Chart Your Course From Here to There
The Planning Process Collection, Part 3: Planning
In Part 1 of this series, we explored how Reviewing helps you understand where you are. In Part 2, we looked at how Visioning clarifies where you want to go. Now we turn to the third phase: Planning, the process of charting your course between the two.
Why Planning Matters
Some people naturally live in this phase. If you’ve taken our Momentum Quiz, you might recognize yourself as a Designer:
📋 Designer: Master planner who thrives on mapping out the process. Designers love creating plans but may find it challenging to choose where to focus — or to move from planning to doing.
Others struggle with this phase. Visionaries (big-picture thinkers) may resist getting into the details, wanting to stay in the realm of endless possibilities. Creators (action-oriented doers) might want to skip planning entirely and jump straight into execution, preferring to figure things out as they go.
But here’s the truth: all roles are needed in the planning process. And just as skipping Reviewing or Visioning creates problems, skipping Planning leaves you without a roadmap:
Reviewing: You know where you are, but have no clear path forward
Visioning: You know where you want to go, but don’t know how to get there
Executing: You’re taking action, but without direction or sequence — often creating more work than necessary
Planning bridges the gap. It’s your roadmap for the journey.
What Planning Actually Is
Planning requires two things:
1. Know What You’ll Need for the Journey
Before you can map your route, you need to understand the landscape of your project.
Define what done looks like. Get specific about the outcome you’re creating. What exactly will you deliver? What does success look like for this project?
Assess what you have. What’s already available to you? Consider your time, energy, skills, tools, and support. Understanding your current resources gives you a realistic starting point.
Identify what you need. Compare what you have to what the project requires. Do you need to build a team? Acquire tools or training? Secure budget or time? Understanding this gap helps you either acquire what’s missing or adjust your plans to match reality.
2. Plot Your Roadmap
Once you know what you need, it’s time to map the route.
Break it down. Chunk your project into manageable pieces. For longer journeys, identify the major milestones. For each milestone, determine the discrete steps. Acquiring those resources you identified? That becomes one of your steps.
Put it in order. Take your vertical list of steps and lay it horizontally so you can sequence what happens when. Some steps must happen before others. Some can happen in parallel. This is where you create the logical flow from start to finish.
Putting Your Plans Together
You might create a perfect plan for your project. But when you try to fit it alongside everything else you have going on, constraints become visible.
This is where the scoping and roadmapping work pays off. Without understanding what your project truly needs and how much space it requires, you’ll keep overcommitting and wondering why nothing gets done.
Tools like our Momentum Planners force the reality check. They make you see all your plans together in one place. The planners follow the Five Projects Rule, which creates necessary constraints. If you’re like most of us, you’ll find that not everything will fit. That’s valuable information you can use to make conscious choices about what you’ll actually do rather than unconsciously overcommitting.
Planning Resources
Below you’ll find resources to help you create plans that actually work:
When you need to understand what planning is and why it matters
4 Reasons Why Going from Idea to Done Is So Hard - See why you need more than motivation to finish what matters
When you need to define what done looks like
How to Set SMART Goals - Make your goals Simple, Meaningful, Actionable, Realistic, and Trackable to set yourself up for success
How to Find the Right Level of Success for Your Next Project - Choose between small, moderate, and epic success levels to match your resources and commitment
When you need to understand what resources you have and need
How Success Packs Push Your Project to Done - Build your team of guides, peers, supporters, and beneficiaries before you create your plan
Get GUTSY With Your Project Planning - Five essential factors to evaluate when planning any project
Keep Flying by Accounting for Drag Points - Navigate inevitable challenges by reframing no-win scenarios, managing other people’s priorities, and addressing naysayers
When you need to break your project down into steps
The 5 Must-Practice Skills For Doing Your Best Work - Master the five essential planning skills: visualizing, articulating clear goals, prioritizing, chunking, and sequencing
Chunking Your Projects Down Helps Get Them Done - Learn how to break projects into coherent, discrete two-hour chunks with clear starts and finishes
37 Universal Verbs to Use for Your To-Do Lists - Use these verbs organized by time horizon (quarter/month, week, or task-sized) to naturally guide your sequencing
When you need to create your full roadmap
How to Build Your Project Roadmap - Follow this 7-step process to chunk, link, sequence, clump, upgrade, overlay, and schedule your project (for paid subscribers)
Making Progress Towards Your Goals & Dreams Quarter by Quarter - Create a 12-week roadmap that’s strategic enough to guide you but flexible enough to survive reality
When you need to fit your plan with everything else
The Five Projects Rule: Defining Your Best Work - Limit yourself to no more than five active projects per time horizon to actually finish what matters most
When you need the planning tools that house all your plans
Get Your 2026 Momentum Planners - The planners that help you see all your plans together in one place
Momentum App - Our digital app takes the Momentum Planning Method and adapts it for screen-based planning with features like easy task management and device flexibility
Momentum Planning E-Course Overview - Get step-by-step guidance through our complete planning methodology (full course available to paid subscribers)
Up Next in This Series
Now that you know where you are (Reviewing), where you want to go (Visioning), and how you’ll get there (Planning), it’s time to start moving. Part 4: Executing is coming soon.
Struggling to create plans that actually work? Or finding yourself stuck in endless planning without moving forward? Our Productivity Coaching can help you develop planning practices that match your style and support real progress. Learn more about Productivity Coaching.