Make 2021–2030 the best decade of your life
Tags: New Decade, Planning, New Year Planning, Life Planning, New Year Resolution

Make 2021–2030 the best decade of your life

“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” - Bill Gates Sasi Dec 27, 2020·3 min read

After a horrible 2020, I’m sure everyone’s doubly excited to make resolutions for 2021. But why stop at making resolutions for 2021? Why not make plans for the whole decade? Whether you are a meticulous planner who micro plans everything or that free spirit who believes in spontaneity, we can all make some efforts to design our life’s new decade 2021–2030. If you are looking for an organised system to plan out the whole decade , this article should help you!

How to actually plan out a whole decade?

Ask yourself the following questions. Try to be as concise in your answers as possible. This exercise would be helpful in planning 2021–30, because you’ll be clearer about your life’s long term goals.

How old are you ?

What is your life’s mission?

Where are you living currently? Is this the place you want to be in future?

List any ten things that you surely want to do in the next ten years of your life, at least once.

Imagine yourself 10 years older. What is your ideal life like?

Pick any three most prominent aspects of your ideal life. Write them down.

Pick any three non-essential aspects of your ideal life. Write them down.

What are the things that you wanted to do all your life, but couldn’t? Can you still do them?

You can add/subtract questions as per your wish. Once you are done answering the above questions, make a table as shown below. Better use computer spreadsheets instead of pen & paper.

The above table is only an example to show you how to make your table. You can edit the categories as per your liking. To fill each block in every category may seem difficult , but you don’t have to fill each and every box. If you have no idea what you are going to do in a particular year, leave it blank. You may not even have individual year plans, but rather a goal. So draw a line for its deadline instead of filling all boxes. Also, make sure to choose categories that are important to you, or will be for the next 10 years. And fill the boxes with realistic goals. Are your goals matching with your Q&As ?

Once you are done filling up the table, examine each year individually. See which three goals/resolutions are most important to you in a given year among all categories. Try to sum up all three goals in a single word, and type/write them next to that year.

For example , if your three most important goals in 2021 are

a) save 60% income from part-time job

b) learn to cook

c) get good scores in college exams

Then you can summarize the goals as :

Do this for every year. A good tip would be to write it down on several sticky notes and stick them at all those places where you need motivation, such as the study table, mirror or bathroom. You can even make this your mobile/laptop wallpaper. This will remind you about your biggest year-goals every time you’ll check your phone. Change your wallpaper only at the start of 2022. However, you shouldn’t forget about your small goals of the year in the midst of completing the biggest three. Keep checking your excel spreadsheets to remember your small goals.

I would advise against keeping more than 3 main goals in a year as it would be too much to manage. But if you think that you can do it, who’s going to stop you.

Now that you have learnt how to plan for the whole decade, what are you waiting for? Design your own decade and share this article with your friends.