To prevent feeling overwhelmed, approach your planning in ‘waves’ or ‘horizons’, breaking down strategies and long-term activities into manageable phases. Planning too far ahead in intricate detail often leads to unrealistic expectations and potential setbacks and setting yourself up to feel a failure. An approach to consider:

• Visualise Your Journey: Picture yourself standing before a landscape, ready to embark on a journey. Some valleys and terrains are hidden, representing unknown challenges and opportunities. Accept that uncertainties are part of the path, and seek guidance from mentors and colleagues to navigate them. In contrast, clearer paths allow for detailed planning on how, when, and where to proceed.
• Adopt a ‘Rolling Wave’ or ‘Horizon Planning’ Technique: Focus on creating detailed plans for the next 2–3 months while setting high-level milestones and key checkpoints for the longer term (up to 1–2 years). This approach allows for continuous review and adjustment.
• Review and Adjust Regularly: Upon reaching each checkpoint, pause to assess your progress. One approach to use the ‘stock take’ method in a video linked to below. With new insights, plan the next phase in detail, leveraging your clearer understanding of the journey ahead.
• Schedule Regular Planning Sessions: Dedicate an hour each month to review and extend your rolling plan. During these sessions, add detailed plans for the upcoming three months and reassess long-term milestones to incorporate new details as they emerge.

Rolling wave planning is used for projects where there are unknowns or risks, and so is very appropriate for research projects where all the data isn’t immediately available. You can learn more about the technique in the project management blog. This dynamic approach keeps your plans flexible, realistic, and aligned with evolving circumstances.

‘Stock-take’ to review progress

Being strategic requires us to be honest with ourselves about where we are, what we have achieved, what’s working and what is getting in the way. In this video, you are guided through a structured process to review your career (have a pen and paper at the ready!).

The same technique can also be used to review progress of a project, a relationship or collaboration, or a PhD student you are supervising. You can also download a  Stock take – progress review (pdf) worksheet to use separately from the video or share with colleagues, students or collaborators.