We all live our lives through the prism of multiple timeframes : short term, mid term and long term.
You probably have plans that usually fall within each of these timeframes.
And if you don’t, you should.
Having a shorter term plan is what keeps you motivated in your day to day habits, it’s how you behave day after day, week after week, it’s execution. Whether it’s to boost your résumé for a round of job applications, or crushing the startup whirlwind every day of the week or even getting that beach body ready for summer.
Mid term usually tends to have a deeper meaning. Your goal may be to acquire certain new skills for a career change, it may be to dedicate some time to get into shape for longer running races in the future or it may be to start building momentum for a future round of funding for your company.
Long term is what connects you to that something bigger, it may not be very clear yet but it revolves around the impact you want to have on the world. Some will want to reduce social inequalities, to fight for the environment or just to become rich as f#ck.
I personally tend to get caught up in the latter. I always find myself going back to the big things that I see unfolding in many months or years.
Although it’s necessary, the problem with this way of thinking is that I tend to daydream and lose focus of the building blocks I am laying down now. I get so carried away into my own head that if I don’t catch myself, execution of current plans might suffer.
So I have to pay attention to how much time I dedicate to it.
Now don’t get me wrong, each one of these timeframes has it’s importance. Execution with no vision can be detrimental and great vision with no execution will get you nowhere. Connecting the timeframes is what keeps you focused as well as allows you to sustain consistent effort month after month.
So I have come up with a general rule of thumb. 10% of my time goes to the longer term thinking (2-3+ years), 20% to mid term planning (6-24 months) and 70% goes to short term planning and execution.
This way, I can also allocate time within my week for each and not get lost. I spend most of the day building relationships, winning over costumer, reaching out to potential collaborators. Some of it is dedicated to laying out the plans for all these pieces to come together as smoothly as possible. A fraction of it is spent thinking about what I’m really trying to achieve, what my mission is for doing all this.
How do you usually navigate this? Let me know, I’m genuinely interested! 😃
