How to Plan Your Year | The Cascade Planner | 2025 New Year Planning

[@alanbarnett7747]

The first step of the plan, assigning a month to each goal, is the most game changing. Doing it that way, I wouldn’t give any thought about those future goals or their components until “their” month arrives, freeing up the current month for the granular thinking and the implementation of this month’s. Simple but practical.

[@Patrick-NP]

Indeed. Very often doing “less” means doing more - and with more satisfaction 👍

[@ricebeansrockroll882]

I do almost this, but I keep to 3 goals, then I spend 1 month working focused on them every quarter. So end of year they each got 4 months of focus. For me the diet, meditation and yoga would be an overarching health goal for example. So in January I'd start implementing a new diet, maybe 10 min of meditation daily and yoga 1-2 times a week. I'd focus on that the full month, then like suggested here I'd keep it up the next month while focusing on goal 2 etc. Then quarter 2 I revisit the goal, maybe increese the amount of yoga and meditation. Maybe I fell of with something, then I re-evaluate and re-implement.

[@Kazekoge101]

Check out the Eisenhower Matrix, it would work well with this

[@emperorsascharoni9577]

Depending on the goal even assigning a quarter might be smart.

[@HeyBigHead23]

That intro kills me. 😂😂😂 I’ve had the same resolutions for years. Just shifting them over to the next year, like the changing of the guard. 2025 is my year! Good video!

[@Patrick-NP]

😂 thanks!

[@christinesmith7]

The absolute best approach to goal setting that I have ever seen!!! Would probably work great for ADHD brains that need to really focus. So awesome, thank you so much.

[@Patrick-NP]

thank you! 👍

[@midnightcoder]

Awesome. The intro got me for a second. I thought someone filmed me.😂

[@Patrick-NP]

Thanks 😂 😂

[@TheCrisses]

Anything with “every” in it denotes perfectionism, and since there is not a single thing that is perfect it is doomed from the start. We need variety, breaks, novelty, etc. I definitely like spreading out the goals through the year, and I do something like this, but I map it out each month & week rather than far in advance. Good video.

[@Patrick-NP]

thanks! 👍

[@pablomarkaide5466]

I've seen many productivity and resolution videos in my life. This video is on point, proposes a simple solution to a complex problem and seems achievable, not just fuzzy words. It needs a bit of mindset changing, but seem very powerful if applied. I'm gonna totally give a try this 2025 to this system.

[@Patrick-NP]

thanks 👍 Good luck with your resolutions!

[@jay_denise13]

Thank you for this extremely helpful video. Question…do you teach how to create automations like the one you have for download?

[@Patrick-NP]

Thanks! So far I've only shared the automations I created. I didn't think there would much interest in a video about how to create them (but if enough people like this comment, I'll consider making one 😜)

[@normancoutts]

Nice visual joke to start. 🙂. The basic idea of each month having a specific focus related to a different resolution is great, but I fear I would never manage to get near to the granularity requiring me to make daily progress. But perhaps I should try! System duly captured in a Quick Note with a link to your video. Thank again.

[@Patrick-NP]

Thanks 👍 for bigger plans, maybe each month could focus on one part of the project - ideally something you can “complete” and move on to the next.

[@lofigueroa]

It’s incredibly useful for individuals seeking a comprehensive overview of their monthly goals. Thank you for sharing this valuable resource. I find it highly beneficial!

[@Patrick-NP]

Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks!

[@robynflynnlarge4672]

This is one of your best yet. Thanks for sharing the shortcut. It's fantastic.

[@Patrick-NP]

Thanks Glad you like it! 👍

[@TonyTylerDraws]

I still have resolutions from 2004 I’m working on 😂

[@Patrick-NP]

😂

[@ryanyoung9202]

🤣🤣🥲🤣🤣

[@HarigopalDasa]

Thank you for keeping it simple and so crisp. ❤❤

[@Patrick-NP]

thank you! 👍

[@ShadiMuhammad]

Me cutting goals of *"Resolution 2000"* and pasting it to *"Resolution 2025"* 😂

[@Patrick-NP]

😂

[@vikasdebsingh]

Great. I will use it. Thanks

[@Patrick-NP]

Thanks 👍

[@lkevinl35]

Wow, Beautiful sweater! 👌

[@Patrick-NP]

Thank you! 😊

[@allabouttheracks]

I like this channel already!

