I was working through quarterly retrospectives / plannings with a couple of my long-term consulting clients and it reminded me that I wanted to share a bit about my own processes.
It probably comes as no surprise that I use the Circle Method to manage my own business and life. I have some personal adjustments to the basic method just based on my many years of experience with it, but at core, it’s the same process I teach and use in my consulting.
That means that I too did a quarterly retrospective/plan. My retrospective was based on my 2025 Circle Thrice business plan (which is business goal driven) and our 2025 Peaceable Kingdom household plan (which is seasonal). A key component of the Circle Method is that at each planning level, you reassess up a level and detail down a level. Let me explain…
When I do a Quarterly Planning, I also take a look at my Annual plan. I do this for three reasons:
- It reminds you of the goals and plans you have set for yourself
- It gives you an opportunity to adjust course if necessary
- It informs the quarterly plan
Then I review my previous quarterly plan and create my new quarterly plan. When I do that, tasks start naturally ‘falling out’ of the bottom and I tuck those into my various task caches (aka backlogs, todo lists, etc.). So the process of quarterly planning flushes out details for my future cycle mappings (full disclosure, I cycle map weekly, but this isn’t what I typically recommend – for most people this would be too frequent and every 2-4 weeks is better – I’m just very fast with it from many years of experience, so it works for me).
The quarterly review is also my FAFO (fuck around and find out) moment. I typically try things out for a few months to see if they are working and then review and adjust course (ok, sometimes I fail faster than quarterly, as we all do, but mostly giving things a month or three to shake out makes sense). On of my FA’s for Q1 was the new membership levels and this quarterly planning was a moment to FO whether that was producing the results I wanted. Based on my review, I have made some tweaks to the membership. That shook out a bunch of tasks that I’m still working through (announcements to existing members, changes to the site, etc.). So you can see that once you create OR review a goal, tasks will naturally come from it.
I also did a review of the household, which I talk through with my husband. In this case, we were decently on target with our Q1 goals with the notable exception of the “refresh the laying flock” project. This was completely derailed, not because of anything we did, but because external circumstances meant that chicks were as hard to come by as Taylor Swift tickets. This is an example of using the cycle mapping process to be AGILE. I had to add tasks to my weekly cycles in February and March to find chicks (calling farm stores, doing research, standing in line – concert tickets, I’m telling you!). We managed to source some chicks in late March, which pushed the project out into Q2. Again, this was completely outside of our control, but having the planning process in place helped us see where we needed to put extra focus.
So instead of a process like:
- Go to buy chicks
- No chicks available – bummer
- Don’t think about it again for three months
- Suddenly it’s June and you’re still buying eggs
No judgement! This is exactly how it would have gone for us back in the day without the regular review process.
You get:
- Go to buy chicks
- No chicks available – reevaluate your chick-based task list
- Review means that your chicken project is top of mind
- Manage to source chicks (yes, I will stand in line)
- Chicks achieved and only seven weeks later than anticipated
- We took advantage of the delay to plan a complete remodel of our coop and run!
This is why we do the process in our household. Because it keeps us on track and our minds on the most important things we want to achieve.
If you are interested in learning more, you have three options:
- Free option – go research Project Management and Agile Software Development and jailbreak to a) work for your personal life and b) incorporate enchantment (this is what I have been doing since being introduced to Agile Development in 2003 and becoming a professional PM in 2008).
- Low cost option – join the Inner Circle as a Circle Planning member. You’ll get the monthly and quarterly magical planners and spend the next year training in all aspects of the process (risk management, goal setting, task planning, and habit formation) and getting regular support and camaraderie with me and others in a small group setting.
- High cost option – join the Inner Circle as an Engagement member and in addition to the training, you can meet with me twice monthly for personal one-on-one coaching and get free tarot readings from me. Book a free 40 minute inquiry session to see if this option is right for you.
