Workshop: Plan Your Quarter with Me
Want to offer this workshop to your employees? It's useful self-management skills + great team bonding.
Want to run a private cohort for your conference, community, friends, or meetup? It can add structure and shared language to help you better support each other.
Would you sign up if I offered this in an on-demand format? You could start it whenever you need it most, and refer back to it every quarter.
Please let me know, I'd love to hear your ideas 💌
You know planning is important, but somehow it just.......never happens
You're killing it at your job, checking things off right and left, crushing those lists, but one day you realize...where is this all going?
Or maybe you always mean to blog more (or to write a book, learn a skill, change fields, start your dream business, give a conference talk) but your blog is still just that one post from January.
Or perhaps you're a busy, successful leader. You report to an executive and are expected to manage yourself. You've heard reflection and planning are crucial to your role, but you don't really know what to do with Strategic Time, and you have so many projects and teams that need your attention right now. No one will notice if you push it back a little...but then quarter after quarter fly by.
Or maybe you did set aside time, but when the Strategic Time arrived, you stared awkwardly at a blank page for a while...then wandered back into your inbox where the work is more clear cut.
Maybe you've even tried various quarterly planning systems, but they just felt like so much work that you never went back.
I've had all of those moments—many times!
I started to crack the code when I was an engineering manager. We were asked to run a quarterly review with every report, every quarter, and I didn't want to just phone it in.
I had a hunch this could be my highest leverage point for their learning, growth, and alignment.
I tinkered and experimented, using feedback to hone the process over time. I knew planning would help my team but I was truly stunned when their growth took off like a rocket ship! And a wonderful side effect was my team of stressed-out high achievers got happier and more relaxed— because they were crystal clear on the few things that mattered most 🏝️
I've done a LOT of trial and error. I've now seen all the places people get stuck. I've helped:
- leaders step back and consider where they need to take their teams
- overthinkers move their feet
- perfectionists celebrate their wins
- skeptics come to love the process and make it their own
- people gather data to discover what really lights them up
- they debug why their plans aren't moving forward—and iterate until they do
Your days are more relaxed and joyful when each moves you toward the life you want.
You deserve that, every day.
Ready to take the first step? Sign up below!
Why this approach works
I've tried so many other planning approaches, but they were all too hard to stick with. They were either too unweildy, too "woo woo," they added to my overwhelm, or low impact.
After significant tinkering, I cracked the code. I've sustainably done quarterly planning for years now and taught it to dozens of others. And the true sign of how effective it is: I start to feel adrift when I go too long without planning.
Every detail of the workshop, from the pricing to the questions on the signup form to the structure of the calls, is specifically designed to help you actually follow through.
🔑 Accountability. I keep the program small enough that I'll notice if you don't follow through. I see you and I'm rooting for you!
🔑 Deadlines. Let's face it: "I just need to get through X and then I'll have time to plan" is a seductive lie, so you may as well set a deadline and just do what you can
🔑 Streamlined process to make the most of your limited planning time. Not so much material that you get overwhelmed—ONLY the good stuff.
🔑 Connecting to your big picture suddenly reveals what actually matters in your overwhelming to do list
🔑 Working with your brain to build your momentum, instead of "just trying harder"
I charge more than other programs because you’re more likely to actually do the planning—with a couple exceptions due to a war breaking out, all cohorts have had a 100% completion rate, which is literally unheard of for online workshops.
Ready? Sign up below!
What you get
In the program you'll get:
- Supportive accountability, so it actually happens!
- Carefully crafted exercises, honed and streamlined, that you can take with you and use forever
- Small-group live calls to go deeper and debug the snags. This process is simple but not easy, and the devil is in the details
- Essential mindset tips and tricks to go from overwhelm and indecision to satisfaction and forward movement—even on things you've been stuck on for ages
and you will:
- celebrate and learn from last quarter, creating a feeling of satisfaction and pride in your work—critical for momentum (and helpful to show your boss!)
- list the areas of your work and life—see your whole life on a single page
- pick just a few areas of focus for this quarter, confidently leaving the others on maintenance mode for a while. No more overwhelm!
- get clear on where exactly you're going
- identify your next steps, and get started!
What's not included:
You may notice that "a complete scheduled plan for every week of the quarter with breakdowns and milestones and all projects scoped out thoroughly" isn't on the list.
I've found over and over again (with all kinds of different people) that that's just not a good approach to individual planning. It's unrealistic, inflexible, inevitably discouraging, and requires too much boring drudge work to maintain.
This approach is more realistic, flexible, efficient—and energizing! It's specifically designed to get you unstuck and keep you making forward progress, no matter what changes or comes up throughout the quarter.
Ready? Sign up below!
Who this is for
This workshop is useful to any modern knowledge worker. We're faced with so much noise and possible ways to spend our time, and the only path to a calm and satisfying life is making deliberate decisions.