[@Patrick-NP]

Thanks! 😄👍

[@MrGrokNRoll]

I might have missed it, but what I'm missing here is planning of the unplannable :) If I'm creating goals for /every/single/day/ then any inevitable disruption will derail my whole overall plan and by pushing it into the next month, creating a very different kind of cascade.

[@Patrick-NP]

Hi, there is no need to create goals for every single day (or even goals for every single month for that matter ). Just adapt it to your own goals/style/free time.

[@SiddheshAdekar]

Amazing idea , glad I clicked on it , thanks for explaining it soo good.

[@Patrick-NP]

Thanks 👍

[@ashleyvanstone6999]

My concern is that by the time you get to the March goals, you are already doing ALL of the January and February tasks, ON TOP of the March ones. I legitimately only have 30 mins of free time a day. It's hard for me to imagine using that time to work on my diet, do yoga and start blogs all within that 30 mins... So I like the cascading idea, but if any of those things are to become a sustainable habit, then wouldn't the preestablished habit get kicked to the side to make room for that months focus?

[@Patrick-NP]

Fair point. The cascade planner needs to work with the time you have available. If there are habits / goals you want to stack, then you need to plan the other goals knowing you will have less time available. At the extreme, if you want to do yoga every day for 30 minutes, then you won't have any time left for any other goals. (it would be a great result, by the way. I wish I had that consistency!:)

[@Edda-Online]

If you identify only 30 minutes of free time, you probably have time blocks of work, commuting, chores, etc. Maybe, you have New Year’s resolution for some of those; you could apply the system to those. Usually l don’t make New Year’s resolutions. For me it makes more sense to try changes immediately. But even though there are inspirations I take from the video. But I don’t believe in constantly „working to be a better version of myself“. So if you don’t see any need for improvement, just enjoy! Have a nice day!

[@_fabiolaborges]

How do you measure the time you need to do the things? These days I'm trying to not overplan, cause I have the tendency of break down goals into smaller goals and tasks, designate days for them, but in my day-to-day I'm never able to follow the time I set. So I replan many times and keep failing, then everything starts to pile up in ever shorter periods of time, and I end up doing nothing out of anxiety 🙈 This is so frustrating that I just stopped planning in detail haha

[@Patrick-NP]

Sometimes the time allocated to an activity is more a time limit than an actual estimate. this is especially useful for creative or research based tasks that could otherwise go on forever! Having said that, if you find that you keep "failing" however you slice your tasks, maybe the problem is not with your planning but with your actual motivation/interest in working on those things?

[@_fabiolaborges]

@@Patrick-NP I see! 🤔 It's true that sometimes I procrastinate some tasks hhaha But there are many times when I simply take longer to do things too. For example, I'm doing an art project and I divided it into smaller tasks. I thought it would take 3 days to do something, but in the process of drawing, I realized aspects that I hadn't thought of before and it took me longer to try to solve them. This happens frequently with me, I always underestimate tasks or overestimate myself! Maybe it's cause I don't have much experience in what I'm doing yet, so I don't know how to measure it very well...

[@JillofAllTrades2]

@@_fabiolaborgesContributing factors could be the need for perfectionism, time blindness (relevant for individuals experiencing ADD), unrealistic expectations (go hand-in-hand with ignorance/inexperience-sometimes we don’t know what we don’t know). Try building in some cushion time for new or particularly challenging projects in anticipation of potential hurdles or roadblocks. With my home maintenance projects I find I keep running head first into obstacles/blockers I hadn’t counted on and end up way, way behind on my timeline for achieving goals. I now set a goal of making progress rather achieving something specific in the allotted time. I’ve become more encouraged to keep going whereas previously I had been getting incredibly discouraged and had even stopped returning to work on a project. With the sense of accomplishment I feel after having made progress, I am able to come back to the project, motivated by the thought I will be making progress-whatever it happens to be for the allotted amount of time. 🎉🎉🎉

[@MsJordanElaine]

⁠​⁠@@_fabiolaborgesPlanning and accurately estimating how long something will take is a legitimately challenging thing to do. It’s a problem that permeates all aspects of organization and life. Just look up the term “planning fallacy”. That said while you will never be perfect at estimating how long things take (see aforementioned planning fallacy) there is some skill to it that gets better with practice.

