It's over for the five-year plan. Many people are wondering what this means for their jobs in light of the epidemic and other uncertainties, and for those who make long-term plans, it might make them feel as if they are floundering.

Luckily, even in the face of an uncertain future, preparation doesn't have to be abandoned. You may prepare for the future in smaller chunks with micro-planning, which enables you to review at predetermined intervals over the year and make any required adjustments to circumstances. Start by determining your career's compelling purpose before beginning any micro-planning. Next, create a year-long plan that serves this objective. Review and consider your work every three months, and divide your objectives and initiatives into manageable chunks every month. At the start of each week, have a broad view of what you need to do. Finally, each day, track your energy and see where you can improve to reach your goals.

The year 2020 did not turn out as we planned. Unemployment rates in the U.S. are close to twice what they were in February 2020, and the number of people furloughed is still towering over February averages. Plus, with the profound shakeup of our daily lives, a lot of folks are asking, What do I want to do with my life, given that everything else seems to be up in the air?

If there's any beauty that's come from this pandemic, it's that we're reorganizing our priorities to honor what matters to us. And for many, "career" is top of the reboot list. But letting go of what we always thought we could count on, like a five-year plan, can be painful and leave us feeling like we're floundering.

One of the most effective methods for reducing stress is to have a plan. Humans are compelled to feel assured and in control of their circumstances. Studies indicate that having a sense of control can reduce mortality risk as well as assist us in fending off sensations of worry and despair. It also turns out that our tendency to achieve greater is correlated with our need for control.

Even if we no longer have the delusion of knowing what the future holds for us in the long run, planning still can reduce stress and increase accomplishment. It all boils down to how we see goals and time.

The secret to success and participation in significant change is adaptation. However, I don't intend to just accept life as it comes and go with the flow. This new kind of flexibility channels our need to create a strategic plan, but it also includes prearranged milestones for course adjustment if circumstances change and new knowledge becomes available. We refer to it as micro-planning.

Micro-planning is simple. It takes a larger vision and breaks it down into yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily check-in practices to plan and adjust as necessary. We get some of the same stabilizing effects that a five-year plan may have given us but with shorter chunks of planning that make more sense in our current economic and cultural context.

Biomimicry, defined as "a practice that learns from and mimics the strategies found in nature to solve human design problems-and find hope along the way"-is the foundation of micro-planning. Long-term stress, such as the kind encountered during an undetermined length global pandemic, can seriously impair our capacity to perform at our best, particularly in terms of our cognitive capacities (e.g., our brain's capacity to perform higher-order tasks, or our ability to make decisions based on our objectives rather than our habits). By micro-planning, we may reduce our stress levels without giving in to the allure of mistakenly believing that we influence over the next one, three, five, or more years of our lives.

There are six elements of micro-planning:

1. Purpose: Determine your motivating mission, keeping an open mind about how it will manifest. A great deal of folks are going through a professional reset. Although taking new paths might seem dangerous, when we reflect on our professional histories, we frequently discover a similar thread among the many jobs we have played. If you're trying to figure out what your compelling mission is, that thread is an excellent place to start. For instance, I work with leaders to help them connect with more sustainable sources of personal power so that we may all contribute as much as possible to the betterment of mankind and the environment.

While how I implement this purpose may change as circumstances change around me, the purpose itself remains the same. If you aren't clear on your purpose, do a quick exercise: Jot down the most fulfilling career experiences you've had to date. Notice what commonalities they have. Those are the ingredients of your purpose.

2. The Year: Using the finest facts at your disposal, create a strategy for the year that is in line with your objective. Think back on the previous year, what went well (or poorly), and the lessons you learned from the past. Decide which one to three areas of improvement you wish to concentrate on. I would advise attempting no more than three; a major makeover frequently backfires since we become overwhelmed and don't get the desired outcomes when we take on too much. Your yearlong plan could include a job search, pursuing growth opportunities in the career you currently have, meeting and exceeding your KPIs, laying the groundwork for starting your own business, or whatever else makes sense for the current moment you're in.

3. Quarters: At the beginning of each quarter, reassess what you're working on and how you're working by asking yourself powerful reflection and planning questions, such as: What themes emerged this past quarter? What worked, and what didn't? What did I learn? How can I apply what I learned in the next quarter? What needs to shift in my plan based on new information and circumstances?

Establish objectives for the upcoming quarter based on the responses to these questions, taking care to limit the number of goals you select to no more than five. (The fewer things you do with greater concentration and attention, the better the outcomes will be.) For instance, you may have seen that a recurring issue from the prior quarter was that your ideas weren't valued at work. Upon more thought, you see that you weren't speaking up for them enough.

You may then shift your plan for the next quarter and set a goal to share one new idea with your department every month and when you do so, you also share very clearly how it will positively impact results for your department. You might also decide to read two books on increasing your influence as a leader to improve in this area.

4. Months: Based on the answers to these questions, choose goals for the next quarter, being careful to keep the total number of goals you choose to a maximum of five. (The results will be better if you do fewer tasks with more focus and attention.) For example, you could have seen that your ideas weren't valued at work, which was a repeating problem from the previous quarter. Thinking about it further, you realize that you weren't doing enough to advocate for them.

For example, if your project is to "search for a new job," the "plan and initiate" phase would be updating your resume, tapping into your network for potential opportunities, and searching for openings. The next phase, "making it visible," would be applying for jobs, showing up for interviews, and following up after. The "complete and integrate" phase would be the onboarding phase once you receive your new job offer. Finally, the "rest and reflect" phase would be allowing yourself to exhale and celebrate, knowing that a new cycle has begun - and you have accomplished your goal.

5. Weeks: Instead of creating a to-do list every day that is a mile long and leaves you feeling dejected when the day is over, create a weekly one at the beginning of each week. Compared to a typical to-do list, this weekly plan provides you with more planning freedom and a wider perspective of what's ahead. However, consider more than simply your work. As you plan your next week, make activity, rest, time outside, water, and a good diet a priority. By maximizing your physical energy, you will be far more productive in carrying out your ideas than if you subscribe to the widely held but unfounded notion that our brains alone are the source of our greatest creativity.

6. Days: Finally, keep a daily eye on your energy. Ultimately, gathering data on your energy levels-physical, mental, and emotional-can provide you with important insights on how to optimize your workflow. Keep a journal beside your bed to record your mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Note the assignments you finished, the results (what succeeded, what failed, and what you learned), and your appreciation. You may progressively alter your appearance in your personal and professional life by doing this five-minute activity. This will enable you to approach your weekly, quarterly, and annual planning with more awareness.

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All around us, the world is changing drastically, and we must adapt as well. It is no longer effective to cling to a long-term plan, such as the five-year plan. However, giving up our need and desire to know what is ahead does not entail descending into a state of fearful indolence. By dividing our planning procedures into manageable parts, we start to check in more regularly and adjust more easily. The five-year plan may be extinct, but we still can have a significant effect and achieve the objectives we set for ourselves.