Make 2008 Your Most Productive Year Ever by Creating a Personal Master Plan

by Josh Kaufman

pmba-masterplan-writing-jkim1.jpg
Photo courtesy of JKim1 on flickr.com.

It’s the beginning of February. If you’re like most people, you probably made a few New Year’s resolutions to improve your health, your relationships, your career, or your business.

We’re now a month into the New Year. Did you keep your resolutions? If you didn’t, it’s probably for a simple reason: you didn’t make a plan.

A Recipe for Achievement

To achieve anything you want in life, you absolutely must to do three things:

  1. Identify what you really want (vs. what you think you want) and create a positive, immediate, concrete, and specific goal that captures that desire accurately.
  2. Focus your energy by deciding what’s most important right now and what can be done later.
  3. Create a simple plan to ensure your daily actions will ultimately lead to the accomplishment of your most important goals.

Each and every one of us has a few things we’d like to improve about our health, our relationships, our career, our business, and our opportunities for relaxation and fun. Creating a “Personal Master Plan” is the best way to stop dreaming and start doing.

Introduction to Personal Master Planning

A “Personal Master Plan” is a short document that captures what you want to achieve most within the next three years, then systematically breaks down those goals into the most important actions you need to take this week in order to achieve them.

Once you’ve created your Master Plan, planning your day is a simple matter of choosing 2-3 things to accomplish today from your weekly list, then doing them before you do anything else that day. If you follow this method, you’ll achieve your goals quickly and with ease.

During the past year, I’ve experimented with using a Personal Master Plan to guide my daily actions, and the results have been astonishing. After creating my plan, I knew exactly what I needed to do and why I needed to do it. As a result, I’m in the best shape of my life, I’m eating healthfully, meeting new people, doing good work, and the PMBA is growing every day.

Download The PMBA Guide to Personal Master Planning

To help you make 2008 your most productive year ever, I’ve created a special lesson about Personal Master Planning exclusively for members of the PMBA Insider. This short lesson will take you through the entire process of identifying your goals and creating your own master plan. Along the way, I’ll also teach you how to use two simple tools (Backpack by 37 signals and David Seah’s Emergent Task Planner) to manage your plan and schedule your day.

To get your free copy of the Personal MBA Guide to Personal Master Planning, sign up for the PMBA Insider using this form. You’ll immediately receive the guide, along with other premium content that’s not available anywhere else on the net. (Your information is safe and secure.)



Creating a Personal Master Plan is one of the very best gifts you can give yourself this year: a clear vision of what you want and a plan to make your dreams a reality. I hope you find this guide informative and useful. Seize the day!

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NEW: PMBA Guides Section
April 15, 2008 at 4:51 pm

{ 50 comments }

1 Keith February 4, 2008 at 2:20 pm

Thanks for the info

2 Jeff February 5, 2008 at 11:40 am

Man you guys rock. I have been putting together a life plan and was looking for a system to help me do that. Thanks so much – Jeff.

3 Andrew February 5, 2008 at 12:52 pm

Thanks!

4 Terry February 5, 2008 at 3:06 pm

I am looking forward to implementing this… thanks,

5 Joe February 5, 2008 at 3:12 pm

thanks.

6 Todd Cravens February 5, 2008 at 3:19 pm

Looking forward to this

7 San-man February 5, 2008 at 3:50 pm

Is your mail server down? As I did not receive any email regarding activation, I was unable to activate my subscription.

8 Duane February 5, 2008 at 11:41 pm

thanks

9 Dan February 5, 2008 at 11:48 pm

Thanks!!

10 D1277 February 6, 2008 at 12:42 pm

Thanks.

11 San-man February 6, 2008 at 2:05 pm

I had better success with the mailer today. Thanks! This is great!

12 Duane February 6, 2008 at 10:06 pm

Trying again today

13 scott February 7, 2008 at 5:05 am

A very useful article..Thank you.

14 Gideoni Silva February 7, 2008 at 8:44 am

Trying again

15 CJ February 7, 2008 at 9:48 am

sounds like fun! i am waiting for that e-mail!

16 RobGTX February 7, 2008 at 12:33 pm

Josh,

I am absolutely enthralled with your program. The later part of 2007 was a big challenge for me. While promoted into the ranks of an executive at my company I had no formal post-Bachelor education and at 40 years old dropping everything for a 2 year MBA or even a 1 year EMBA just was not an option.

I began seeking alternatives and came to find your site. Your program has thought me that there is another way to advance.