[@jasecoart]

Same!! Sometimes I feel so dumb for taking so much time 😂 Now I am learning 2 main things to control my anxiety. 1) Enough is perfect ( I tend to over do it and waste too much time) 2) Do it as your mind tells you (sometimes I get stuck by "researching" what others have done) I am too trying to learn some art skills and it's really consuming because it's not something we can simply learn, it's ever evolving!

[@nataliasausmikat]

Great video, love your accent

[@Patrick-NP]

Thank you! 😃

[@lu1982]

I’m definitely going to try this! I have a question When do you assign the daily tasks for every day of every month? The same day you write your ‘new year resolutions’? Or you do it at the end of the previous month? Or the week before? Thanks in advance

[@lu1982]

Sorry me again 😂 Another question: let’s take your March example start a blog. I assume you’d would want to keep writing on that blog the rest of the year, so let’s say you write an article a day Monday to Friday. The rest of the months of the year you will be adding writing an article + the tasks you have for that day or other tasks you’re doing from another month goals right??? I apologize if this is a silly question.

[@Patrick-NP]

the closer you get to the start of a new month, the more you want to have things planned. For example, at the start of the year you may have January (and maybe February) fully planned, March to June broken down just at the week level, and for the rest of the year you'll just have the theme for the month. Of course it doesn't hurt to plan more, but the goal is to tackle one goal at the time, so provided you have a plan for the month that's about to start, you're doing well!

[@Patrick-NP]

Definitely not a silly question. And you're right, if you have goals spanning several months, you need to make sure to keep space available for them. So in your example, you would keep writing 5 articles a day, and if that left you with just 10 free minutes a day, then your goal for the following month should be small enough to fit into those 10 minutes.

[@elleastwood4552]

I like this! Though I'm not sure how I'd break down "start diet" into daily tasks

[@dv6738]

Plan your meals Make a grocery list Buy grocery Delete fast food apps Remove unhealthy food from your house

[@Patrick-NP]

based on my extensive research, this would be the high level plan: Week 1: Plan meals, limit to 1200 calories a day. Week 2. Cry over the fact you had to give up Pizza and Pasta Week 3. Devise strategies to access your secret stash of chocolate without the family knowing Week 4. Craft credible explanations to answer your family's questions around why you haven't lost a gram, and have actually gained weight

[@xxpynkxx8694]

This is great! Thank you so much! 😊

[@Patrick-NP]

thanks 😊

[@lisagarbercoaching1356]

I really appreciate your video and the whole planning process. I have started with my Yearly plan finished. But I couldn't download your shortcut. I am not sure why. It might be that I am on an older Mac and use Monterry so my notes or shortcuts don't work with your animation. Also, I have never used shortcuts and don't really know what it is. But it did pop up when I tried to download your animation. It just said: Hmmm. I guess i have the shortcut in my shortcuts but I have no idea how it works. Oh well, I can make some thing up myself. Thanks anyway. Enjoying your channel. Very helpful.

[@Patrick-NP]

Thanks, I'm glad you liked the video 👍 You could try launching the shortcut on iPhone or iPad if you have them. The process should be straightforward: Open the link to the shortcut, then choose "get shortcut", and it will be added to your shortcuts. then simply click on it and run it from the shortcut app when you need it.

[@MsCharlotte2001]

I was diagnosed level 1 in my early 40s. Nearly a decade (plus perimenopause) later, I find my support needs have gone up a LOT, but it hadn't occurred to me that I might have 'graduated' to level 2 until I stumbled across your video. Thank you so very, very much ❤❤❤

[@playmotion.trailer]

2025 resolution : make a cascade planner 🤣

[@Patrick-NP]

😂

[@BeckazZ]

first of all .. I liked the idea .. but let me be honest with u, why I should take long time preparing and formatting my system on an app like notes (which I like so much) while there are many apps which could give me better results with clean and good shape display even with their free versions .. I am taking here about task/planner manager apps .. I feel like to prepare this system it will affect my productivity and goals achievement negatively .... But indeed I like the video and yr idea 😊

[@Patrick-NP]

Thanks! 👍 the idea behind this planner is the most important point, but then you can implement it in any system/app - or even using a simple notebook. I tend to keep these things in Apple Notes as I use it for many other things and it's easy to link notes if needed. I add the formatting because I like it, but that's completely optional!😀

[@jasecoart]

Amazing! Exactly what my mind needed to understand! My anxiety is telling me " you cannot just focus in one thing at a time, you need to work on everything now" but I will not listen to it!! 🤍

[@Patrick-NP]

thanks 👍