Brainstorming and planning is one of my favorite parts of… well life. Whether it’s a story, a trip or my child’s dance competition schedule. I am always planning something.
This summer I took a step toward consolidating all three (sometimes more) of my planners into one custom planner. I was introduced to Plum Paper while chatting with another dance mom about how many planners I need just to manage all my schedules and ideas. When I checked them out I was thrilled to see I could customize a planner to include everything I need including a brainstorming section. (Do you still use paper and pen? I’d love to know what planner system is your favorite.)
I do a structured brainstorm every quarter. It’s a tool I learned from The Conquer Club and a great way to plan out my vision, as well as check in and give myself kudos on what I accomplished last quarter. My favorite way to do this, is out in the field. Just a few hours to enjoy a snack at a favorite coffee shop and a walk through a museum or a park is often the best way to inspire creativity and support my big vision.
Brainstorming in the Park
I love a good structured brainstorm. Guiding an idea through a series of questions often helps me validate a direction and supports the actions I need to take. Now that I’m thinking about it. I approach my goal planning (brainstorming) in much the same way I find and produce stories – carefully understanding the desired result and digging in to find a meaningful story that will achieve that result.
This past week a spent a lot of time brainstorming as I walked around Piedmont Park in Atlanta. I “discovered” new paths and art installations I hadn’t seen before and finally found the waterfall. It was dry as a bone, but I’ll check back this fall and grab a better picture.
Do you ever do that?
Get out of your office, your house, your head… and just explore your city. I’m pretty sure I got the idea watching Pretty Women when I was a *cough* kid. You remember, when Vivian gets uptight Edward out of the office AND out of his socks and shoes to feel the grass between his toes to help him think. It’s the best feeling!
Planning to Plan
Sometimes the least inspiring thing is a blank page. So I always start a good brainstorming session with a question or an idea that everything else will flow through. Something as simple as “what do you want to accomplish this quarter?” is enough to get me thinking about who I want to impact, how I want to do it, why it’s important and the results I want to achieve.
Tools: Journal, sticky notes and pens.
First, I break down the main goal into three mile stones to keep me on track each month. And second, I brainstorm every single action that needs to be accomplished in order to meet each mile stone and consequently the main goal.
From there I organize all the actions into a timeline that works with the milestones. This tends to look like a hierarchy of sorts. The goal on top, the three milestones on the next level and under that the groups of actions. Then I transfer everything into a project management system. I’ve been using Asana for years and it still meets and exceeds my expectations.
I tend to organize my brainstorming day around my specific goal. Sometimes I spend it at a museum, or window shopping at the mall, sometimes in a park. Walking and exploring seems to help the ideas flow. It’s almost like by not completely focusing on them I can grasp more details. I keep my pen and sticky notes handy to write down ideas and once back in the office I can organize them into groups. But while I’m out I tend to let the ideas flow.
Another great step to note, is that I do take a few minutes at the end of the day to create a debrief. A journal entry that captures where I went, what inspired me and a focus on all the ideas that came together. It’s a bit of a reflection on the day and helps bring it all together for me.
Planning my Quarterly Ritual
Over all, this is a two – three day process. It does take a bit of time to add everything into Asana (assign responsibility and due dates), but this ritual has kept me focus and moving forward for the last few years.
Now I’m curious. How do you plan your quarterly goals? Is brainstorming in the park something you’d be interested in trying next time? I’d love to know your thoughts!
Regardless of the setting this is a great exercise to break down big goals into daily attainable wins (remember to celebrate those) and it is essentially the same type of framework we use to breakdown stories. Planning our work and working our plan!
As always, if you have a story or an idea you’d like to discuss I’d love to meet with you and help you organize your own framework.
Let’s start talking,
Tami Lynn
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