How to Use
The Agile Life Plan
Free Mini Course
Welcome!
But before getting too far ahead of ourselves, I’ll take a moment to tell you where this all came from!
Congratulations! You now have a powerful tool in your hands, The Agile Life Plan. If you haven’t gotten one yet, be sure to get yours here: The Agile Life Plan
With The Agile Life Plan, you’ll spend the next 12 weeks practicing Positive Healthy Habits while you accomplish key goals in your life.
This journal is the product of the founders of The Agile Lifestyle, a small lifestyle business to help people live more rich lives by first improving upon Positive Healthy Habits. Our philosophy is that when we have healthy bodies and minds, we are more likely to be able to set and meet our goals, no matter how small or big they may be.
The Agile Lifestyle focuses on the balance of Mindset, Exercise and Nutrition:
P.S. Be sure to follow the course to the very end because I’ve got a GREAT BONUS for you there!
The Basics
When you get The Agile Life Plan, the first thing you’ll want to do is get started on your 12-Week Goal. This is after the introduction pages in your planner and is. This is a tear-out bookmark with “My 12-Week Goal” on the left column and “TOTAL Agility Score” on the right.
The Agile Life Plan is designed to help you work through one big goal over the course of 12 these weeks. Take a few minutes to think of something that’s important to you to get done, something that you’d like to accomplish, something that you believe could become a reality in 12 weeks if you could focus on it. It’s best to make a SMART goal (Simple, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely). You can use the back of your bookmark “Notes” section to brainstorm or make notes of your goal. Once you know what you want to achieve, write it on the front page of your bookmark under “My 12-Week Goal”.
If you don’t have a big goal you’d like to achieve, that’s ok! The Agile Life Plan is for you as well. As you start tracking your daily positive habits, you’ll also be able to keep a regular journal of how you feel and what changes you need to make. You may discover partway through The Agile Life Plan that you DO have a goal you’d still like to get done. If this is the case, write down your goal on your bookmark whenever it becomes apparent.
Next, you’ll start to fill in your calendar. There are three full 4-week grids that start with Monday and end on Sunday. You can start your journey in The Agile Life Plan as soon as you get yours! Just choose the closest Monday and start to fill in the dates in the day boxes. Don’t forget to note the date range above where it says: “Date Range” (for example: February 8, 2021 – March 7, 2021).
Now you can start to break down your goal. Along the left bottom edge of the calendar grid, there are the prompts, “What do you want to get done in the next 4 weeks?” and “Why is this important to your 12-week goal?” Use this area to think of the ways that you can start working toward your goal now – in these four weeks. I recommend that you write this in pencil or erasable pen as it’s possible you may need to refine these over the next four weeks.
Start plotting these as milestones or to-be-done-by dates in the calendar above and add any other important dates in that you need to keep track of (e.g. birthdays, events, special occasions).
You’ll be using the “Weekly Notes” section throughout the next four weeks to capture insights, ideas or important reminders for the following weeks.
Each week, be sure to return to this calendar during your Weekly Review to see that you’re on track as well as to refine your actions and intentions.
The Agile Life Plan Components
Setting a 12-week goal and breaking it down in the Goals Calendar:
My 12-Week Goal:
This is located on the bookmark page that you can cut out and fold in half to move through the planner as your place keeper. In the left column, you’ll record one goal that you want to achieve in the next 12-weeks. It can be a health-related goal or anything else you aspire to. Remember, a healthy body will make whatever you dream of achieving easier to accomplish. Also, it’s best to set a realistic goal for yourself, so use a popular SMART goal process or similar strategy. Ideally, you should be able to break your big goal into smaller weekly and daily chunks, making tracking your path to success more transparent. These smaller chunks belong in either your Weekly Notes or Daily Pages.
Next to My 12-Week Goal is a table for tracking your TOTAL Agility Score. This is where you will plot your weekly Agility Score and see quickly what trajectory you’re taking – toward more agility or less.
Goals Calendar:
You’ll notice that there are three pages of calendar pages. They are not filled in and start on Monday. This is done on purpose to allow you to start your first 12-week cycle as soon as possible. No waiting around for a new month. Fill in your start date as the most recent Monday and track from there.
At the bottom of the left page is a prompt that asks, “What do you want to get done in the next 4 weeks?” This is where you’ll identify the things you predict need to get done in these 4 weeks to ensure that you meet your goal.
The end of the right page asks, “Why is this important to your 12-week goal?” Here you’ll ground yourself into your “why” – Why are you doing these things? How do you predict that they will help you?
The right column of the calendar pages leaves space for Weekly Notes where you can take notes to yourself throughout these 12 weeks that fit your needs. Some people use this space for creating a key of symbols they’ll use in their planner. Others have used this space for tracking miles run or the number of exercises performed. It’s up to you how this area can be useful to your goal.
Getting the most out of your Daily Pages:
Daily Pages:
The Daily Pages will coincide with your calendar dates at the front of The Agile Life Plan. There’s a space in the upper right-hand corner for putting the date. The Daily Pages include:
Blank Grid:
The left side of the Daily Page is a blank grid. This space is for you to jot down musings, ideas, notes, drawings, etc. Things that don’t fit into the confines of times and appointments.
Planner:
On the right page of your Daily page is a space for today’s date. Below this is a structured table for putting in times and appointments/tasks. The time space is blank for you to write in the things you need to do during your day for your goal as well as take care of YOU. Go off of whatever makes sense to your schedule. It’s not meant to be an hour-by-hour account of your day, but rather a place to organize what needs to get done and when.
