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Step 2: Identify your strategies.

Strategies are broad-brush approaches for achieving a goal: such as
increasing your knowledge about something, positioning yourself for
increased professional visibility, or expanding specific skill sets that might
open up new career opportunities for you. For the goal or (or one of the
goals) you listed in your notebook, try to come up with at least three
strategies that will help you achieve it. If you can’t come up with any
strategies, brainstorm with a friend or colleague to help get the thought
process going. Your focus is on solutions - on getting from here to there -
in a way that’s doable for you.

Step 3: Decide on the tactics or actions you’ll undertake to
support your strategies.

If goals are what you hope to accomplish and strategies are the
approaches you’ll use to do that, then tactics are the action items that
support your strategies.

You want to think carefully and realistically about the tactics you’ll use
to support each strategy so they’re actually things you know you could
or would do. Also, at the “tactical level,” you’ll want to attach timelines to
your actions – what will you do, and by when will you do it? This ensures
accountability, so you can easily know if your plans are on track.
Now you try it. You’ve identified your goals and strategies in Steps 1 and 2,
now create your marching orders. What actions will you take, and when?
Lay out your plans in your notebook in whatever format works best for you,
whether in an outline, project management approach, graphic with circles,
boxes, links, and arrows, or some other creative rendering.

Step 4: Identify what processes you’ll need to establish.

Following an action plan is a lot easier if you take the time to set up a
system for sticking to your plan. It’s human nature that if you don’t set
aside regular time to do something, it’s probably not going to happen. So
when you look at your action plan, decide when you’re going to schedule in
“career time.”
A useful approach here is to never let Monday show up without having
noted at least one career-related action item to complete that week. Create
processes to integrate your career-plan actions into your daily life. Need
some motivation? Keep in mind that your action plan can be a terrific tool
for getting unstuck: come up with one thing you can do for at least an hour
a week, and you’ll be moving toward the career future you want.

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