Usually, around New Year’s, folks get excited about doing more strategic planning. Last week I shared my recommendation to pitch your “Yearly Goals,” and what I now do instead. However, that doesn’t mean that this isn’t a great time of year to spend some time doing some reflective and strategic work. That’s why I thought I’d share a few thoughts about my favorite tools for strategic planning “big picture” work.
This type of expansive thinking is entirely different from many other kinds of work you likely do on a daily basis. That’s why there are actually specific tools that I use for strategic work that ARE NOT my usual operational tools, and some of them are simply too good not to share with you.
That’s why I’m going to share my favorite digital and paper/physical strategic planning tools particularly for location-independent entrepreneurs … and get you out of the weeds for your strategic work.
What is Strategic Planning
Unlike your daily or weekly reflection time, a few times a year (I vote for 3-4x, a.k.a seasonal planning), it’s tremendously valuable to step away from your day-to-day activities and zoom out.
Strategic planning is the higher level work of answering questions like these:
- What do I want to do? – What are my Vivid Future Accomplishments (VFAs)?
- What comes first? – Considering effort & impact, what will make the biggest difference in my life or business right now?
- How am I going to get started doing it? – What is my top priority project this season?
- What’s the first step?
In my upcoming course, I walk my students step-by-step through a specific process that allows them to answer each of those questions with clarity … all in the first WEEK of the course!
Then, I share with them a powerful, guided visualization “Pathworking” exercise to actually “install” their VFAs into their personal future timeline, which allows them to magnetically be pulled towards it into their desired future.
However, when you’re trying to answer these huge and important questions, your first step is to make sure that your brain is out of the mire of your daily operational activities.
Why Strategic Planning Is Different
Unlike the time you spend with your Master List and thinking about things that you are “getting done,” your strategic planning time is when you take time to decide what deserves to take up space on your Master List in the first place.
There’s an expansiveness of mind and thought that happens during strategic planning that’s unlike any other activity you likely do in your business. That’s why you usually want to start your strategic planning by stepping away from your typical environment and your usual tools.
Yep, when I’m starting strategic planning… I’m not looking at my Master List. Here’s the problem, if you’re spending all your big think time looking at what’s already in your system, then you’re not thinking expansively.
That is your personal box! When it’s time to get traction and take action, then staying focused on what’s in your box and on your roadmap is essential. However, at the beginning of strategic planning you want to consider what could be there but isn’t yet.
What do you want to create, change, or make happen in your life that you haven’t yet considered or committed to doing? What isn’t on your list yet but deserves to be? You likely won’t find those ideas already on your Master List. (Unless you have an idea incubator that you’ve been storing them in… more on that in a future post… but essentially it’s a part of your system where you stash ideas for the future.)
So, if you’re not starting with the tool that stores your Master List, then where can you start this work?
Strategic Planning Tools for Location-Independent Entrepreneurs
As I said, if strategic planning is all about being expansive and thinking beyond your current personal “box,” then the best place to start is with a “blank sheet of paper.” So, yes, you could just use a literal blank sheet of paper, and that can work just fine.
But, there are a few options that I’ve used over the years that are even better. And, I’ve thought specifically about strategic planning tools that can work for a location-independent entrepreneur because when you’re traveling it’s all about finding the tools that can travel with you.
Obviously there are two types of options here: digital tools & paper/physical tools.
If you’re a fast-traveling, carry-on only kinda traveler, then the digital tools are a great idea to focus on. You need to prioritize space and portability while ensuring that your information is both highly accessible and sharable.
However, if you’re a slow traveler who’ll be in a specific home for a while, or you LOVE and need that physical paper, kinesthetic experience… no worries, I’ve got options for you too! A lot of these ideas are inexpensive enough that you can probably pick some up when you land somewhere, then pass them along to another traveler when you leave and get more in your next landing place when you’re ready to plan for the next season.
Digital Strategic Planning Tools
There are three tools that I love to use when doing digital strategic planning.
1. Create photo collages using Canva.com… yep, good old Canva can be a great tool for creating vision boards for your Vivid Future Accomplishments!
If the intention is to make your future accomplishments (what most people call goals) REAL and VIVID, then having a visual image(s) that evokes the feelings and sights you’ll experience when you’ve accomplished that goal can be a great place to start.
You’ve probably created a physical vision board at some point in time by cutting out photos and words from magazines and gluing them onto a piece of cardboard. Well… this is far more portable, and you have the whole world of the internet to find your photos! (Canva even has a pretty great stockpile of images to start with…) Then, you can add your own text that says whatever you want (in a wide variety of fonts) … even add arrows or graphics that call out specific important elements of a photo.
In other words, it’s the ultimate vision board solution for the digital nomad or location-independent entrepreneur! Then, when you’re done, download your photo and make it the wallpaper for your computer desktop or your iPad lock screen. Heck, you could even turn it into a custom “laptop skin” and wrap your computer in your future accomplishments! Talk about keeping it immediately present and vivid for you on a daily basis.
2. MindNode (or similar mind-mapping software)
When you’re brainstorming anything … there’s nothing like mind-mapping software to start getting ideas out of your head into writing somewhere. Personally, I’ve used MindNode for years for exactly this purpose. However, it is Mac & iOS specific. So, there are other great mind-mapping options out there for you Android & PC fans like MindMeister.
Basically, mind mapping software allows you to start writing and just get everything down, then begin clarifying relationships between different ideas and organizing your thinking into various projects, milestones, or elements all in a highly visual hub and branch type of design. I particularly like MindNode because of its ability to:
- Show both a traditional mind map and more list-style outline.