+HABITS:
These are the habits that we encourage you to adopt. These are positive behaviors that improve health and longevity. They include:
Exercise: MOBILITY / STRENGTH / ENDURANCE
Nutrition: HYDRATE / CLEAN AIR / EAT HEALTHY
Mindset: MEDITATE / GRATITUDE / DECLUTTER
It’s important to balance these habits within each domain as well as between domains. The more of these habits that you can check off every day, the more progress you’ll make. There are three OPEN spaces in your journal. These are optional but included in case you have more ideas of positive behaviors that you’d like to make +HABITS.
At the bottom right corner of the +HABITS box is a square for tallying all of the Positive Healthy Habits you did during the day. Write the number of positive habits here.
-HEALTH:
These are the negative indicators that keep you from feeling great. They are impacted by our life choices. The more you are able to track them, the more opportunity you have to find patterns or relationships between them and the positive habits. They include:
POOR SLEEP / TIRED / SICK / CONGESTION / MOODY / POOR DIGESTION / HEADACHE / JOINT PAIN / SORE
The negative indicators are not behaviors, however, they can be impacted by your +HABITS. Poor digestion, for example, may be a result of something related to your eating habits. Negative indicators also feed off of one another. Regularly getting poor sleep can result in a lowered immune system and therefore increasing the likelihood of you getting sick. There are three OPEN spaces in your journal. These are optional but included in case you have more ideas of positive behaviors that you’d like to track as -HEALTH.
In the bottom of the -HEALTH box is a square for tallying all of the Negative Health Indicators you experienced during the day. Write the number of negative indicators here.
TODAY’S AGILITY POINTS:
Subtract the -HEALTH points from the +HABITS points to find your Daily Agility Points. This number can be as high as +12 or as low as -12 (if you include the optional extra +HABITS or -HEALTH).
Your Daily Agility Points should help inform you how you are doing. If you have a positive score, your +HABITS points outnumber your -HEALTH points. That’s a great start! See if there are ways to make this score even better tomorrow. If your score breaks even or is negative, then your -HEALTH points outnumber your +HABITS points. What are some tasks or times that you can put into your day for tomorrow?
Planning your next steps and celebrating wins with the Week Review:
Weekly Pages:
The Agile Life Plan weeks begin on Monday and end on Sunday. Just after Sunday of each week, you’ll find the Weekly Review page. You’ll want to save a little bit of extra time toward the end of the day Sunday to reflect on this page.
Weekly Goal Review:
The left side of the Weekly Page is the Weekly Goal Review. This is where you’ll evaluate your progress toward your goal for the week. There are 5 stars at the top of the page. Fill in the stars or place a sticker on each one to reflect your work toward your goal for the current week. If you made a lot of progress toward your goal this week, give yourself 5 stars. If you didn’t, give yourself as many as you feel is accurate.
Weekly Goal Reflection Questions:
Use these questions to identify at least one thing you did over the past week toward your goal and what you have planned to do for the next week. Finally, take a moment to celebrate any milestones or successes you’ve had
What was at least one task you did this week to move your goal forward?
What is at least one task you can do next week to move your goal forward?
If you hit a milestone this week, how did you celebrate?
Week _____ Review:
Here you’ll want to fill in which week it is. This could be week 1-12 or even farther out if you start to see the power of The Agile Life Plan. When starting a new 12-week cycle, you can either begin back at week one or you can continue counting weeks from where you finished the last cycle.
Below the Week _____ Review is the TOTAL AGILITY SCORE FOR THE WEEK with a box. Here you’ll put the sum of all of your Daily Agility Points from this week (Monday-Sunday). The higher the score, the better.
A score of:
30+ = AWESOME! You’ve really been putting in the work to take care of you
10-29 = Nice job! You’re still in the positive and your Healthy Habits have out-weighed your Negative Health Indicators
<10 = Spend some time on you! Bring more Positive Healthy Habits into your life
Weekly Agility Reflection Questions:
Use these questions to help think through your past week and reflect on the positive things you accomplished and the areas that need improvement. Be honest with yourself and use this information to guide your upcoming week. This is also a great time to flip back to your 12-Week Planner calendar and make updates/congratulate yourself.
Think back on how you felt, the tasks you performed and the positive habits you practiced this week. What worked very well for you?
Reflect on your Weekly Agility Score. If it’s lower than you’d like, look back at your Daily pages from the past week and think about the areas for improvement. What could you do to improve your Agility Score for the upcoming week?
After You Complete 12 Weeks
Once you’ve reached the end of your 12 weeks, why not start a new batch? You can choose to start right away, picking up the very next Monday, or you can take a breather. But why wait? If you’re like us, you’ll have found huge benefits from The Agile Life Plan and will be ready to take on your next 12-week goal!
Your Personal Book Series
We left a blank area on the bottom of the spine of The Agile Life Plan for you to keep a volume of sorts of your journey. As with any great book series, this is your personal book series. Use a permanent marker to write which volume this one is. How cool is that?
Be sure to order your next copy before the end of your first 12 weeks! The Agile Plan
BONUS 1: One Month of FREE Coaching Using The Agile Life Plan Principles
Before you go, I want to offer you a free discovery call where we can chat about your next big goal or clarify anything that’s still unclear to you about using The Agile Life Plan! In our 45-minute call, you can ask questions about the planner, about your goal, get personalized tips on how best to use your planner, or about living an Agile Lifestyle. Let’s chat!