This blog post is for writers, but it could also be for bloggers in general, and because it’s part writing, part business, I’m putting it up on #MarketingMonday. Blueprinting: Where Goals and Plans Collide. This is a tool you should be using on a regular basis to make sure you’re on track, that the project you’re working on is meeting your goals.

So for writers, particularly those that find themselves faced with a decision about what to write or how to market a book, and really aren’t sure about the pros and cons of the different options in front of them: sometimes we genuinely don’t have enough information to make a decision, and that’s when it’s useful to reach out to your network. But even once you’re told more about each option, the right decision is unique to your situation. In order to make the right call, what you need to do is blueprint your marketing or release plan backwards to your goals and objectives.

I recently took a fantastic course in goal setting with Bria Quinlan, and walked away with a bunch of really significant decision-making tools that have changed how and what I’m going to write in 2016. And as an educator myself, taking a course has had me thinking a lot about what I teach in a course. Bria’s course was done in a twice-weekly call-in session with a group, and that was really helpful to hear other people talk in real time, and have them react to my shares and revelations as well.

But back to blueprinting, because that’s what I was reminded about in Bria’s course: how important it is to constantly be checking back against your original plan.

Blueprinting: An exercise that connects the dots between goals and actions, ensuring that a plan’s action items can be directly connected backwards to the stated objectives. By doing a blueprinting check, you can make sure that no objective is left behind, and no action plan is undertaken that won’t further a stated goal.

But what does that actually look like, Zoe?

Step one:

Write down your goals and plans on a sheet of paper, gridded out

Goals on the left, Plans on the right

(this list could be short or long; when I did this in education, it was alllll the learning objectives for an entire course, matched to allllll the individual class date lessons, so it was pages and pages and took forever to cross reference)

Step two:

Draw an arrow from each plan backwards to the goal that it satisfies.

Ask yourself, “Why am I doing this? What goal does it meet?”

Step three:

Circle or highlight or put a question mark next to the Goals that don’t have any arrows pointing to them.

See how sad they are? They’re left out! That’s something you want to accomplish! But your plan doesn’t address them.

This highlights the importance of not just creating a [marketing/blogging/writing] plan, but double-checking that it’s on track with your goals on a regular basis.

Step four:

Revise your Plans list. I didn’t have any plans here that didn’t point backwards, but if that’s the case…take those off your list. Don’t do anything that doesn’t satisfy a Goal. (Or revise you Goals list if it secretly does!)

See how I made two of my action items physically smaller?

Step five:

Do another blueprinting check, this time going in the other direction.