- Share maps easily with others (like team members or clients)
- Download local copies of my mindmaps onto my laptop, iPad, or iPhone and continue to work with them offline (aka on planes? In remote areas? etc?)
- Create visually appealing layouts that are customizable to make them enjoyable to create and use
3. Miro.com (or similar virtual whiteboard software)
I first discovered Miro (formerly called RealTimeBoard) a couple years ago when I was looking for a digital alternative to a whiteboard, and I rather love it. It’s like an infinitely expandable digital whiteboard space that you can use for virtually any type of diagramming your company needs.
It does include templates for mind-mapping (although not quite as beautiful or powerful) and might make Mindnode irrelevant for you. But, it can also do flow charts, org charts, project roadmaps, and many other types of layouts.
But, it starts to really shine when you understand its real-time and asynchronous collaboration abilities. If you have a strategic plan, roadmap, mind map, or similar that you want to work on collaboratively with your team… in my opinion Miro.com is where its at for a powerful and vastly creative tool.
Paper or Physical Strategic Planning Tools
For many digital nomads the digital tools are all they want, but sometimes there’s just nothing better than physically writing or sketching things out. That’s why I also wanted to include some awesome strategic planning tool options for the more paper or kinesthetically inclined.
1. A White Board
Ok, before you balk and say… “HAHAHA, Erin, yeah right… why in the world would I buy a huge whiteboard when I live out of a carry-on suitcase?”
First, if you’re a slow traveler, there can be awesome arguments for “gearing up” a bit when you land in a new place as you get settled in order to make a space function beautifully for you, then selling or passing those items along to a fellow nomad (or local) when you’re ready to move on.
However, if the idea of buying and hanging a huge, traditional white board still seems bonkers to you, then how about some adhesive or magnetic whiteboard sheets? You could turn the front of your Airbnb refrigerator or dishwasher into a whiteboard, or even use 3M poster strips or poster tape to stick a bunch of 11” x 17” whiteboard sheets to any available wall or door. You can even toss the sheets into the bottom of your suitcase (away from your laptop if they’re magnetic) and bring them with you from place to place.
Add as many squares as you want and make your whiteboard space as big as your wall will allow! Think of it… a portable whiteboard wall!
2. Large White Craft Paper
Sometimes there’s nothing like a GIANT roll of paper. While you’re probably not going to carry this roll from place to place, just buying a roll of “craft paper” or even a roll of wrapping paper that is flipped to its back side can give you a HUGE surface for writing, drawing, or brainstorming.
This solution doesn’t have to be fancy… but you could cover a whole wall with this paper and give yourself a giant space for brainstorming and planning. Then, take photos of it when you’re done or moving and throw it out.
One roll of paper can get you through a LOT of brainstorms, and feels so much more expansive than just that little, letter or A4 size sheet from the printer.
3. Sticky Poster-size Post-its
Did you know they made these? It’s the size of a posterboard, and you can use it on a traditional presentation easel if you want. OR, you can just pull pages off and stick them to a wall or door. Then, you can write or draw whatever you like.
They’re even “re-stickable,” so you can move them around with you if you want and bring them from room to room or from the co-working space back to your house. These are a great alternative to the two above options that really are super simple.
4. A Dry-erase, multi-month/annual calendar
I used to LOVE my annual dry erase calendar. Planning out my travels, vacations, launches, etc on the big dry erase calendar for the year was one of my favorite activities in December/January. However, I’ll admit that this one hasn’t made the cut during our first year as a digital nomad family.
But, I’ve seriously considered buy one again… particularly since we’re doing a lot of our travels by car currently… just toss it on the bottom of the trunk and pack directly on top of it?
That said, if you’re traveling slowly enough (3-6 months?), then it might be worth it to buy one every season when you land in a new place and sketch out the major milestones for the upcoming season.
For me, this was the easiest one to shift digitally. I even created annual template notes in Evernote to allow me to sketch through different scenarios on a higher level, and this mostly fills the need for me. But, having a poster size, dry erase calendar is still super tempting for me… and might be for you too.
5. Paper Vision Board
Of course, you could always decide to stay old-school and make a big craft project out of creating a physical vision board for your VFAs too. They aren’t the most portable of items, but as I said before…
… if you’re a slow traveler, then this might be part of your landing process. You could create a vision board for this season of your life, business, and travel, then post it up on your bedroom wall!
Some highly tactile, highly creative people would get so much joy out of doing this type of creative project 2-4x year. So, if that’s you, rock on and go to town!
Next Actions
There you go… 8 different awesome tools for your strategic planning both now and throughout the year (if you’re following my recommendation for switching to seasonal planning.)
So, if you haven’t yet scheduled time on your calendar for your seasonal strategic planning time, then pull out your calendar and make that happen. Then, take a look at these tools and consider which one (or two) might help you make this a spectacularly vibrant season of life!
If you’re not yet on the waiting list to hear about the upcoming launch of:
The Freedom Evolution:
5 Elements You Need
for a Business and Lifestyle You Desire
Then, make sure you sign up now, so you hear immediately when doors open… very soon!
The course will teach you all my best strategies for creating a clear vision and the productivity systems to execute it in your life and business, and my students get access to exercises (like installing your VFAs directly into your future timeline) which you can’t get anywhere else.
So, join the waiting list… and we’re launching for our founding members in early 2020!
