Begin by listing all the projects in your life, both work and personal. (There is no difference between the two—if something is on your mind, it’s on your mind.) Then go through the list, asking yourself which require some kind of conceptual breakthrough in order to move forward? Which are in stasis until you set the strategy? These are your

Are there important principles in your life that are being neglected and need to be revisited? Are there projects that you’ve always dreamed of pursuing but can never find the energy to get moving on? Now is the time to get these on paper and to start analyzing what can be done over the next quarter to initiate them.

In order to create effectively, you need a clear and concrete understanding of your objectives.

You need to create space for your creative process to thrive rather than expect it to operate in the cracks of your frenetic schedule. This

Commitment to the process is critical in this gestation period. While many organizations treat it like a linear progression toward the end product, great creative work requires risk and experimentation, which means some degree of unpredictability.

Study: When will your personal study times be this week? Put them on the calendar. What will they consist of? Take a look at your Stimulus Queue and map your week’s stimuli. Notation: Take just a few minutes to glance at your notes from the previous week as well as the indexes in the front of your notebook.

This quarterly planning time is also when you want to get any new and intriguing work projects in the mix. Are there things that you’ve wanted to suggest or pursue but haven’t because it’s never a good time? See if there’s any aspect of the idea that you could begin to implement this quarter.

The organization is primarily concerned with the finished product, but 99 percent of what we do as creatives is process.

What would be good for you? This part of your study plan is the equivalent of eating your mental vegetables. Some items need to be a part of your study plan because they stretch your mind, cause you to grow