I finally pushed myself to sit down and figure out exactly how to plan for something that feels ridiculously far away. Jan 2026. Seriously? That sounds like a date on a movie poster. But listen, I totally screwed up Q4 last year on a big personal project, and I realized it wasn’t because I was lazy. It was because my long-term planning was total garbage—just vague hopes stapled onto a calendar.
I needed a fix, something immediate and brutal. Forget those fancy software subscriptions and complicated project management systems. I needed a stupid-simple checklist that would force me to execute instead of just dream. That’s how this four-step plan got hammered out. I’m sharing the exact process I used, starting from that moment I decided I wouldn’t mess up another two years of my life.
Defining the Target: Jan 2026
The first thing I did was grab a cheap notebook and write down the date: January 1, 2026. Then I declared my goal. You can’t plan if you don’t know where the target is. My target was launching a small, niche side business—a paid subscription service providing very specific tax advice for small business owners. I’d been kicking this idea around for five years, always saying, “I’ll do it later.” Later finally arrived.
I slammed that idea onto the page, making it specific: Launch “The Small Biz Tax Handler Service” and secure 50 paying subscribers by Jan 1, 2026. No wiggle room. That’s Step 1 on the checklist—The One Big Thing (T-OBT).
I learned this necessity for specificity the painful way. Three years ago, I planned to “get fit.” I achieved nothing. I should have planned to “run a 10k race by November.” See the difference? The goal has to be measurable, or you’re just writing fiction.
Building the Simple Execution Checklist
After defining the target, I ripped apart the timeline. Two years is too long to manage mentally. You need smaller bites. This led to Step 2.
- Step 1: The One Big Thing (T-OBT) Defined. (Done: Launch service, 50 subscribers.)
- Step 2: The Six-Month Sprints. I divided the 24 months into four distinct 6-month sprints. This felt much more manageable.
I didn’t try to outline the entire course content right away. That’s a trap. Instead, I focused my energy on what each six-month block needed to achieve to make the T-OBT happen.
Sprint 1 (Current): Research niche, validate product idea, build basic minimum viable website structure. I spent four weeks just stalking online forums and interviewing three local business owners to ensure my tax advice was actually needed. I scrapped my initial plan to focus on sales tax and instead pivoted hard to inventory management tax laws. The checklist made me validate first, not just build blindly.
Sprint 2: Create 50% of core content, set up payment system, start building the email list (100 subscribers goal). This involves a lot of grunt work—filing systems, legal stuff. I assigned dates to every single one of those sub-tasks and threw them into a digital calendar.
The Critical Path and the Sunday Scrutiny
Next came Step 3, which is about avoiding failure points.
- Step 3: The Critical Path Killers. What will stop me dead? For my tax service, it’s licensing and legal compliance.
I prioritized those killer tasks immediately. I reached out to a lawyer friend and booked a consultation for next month. I downloaded the necessary regulatory paperwork. I didn’t care about the website design yet; I only cared about what could legally block the entire thing from launching. This step is about eliminating future excuses.
This forced rigor is crucial because I know my own tendency to drift. I had a disaster a few years ago trying to renovate my garage into a workspace. I spent three months buying tools and painting walls, but I never checked the local zoning laws. Guess what? I wasted nine grand because the zoning rules killed the entire project before I even installed the power outlets. Planning must address the biggest threats first.
Finally, the most important step for staying on track:
- Step 4: The Sunday Night Reset.
Every single Sunday night, I drag out that notebook. I don’t care how tired I am. I review the action items for the next week, and I check off everything from the previous week. If I missed something, I write down why and reassign it. No excuses allowed, just honest documentation.
Last Sunday, I reviewed my progress on the content validation (Sprint 1). I realized I had only interviewed two people, not three. I immediately assigned a 30-minute block on Tuesday morning to find that third person. This tiny ritual keeps the machine running.
So, there it is. The process isn’t rocket science. It’s just four simple steps to force your brain to treat Jan 2026 as if it’s next week. I started with a big scary goal, broke it into six-month sprints, killed the critical threats first, and now I just keep showing up every Sunday to make sure I’m still driving toward that date. If you want to actually achieve that huge goal, stop thinking about it and grab your paper right now. Define the four steps, and start hacking away at the first sprint. It’s the only way anything real gets done.
