Core Principles of Momentum Planning

Momentum was built with these core principles in mind — which we hope will both support and (productively) frustrate you:

1. Commit to no more than five active projects per time scale. 

Struggling to make progress on your goals? Often the reason is not a problem with focus, efficiency, or procrastination but an overload due to overcommitment. Momentum has tips and hints built in to alert you when you’ve taken on more than five projects during any time scale. 

2. Constraints help us to focus. 

Constraints are incredibly useful since they force each of us to decide what really matters – and account for the fact our reach always exceeds our grasp. Limiting the number of project slots creates displacement which allows us to make better choices. At each time view, Momentum allows you to prioritize, confirm, or defer a project so you can stay focused on what’s most important to you.

3. We need different levels of detail at different altitudes of perspective. 

The level of detail you need at the daily view is far greater than what is needed at the monthly or quarterly view. Momentum allows you to keep multiple time horizons in your sights so as you plan your day you can look to your projects for the week, as you plan your week you can look to the month and so on. When you need clarity of purpose, shift up; when you need clarity of action steps, shift down. 

4. Chunking your projects down is how you move from idea to done. 

The best way to get big goals done is to break them into smaller, doable parts. Start by thinking about WHAT aspects of the project need to get done. Momentum will prompt you to include discrete project chunks at each time perspective and allows you to easily move them around if you need to shift and sequence as emergent projects come up. 

5. Make your project chunks actionable by using the right verbs. 

Using a verb-noun construct for your projects (and project chunks) makes clear what action you need to take. But the verb also hints at what size of a project you’re dealing with and in what order the actions should be taken making it easier to chunk, sequence, and plan.

For more details on these core principles and other essential skills for doing your best work visit our Momentum Planning Resources page.