The more you need to define your own priorities, the more important this material is. It's a huge competitive advantage for:
- managers, directors, executives, and entrepreneurs
- business owners and anyone with a "side hustle"
- creatives, academics, and anyone for whom a path does not exist
- staff or principal individual contributors and any tech leads—even if your team has a roadmap to work from, you need to figure out how to influence the roadmap, and plan your own career growth
IMPORTANT NOTE: this workshop is for planning YOUR quarter—whatever combination of personal and work life you like. It’s NOT designed for planning a team’s or company’s roadmaps.
And yes, this will be helpful...
- no matter how busy, unusual, or chaotic your next quarter will be
- no matter how much or how little you got done last quarter
- no matter your organization style
- no matter how much you're juggling
- even if your projects at work are handed to you on a roadmap
- no matter your industry
- no matter what "season" of life you’re in—it's designed to be flexible and grow with you
You won't figure it all out in one workshop—it takes several quarters of practice to internalize this skill—but the sooner you start, the sooner you get clarity and peace of mind.
Want to get started? Sign up below!
What's the structure & time commitment?
I've worked ruthlessly to streamline this workshop—it's only the good stuff, no fluff. It's exactly as long as it needs to be, and no longer. Each exercise question has been tested dozens of times. The independent work and group discussion are carefully balanced to give you targeted support AND a realistic time so you don't just learn things—you apply the material right away.
Also, call attendance is capped, so you'll get lots of time to ask questions and engage with the material.
Here's the format:
- Carve out at least an hour to work through the independent reflection exercise
- Join your cohort on a group call to go deeper on reflection and learn a new way to identify your areas of focus for next quarter
- Carve out two 1-hour sessions for the independent planning exercise
- Rejoin your cohort on a group call to fine tune and future proof your plan—we'll really dig in beyond 101-level productivity advice to make your plans more likely to actually happen
- Have a 1:1, private session with Sasha (included!) to get personalized feedback and accountability
The calls cover different material than the independent exercises and won't be recorded. To get the most out of your experience, please arrange your schedule to join them.
Ready? Sign up below!
Is this for professional or personal planning?
It works nicely for both! You're welcome to focus on whatever blend of personal and professional makes sense for you right now. Most people do a blend.
Important: this workshop is for planning your quarter. It’s NOT designed for planning a team’s or company’s roadmaps.
I'm feeling shy about the group calls...
I get it—I really do! I'd be shy too. So my goal is to make the calls comfortable to attend and unequivocally worth it. Here's some more info to help you decide and prepare:
- I was initially on the fence about offering calls at all, but people loved them so much I made them a core element. They reported feeling less alone and getting useful perspective on their own struggles, and wanted to stay in touch afterwards. The most common feedback I got was to make the calls longer!
- Attendance is capped so each call is a small group
- Only share what you're comfortable sharing. You won't be asked to share your reflection or plan documents with the group—just highlights and takeaways that you are comfortable sharing
- I won't share a call recording, even to current program participants (though I might record it exclusively for my review for the sole purpose of improving my facilitating)
- I do request that you have video on to help you stay present and to increase the quality of the group discussion
- Other participants will see the email address that you signed up with in the calendar invite and Zoom room
Willing to give it a shot? Sign up below!
What are the dates?
Because I'm now capping attendance for each call to keep the groups intimate and focused, I'm offering two sections:
- Pick Wednesdays: 3/27 and 4/3 at 11-12:30 Pacific time
- OR Thursdays: 3/28 and 4/4 at 11-12:30 Pacific time
What does it cost?
What's it worth to you to have the peace of mind that comes from knowing exactly which few things really matter? To finally make concrete progress on your dreams, this quarter, not someday?
You won't need to spend months reading productivity books and experimenting on your own. I'll not only guide you efficiently through a proven process—you'll also get tools and worksheets you can use for the rest of your life.
Workshop tickets are $475. This includes:
- two hand-crafted, streamlined assignments
- two small-group, in-depth calls
- and a private, 30-min followup session with me (new!) to really fireproof your plans and lock in extra accountability.
And best of all, you can probably get it reimbursed by your employer! Ask about their conference or learning & development budget.
Ready? Sign up below!
Wait, it comes with a 1:1 session??
Yes! You'll schedule a 30-min private session with me, any time between when you register and May 17, 2024.
You can use this
- right after the workshop, to have me look at your plans and give targeted suggestions
- or mid quarter, to course correct and/or provide extra accountability
I'm interested! But can't make these dates
We can set up a private cohort of the workshop for you (plus your friends or colleagues, if you want to split the cost more ways!). Get in touch.
This workshop makes great professional development and team bonding, so get in touch to ask about officially bringing it to your team.
And you can join my email list to get notified if I run this for the public again.