Gift yourself a 2026 Planning Retreat
#Part One - Gather Your Supplies.
Start by picking a full day, or a full weekend where you can fully focus on your yearly planning. You may even want to consider booking yourself into a hotel for the weekend or renting a cozy cabin in the woods for peak cozy vibes.
Here’s what you’ll need for your planning retreat :
A full year dry-erase wall calendar and thin tipped markers
A day planner (any old one will do, I’m not picky)
Plenty of notebooks, post it notes, pens & highlighters
Large pieces of unlined paper for mind-mapping (the bigger the better)
Oracle cards, crystals, and incense
Your favourite coffee, tea, soups, and nourishing snacks
Plenty of water
Your yoga mat
Your computer
#Part Two - Move your Body
Begin your day with some yoga. Our brains work way better after some mindful movement, so that’s where we’ll begin. This gentle flow practice is the perfect pace to start your day.
Once you’ve moved your body, it’s time to brew yourself a cup of coffee or tea, prepare a snack, grab your journal and your favourite pen, and settle in to begin planning.
#Part Three - Celebrate What Went Well & Explore Your Challenges
In your journal, write down 3 celebrations for the previous year. One work related, one personal related, and one other (either personal or work).
Reflect on why you’re choosing to celebrate these things.
Then write down the 3 biggest challenges you had this past year and the lessons you’ve learned and will carry over into next year.
#Part Four - Goal Setting for the year to come
Now it’s time to dig into the planning. This part will probably take the remainder of your morning or the rest of your day. Don’t rush it. Give yourself plenty of space to dream and refine what you really want this year.
#Step One: Name Your North Star
Start the goal setting process by determining the core values or “North Star” that will help guide your goals for this year. This can be your “word of the year” or a particular kind of flavour you’re wanting to bring forward into the year.
As an example, my North Star last year was “Healthy” and my North Star this year is “Rhythm over Algorithm”.
#Step Two: Draw yourself a “Mind Map”
(My process for this mind map was inspired by this essay, which you should definitely read!)
For the longest time I didn’t really understand the purpose of a Mind Map thinking they just resulted in a big mess on my page with no clear direction. I took some time to research them this year, and am fully convinced this is the best way to brainstorm!
Mind Maps work because they override the “organization” part of your brain so that you can focus fully on generating a lot of ideas quickly. Your creative side takes control while the part of you that edits can sit back and relax for a while. The key is to not censor your ideas while building the map.
Start with your north star in a big bubble, then create three more bubbles:
Work
Personal
Projects
From here create more branches that include your various offers, projects, ideas, goals, dreams, wishes, etc etc.
Set a timer for no more than 10 minutes to do this. And if you are writing this neatly, you’re going too slow.
This should be super messy. (like mine)
#Step Three- Analyze your Mind Map
Get out 3 different highlighters or coloured pens and circle the following:
IMPORTANT (crosses over multiple areas, feels immediate)
Pretty important (relevant to your north star, you want to do this stuff)
Kinda important (the gotta do stuff)
Then get out a red pen and cross out the stuff that feels beyond your capacity for the upcoming year. You can do this!!
From here you can pull out the important, pretty important, and kinda important ideas that look like a goal or a lifestyle shift you really want to make this year. There should be multiple ideas for each key area. We’ll narrow these down next.
#Step Four - Journal
For each of your possible goals or lifestyle shifts, ask yourself the following questions:
What’s really going on? What do I really want?
What’s in the way? What do I need to stop doing?
What’s the clearest, simplest path forward for me this year?
These questions are designed to help you investigate each goal to choose the ones that feel aligned with your current capacity and season of life/business.
#Step Five - Finalize 6 or less goals for this year.
(2 business, 2 personal, 2 project)
These are your goals for the year. You’ll use these goals as guideposts for when you develop your “rhythms” later on.
#Part Five - Take a Break
Seriously. Do it.
This might be a lunch break or even a full evening of rest before coming back to map out your calendar.
#Part Six - Mapping your Calendar
Use your large wall calendar to map the following out for the year:
Moon &/or menstrual cycles
Any relevant astrological events (Mercury retrograde, seasonal shifts)
Seasons (identify seasons where work will be priority and seasons where family or rest are a priority)
Add at least ONE white space (nothing planned) day to every month
Add quarterly Life Audit & Business Audit Days
Add important events, standing appointments, celebrations, birthdays, holidays & vacation time
Once you have everything mapped on to your calendar, you can add your launches or sales pushes at times where they align with your energy, the energy of the cosmos, and the season of life/business you’ll be in.
This calendar is your capacity check point.
If you’re asked to do something or you have a new idea, this calendar is where you need to look for time to fit it in. If you can’t find an open window, you need to shift things around or say no to the opportunity/idea.
Now you can transfer January into the monthly spread of your day planner or into your digital calendar of choice.
#Part Seven - What are your rhythms?
Instead of systems, workflows, habits, or routines—let’s imagine life as many synchronized rhythms that ebb and flow through each day allowing you to get stuff done, rest, take good care of yourself, achieve your goals, and continue to grow your business in a sustainable way.
What “rhythms” do you need to focus on this year to make progress on your goals?
Get out your journal and write down how you plan to “do” life this year. These don’t have to be regimented but they do need to feel like a plan. Will you batch content? Will you create daily? wWill you use a digital planner or a paper to-do list? When will you fit in yoga or exercise? What do your mornings and evenings look like? Think about how you want your day to day life to look.
Personal Rhythms
What is your “default” state? (resting, reading, watching tv, scrolling)
Self Care Rhythm (sleep, food, exercise, massage, therapy, coaching)
Family Rhythm - Where must you prioritize family time over all else? Be realistic about how your family impacts your business
Work Rhythms
Content Creation Rhythm
Launch/Sales Rhythm
Client Experience Rhythm
Task Management Rhythm
Calendar Management Rhythm
Project Rhythms
What do you need to do daily/weekly/monthly to complete your projects?
That’s it! You’ve got the basic framework in place and now all you need to do is put it into action. If your rhythms are changing a fair bit from last year, smart behaviour change people always suggest layering in new routines and habits slowly. Start with one small change, let it settle in then add the next change.
I’m gonna be completely honest with you here. I ALWAYS use the year change to shift several of my rhythms at once and I almost always keep them up. There’s something about a clean slate and big changes that works for my personality.
You do you here!