Prior to 2008, I had not picked up a business book in years. Fast forward to today and I have devoured StrengthsFinder, The Personality Code, All Marketers Are Liars, Made To Stick, First Break All the Rules and the Little Green Book of Getting your Way and I am thirsty for more.

While my appetite for knowledge has been awakened, I fear that my motivation will soon drop, your concept of a Personal Master Plan is just what the doctor ordered.

Thanks for the motivation!

Rob

17 Mike February 7, 2008 at 12:52 pm

great.

18 Brent February 8, 2008 at 1:58 am

good

19 Mariusz Lewicki February 8, 2008 at 1:25 pm

Make 2008 Your Most Productive Year Ever by Creating a Personal Master Plan

20 Duane February 9, 2008 at 12:08 pm

Has anyone had luck receiving the “Master Plan”? If possible, could someone email me a copy to duanes1277@yahoo.com? I’ve been trying for days.

21 Edgar February 9, 2008 at 12:34 pm

Thanks!

22 Stephanie February 13, 2008 at 8:01 am

Look fwd

23 Dawn Reyn February 13, 2008 at 9:57 am

Sounds like a great plan. I can’t wait to get started

24 Reuben R February 13, 2008 at 7:02 pm

Looking forward to this

25 Robert L. Chongthu February 14, 2008 at 11:41 am

Sounds good.

26 blas becerra February 16, 2008 at 12:53 am

ready to make 08 the best yet!

27 michael debonis February 16, 2008 at 9:49 pm

thanks!

28 Joe February 18, 2008 at 1:33 am

thanks!

29 vincent l February 21, 2008 at 8:07 am

cool, thanks

30 Jamison February 23, 2008 at 9:16 am

Cant seem to get this page to do anything except submit a comment, would really like be able to receive the download

31 Stephanie February 23, 2008 at 7:50 pm

Has anyone been lucky enough to actually be able to download or recieve the personal master plan? If so, please email me how? thanks!
savy033@hotmail.com

32 djarsia March 1, 2008 at 5:33 am

None

33 SARAT CHANDRAN VK March 1, 2008 at 9:39 am

please forward the plan at the earliest

34 SARAT CHANDRAN VK March 1, 2008 at 9:41 am

rush me the master plan

35 SARAT CHANDRAN VK March 1, 2008 at 9:42 am

thanks

36 John D March 2, 2008 at 9:10 am

tx

37 Geof Lory March 4, 2008 at 9:34 am

What is going on with this? Can’t even see how to submit a request for the Personal Master Plan. Did I miss something?

38 Matthew Richard March 4, 2008 at 2:22 pm

Make 2008 Your Most Productive Year Ever by Creating a Personal Master Plan

39 Tori March 6, 2008 at 10:07 am

How do I download this guide. There is no submit button on your form!!
:(

40 Josh Kaufman March 6, 2008 at 10:48 am

All,

Apologies for the issues – I’ve identified a problem in the form displaying correctly in Internet Explorer, and I’m working to resolve the issue. (The submit button on the form displays briefly, then is hidden for some mysterious reason.)

If you don’t want to wait, the form is working correctly in Mozilla Firefox (http://getfirefox.com), or you can enter your information in the “Join the PMBA Insider” form in the right hand column, which appears to be working correctly. You’ll receive the guide via e-mail after you confirm your e-mail address.

Thanks for your patience!

41 Mick Winters March 7, 2008 at 11:46 am

This is an outstanding personal planning tool! I went through it last weekend and found it very helpful in clarifying my goals. Thanks Josh!

42 hernan March 11, 2008 at 11:13 am

I confirm my subcription but i have not received the Master plan back.
How can i obtain the copy.
can someone mail it to sanesco@une.net.co ?

thks

43 greg cogswell March 11, 2008 at 4:51 pm

please send me the personal master plan

44 Michael Ryniker March 13, 2008 at 1:14 pm

How do i get my copy? I looking forward to starting.

45 Michael Ryniker March 13, 2008 at 1:15 pm

How do i get started? Is the server down?

46 Shoaib Ali March 18, 2008 at 5:15 am

Thanks!

47 C. Vincent March 24, 2008 at 4:37 pm

Can someone email me a copy of the plan? cvincent@trentcap.com

48 M. Alamri April 8, 2008 at 7:09 am

I want to make this year my most productive year.

49 Jill Cooley April 10, 2008 at 11:42 am

I want a copy too !!
I want everything that Mike Ryniker wants !!

50 Josh Kaufman April 15, 2008 at 4:56 pm

You can now download the “PMBA Guide to Personal Master Planning” by visiting http://personalmba.com/guides/. Enjoy!

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