals that are important every quarter e.g. revenue growth, and customer satisfaction-related goals. Let’s first extend/re-plan these before we go blue-sky on new priority areas.

1. Create a new google sheet or excel doc

name your sheet “Quarterly planning” and make a heading “Q1 2023” for one of the columns. In this column, list the goals you worked towards last quarter. Your sheet may look like this:

2. Add a new column with the heading ‘status’

Which of these goals and milestones did you achieve fully, partially or make no progress on?

3. Add a new column with the heading ‘next step’

Decide here which goals to re-plan, which to leave alone and which to extend.

4. Add a new column with the heading goals for "Q2 2023"

Pick the top three goals from this list, write a quick sentence for ‘why’ these goals are important. The ‘why’ sentence should be short but well thought out. If you cannot pick the top 3, write a ‘why’ sentence for each – the most important one should become apparent.

Get collaborative

Goal planning is not be a solo endeavour.

Get your supervisor involved early in the process to ensure you’re aligned. Send them an email with a basic template like this:

Subject: Q4 2020 Goal Planning
Body:
Hi {NAME},
Wondering if you’d have 30mins this week or next to go through my draft goals for the coming quarter? I’ve reflected on where we’re at with this current quarter’s goals, looked at our annual goals and commitments in this next quarter and drafted my goals accordingly.

Thirty minutes this week or next to review this list and suggest any new goals or milestones I should have on my radar for next quarter would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much
{Your Name}

Get your team involved it’s likely a whole host of folks around you are helping you deliver on your quarterly commitments.

If you haven’t been bringing them along on the journey (hint: you should) it’s worth scheduling time now. Catch your team up on

  • where we’re at currently with this quarters goals
  • where you think we’ll land at the end of the current quarter
  • what’s gone to plan, what’s not gone to plan
  • what’re the proposed goals for next quarter, why and how you think we’ll achieve those

Time to articulate how & set up for success

If you followed the above steps, you’ve started to define your goals. Soon you’ll have conversations with your supervisor and team to clarify and make adjustments.

Setting lofty goals is a good start, articulating how you’ll achieve those goals is going to drive confidence in your strategy by your supervisor and team.

How you’ll cover off your priority areas speaks to your planned execution. What’re the initiatives that’ll get you to where you need to be?

Six steps to set priority areas for next quarter

  1. Create your friyay.com account
  2. Enter your goals
  3. Create & Link initiatives with the goal they make progress towards
  4. Track progress & status of each initiative regularly
  5. Drop initiatives not contributing towards your goal
  6. Double down on initiatives that do contribute towards your goal
  7. Regularly take your supervisor, team & peers through a top-to-tail of what we’re doing, why and how it is all going

Benefits of using Friyay.com

  • Oversight of all your goals in one place

  • A single source of truth for all your Initiatives

Friyay.com

Friyay.com is a lightweight framework to connect your day to day activities with your goals. If you use Friyay.com as intended, you’ll increase your clarity of thought & quality of execution. This is because Friyay.com underpins key activities required to achieve goals.