The 90-Minute Quarterly Breakout That Changes Everything
Could 90 minutes of focused, intentional time change the trajectory of your next quarter?
I believe it can!
This year, I’ve taken a more strategic approach to my business goals. Instead of reacting to the month as it unfolds, I have intentionally carved out space to review, prioritize, and plan. And with the second quarter approaching, there’s no better time to conduct a strategic business review and set clear goals for what’s next.
This probably sounds so elementary, but as small business owners and service providers, we need to take the time and prep where we can. In a world full of changing algorithms and evolving platforms, using a time block will help prevent the day-to-day question of "what's today's priority” and help move you from a task-doer to the CEO you aspire to be.
Preparing for your Breakout
The key piece to accomplishing this breakout is ensuring you have a dedicated time and space set aside. So, open your calendar right now as you're reading this and book a non-negotiable time block. Depending on how complex your business is, you may need anywhere from 90 minutes to 4 hours. This time will be dedicated to blocking out all noise, so don’t plan to answer emails or calls.
Make this fun! Think about your environment. Where do you best feel creative and in a good headspace to turn off the noise and focus on what's to come? Mix it up and head to a new coffee shop, a co-working space, or even a different room. Order that special drink and be present at work to come.
Ensure you have all the essentials to note your thoughts and complete your planning. Think of tools like notebooks for your checklist, your planner, and if you use project management software, make sure to have your laptop (and charger) ready to go. While you're at it, grab that pack of cute pens you have been eyeing as well. The goal is to make this an exciting task rather than something that feels daunting.
Step 1: Conduct a Business Audit
Before you can set up the goals for what's to come, you must see where things are currently.
Taking a short audit and truly answering the following questions will give you a place to begin.
Task Audit: What tasks were the most profitable/enjoyable? What tasks drained my energy? Is there anything to consider outsourcing?
Financial Health Check: Simple review of your revenue, expenses, and profit margin.
Time Tracking Analysis: Where did your time actually go? How does your planned schedule compare to the hours you truly worked?
Key Metrics: A quick review of any trackable metrics, such as conversion rates, social media growth, and lead source effectiveness.
Once you have gone through all those parts of your business, you should feel reassured that, overall, your business is headed in the direction you intend. Or did you find a point to pivot in the upcoming quarter, and can you take the next piece to plan out action steps for that?
Step 2: Define your Mile Markers
You know how things are going and can look to the next piece of the puzzle: the actual needle-moving action steps for the upcoming quarter. We need to identify 3-5 main Mile Markers.
These mile markers should represent measurable outcomes, not task lists. We are defining direction, not daily to-dos.
Some ideas could be:
Lead Follow-Up Consistency
Course Launch Preparation
Marketing for a Product Campaign
Step 3: Break Goals into Tasks
Once you have identified those larger pieces, it’s time to work backwards and create smaller tasks. These tasks will be your checkpoints to show progress and make your overarching goal attainable. You don’t need to worry about the exact deadlines for each piece, but if you can create a general list of all the smaller tasks leading to the larger completion, making your weekly plan will come easier.
This is where a project management system like Asana becomes invaluable. Create a board for the quarter, organize each objective into its own section, and assign tasks with realistic due dates that can always be adjusted if other high-priority things need your attention.
When projects are visible and centralized, clarity replaces overwhelm. I have been using Asana for so long that breaking projects out into one place, but smaller tasks in the view it offers, brings so much peace and clarity to what I am working towards. (Side note - I’d be happy to help with my brain organization in setting you up on Asana if that’s helpful!)
You can also use this space to plan content for your social media, email, or newsletter. Planning will make the time for actions more feasible.
Post-Breakout: Execution & Review
Congrats! You completed your quarterly planning, but now it’s time to do the work you planned for. The key here is to integrate the plan into doable, non-overwhelming daily and weekly tasks.
To help with this, I recommend setting aside 30 minutes either Friday afternoon or over the weekend to review what was done the week before and identify new priorities. Review your calendar and make sure you're not overwhelming yourself.
Give yourself time to work on your business needs by scheduling a recurring CEO work block to focus on your business rather than client work. This will give you space to complete your marketing, system development, or other internal projects that aren’t billable to clients.
Through your breakout work, you may find tasks or client work can be streamlined or even outsourced. Make note of these for your next quarterly planning session, so you have a reminder to brainstorm and develop a plan to free up that time.
Quarterly Planning Breakout Template for Business Owners
The first time you give this a try may feel clunky, and that is ok! Embrace the mess as you begin to find structure. Remember that strategic planning today creates freedom tomorrow.
Your move: Open your calendar and schedule your Quarterly Planning Breakout now. Don’t wait until the quarter begins; lead it before it arrives.
To make the planning process even easier, I created an interactive Notion Quarterly Planning Breakout Template you can customize and use during your session.