How We Plan the Year with an Annual Family Planning Meeting

Every year around this time, this annual family planning post becomes one of the most visited on my website. This meeting is something Matt and I intentionally sit down and plan together before the new year begins, and it has become one of the most helpful things we do for our family.

This is a structured meeting where Matt and I talk through schedules, goals, priorities, and what we want the year ahead to look like. We set aside time for it, come prepared, and treat it as an important check in. That said, it’s still very realistic and flexible, and it evolves as our family and seasons of life change.

If you’re looking for ideas for an annual family planning meeting or a more organized approach to family goal setting, I’m sharing exactly how we do it. This post walks through how we structure the meeting, what we discuss, and why taking the time to plan together has made such a difference for us year after year.

Family Planning Meeting Prep & Spreadsheet Template

Our annual family planning meeting usually takes several hours (at the very least) to complete. And if this is your first time, expect it to take even longer. That’s normal and honestly worth it.

One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned over the years is to divide this into two separate parts. The first is the actual planning meeting. The second is a celebration dinner afterward, ideally at a different location than where the meeting takes place. That separation is important. The meeting is focused and structured, and the dinner gives us something to look forward to and helps the whole process feel rewarding instead of draining.

A few days before the meeting, I print out our current year planning spreadsheet and give it to Matt so he has time to review it and start thinking about what he wants to discuss. You do not need to use a spreadsheet to do this. A Google Doc, shared note, or even a notebook works just as well. I personally love Excel and find it’s the easiest way for me to stay organized, so that’s what I use.

Below are the categories we cover during our family planning meeting and record in our spreadsheet. Your topics may look completely different, and that’s okay. These are simply ideas to help you think through what matters most to your family.

Family Goals

In addition to setting goals for the year ahead, we also talk about what we did well as a family and want to continue. Things like regular family dinners, movie nights, or being more intentional with our time together often come up here. This part is just as important as setting new goals.

Personal Goals

This section is broken out by family member and tends to be a mix of health, hobbies, and personal growth. Matt always includes a golf handicap goal. I usually add something new I want to learn, like piano, mahjong, or tennis. In the past, we set goals for the kids as parents, but now that they are older, we plan involve them directly (usually over family dinner) so they can help create their own.

Marriage Goals

These are usually simple but intentional goals, like scheduling a standing date night or being more mindful about time together during busy seasons.

Finance Goals

This includes things like saving for specific home projects, adjusting investments, or discussing any financial priorities for the year ahead.

Business Goals

Here we talk through a few longer term goals for M&T, as well as Carolina Charm. This isn’t a full business planning session, but it helps us stay aligned.

Home Projects

This is where we prioritize, plan, and budget for home projects. It’s helpful to see everything in one place instead of talking about it throughout the year in bits and pieces.

Vacations Plans

We map out big family trips, timing for our annual trip away as just the two of us, and start tossing around ideas for spring break and summer. We also talk through traditions we want to keep, like cabin weekends, camping, or tubing trips. I shared more details on this in my post about How I Plan Our Family Travel & Activities.

Holidays

We iron out holidays early. Where we’re spending Thanksgiving, whether we’re staying home or traveling for Christmas, and any other holiday logistics that tend to cause stress if left undecided.

I’ve had a TON of requests to share my template. Below is a PDF template. I tried to make an excel version but cannot figure out a way share it without me still being attached to the document! As a reminder, this is just a starting point. Customize this to work for you and your family!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FAMILY PLANS + GOALS PDF SPREADSHEET

Part 1: The Planning Meeting

Now that we’ve been doing this for several years and have a solid template to follow, our planning meeting runs much more efficiently and with far less back and forth. That didn’t happen overnight. A lot of that ease came from making mistakes early on and learning what does and does not work.

Choose the Right Location

Where you hold this meeting matters more than you might think. Our first year, we tried to do it over dinner and quickly realized it was a mistake. Plates were arriving, workspace was limited, the setting wasn’t private enough for personal conversations, and we felt rushed by the pace of the restaurant. It made it harder to stay focused and have meaningful discussions.

We’ve found it works best to choose a quiet, comfortable location where you can spread out your notes and not feel like you’re on a clock.

Give Yourself More Time Than You Think

Another mistake we made one year was trying to squeeze this meeting into a long lunch break at a coffee shop during a workday while the kids were in daycare. Even though we blocked our calendars, time slipped away quickly and we ended up having to cut things short to get back to meetings.

When we reconvened later to finish, the momentum was gone. Now, we intentionally block off more time than we think we’ll need and treat this as a priority, not something to rush through.

Start Small and Build Over Time

If this is your first year holding a family planning meeting, start with just a few key categories so it doesn’t feel overwhelming. You don’t need to cover everything at once. Over time, you can add more structure and topics as you get more comfortable with the process.

Each year also looks a little different. Some seasons require more attention on certain areas like marriage, finances, or health. Be realistic about what deserves your time and energy that year, and give yourself permission to adjust the focus as needed.

Part 2: The Celebration

This part is all about having fun together and intentionally celebrating the year you’re closing out. So often we move from one season straight into the next without ever stopping to look back. This is our chance to pause and acknowledge everything that happened, big and small.

That might mean celebrating a job change or promotion, hitting a financial goal, navigating a hard parenting season, solving a long-standing household issue, working through a family conflict, or making progress in a hobby or personal goal. All of it counts. If it mattered to you, it’s worth celebrating.

How you celebrate is completely up to you. One year, we went to Topgolf, had a few beers, hit balls, and then sat down for a long, fun dinner afterward. The only rule we have is that the celebration must happen at a different location than the planning meeting. That part is non negotiable.

The planning meeting can be exciting and motivating, but it can also be intense or frustrating when you’re working through big decisions or challenges. Changing locations and building in time between the two creates a mental reset and sets a completely different tone. It makes the celebration feel intentional instead of tacked on.

One more thing I want to share, because it has been incredibly impactful for us. Along with the spreadsheet, I also send Matt a few reflection questions ahead of time so he can think about them before the meeting. Over dinner, we take turns sharing our responses with each other. It’s a surprisingly meaningful way to wrap up the year and something we don’t do often enough. Ahem, marriage goal.

If you’re interested, here are a few of the questions we use. These are also included in the template above.

I am so proud of you for…
Three things I love about you are…
I hope we spend more time in 2023 doing…
One thing I hope our future holds…
One thing I wish I said more to you is…

Quarterly Check-Ins

You’ve set the goals, made the plans, and celebrated.

Now what?

If you actually want to make progress throughout the year, I highly recommend scheduling regular check-ins. This was something we were not good at in the beginning, and I want to be honest about that because it matters. The first two years we didn’t do any check-ins at all. One year, we only managed to do a single one. It took time to figure out what worked for us.

Now, at the end of our annual planning meeting, I immediately send all 4 quarterly check-in calendar invites to Matt so they’re on the calendar well in advance. Treating these like real appointments has made all the difference.

These quarterly check-ins give us a chance to see how things are actually going, not how we hoped they would go. They allow us to make adjustments, revisit priorities, and let go of goals that no longer make sense. Sometimes it’s about recommitting. Other times it’s about course correcting or simplifying.

The goal isn’t perfection or rigid tracking. It’s staying aligned and giving ourselves permission to adjust as the year unfolds instead of waiting until December to realize what worked and what didn’t.

Alright friends, I hope this answered your questions and gave you a clearer picture of how we approach our annual family planning meeting. More than anything, I hope it inspires you to create a standing tradition that helps your family grow together in a way that feels right for you.