Running a solo annual retreat

How I prepared for a December retreat in 2016, to plan the next year for me and for Siftware.

Fix the deliverables before you go

Otherwise it's a holiday with a notebook. Mine:

• A vision, and a handful of questions answered.
• Ideally, a plan for growth next year.
• Targets for the year, and above all for the first quarter.
• An avoid list.

Review first

Before any new goal, look back:

• What did I get done this year?
• What didn't I get done?
• Where did I spin out or go off the rails?
• Which goals were badly worded, or based on how I felt at the time?

The questions

• Where do I want to go, and how do I get there?
• What are my obstacles?
• How will I gauge progress?
• What are my current pains, so I know what to solve?
• What scares me?
• What's working, and what isn't?
• What was good this year, and what was bad?
• How do I avoid burnout?
• What am I good at?
• What's my vision for the business? Ruminate on it.

A why before any goal

Goals should all feed into a why.

Start with the meta goal, then line the measurable goals up behind it. Write each main project's plan as a short personal statement.

Have goals in more than one area. If every goal hangs off the same thing, one miss and the whole year feels like a failure. Think of it as load balancing. Each goal needs milestones, and they need to be measurable.

Leads before vision

A vision of a bigger team and lots of happy customers is fine, but scaling the team is moot without leads. The immediate tactic still has to be getting more of them.

The monthly version: plan a month on one printed page. Accountability between retreats: run a mastermind that stays useful.