What if the way we’ve been taught to plan our year as women entrepreneurs is actually setting us up to fail? That’s exactly what we’re diving into with Megan Sumrell, a time management and productivity expert who helps women entrepreneurs create schedules and plans that actually work.

After more than 20 years in IT and project management, Megan realized traditional planning systems built on masculine structures don’t account for women’s realities: biological cycles, caregiving responsibilities, and unpredictable schedules.

She developed a new framework designed specifically for women entrepreneurs, so you can finally set goals and stick with them without burning out.

In this episode, Megan and I explore why conventional annual planning fails, how to shift your mindset so your plans feel achievable, and the exact steps you can take to design a realistic roadmap for your year ahead.

If you’ve been avoiding annual planning because it feels overwhelming, or your goals never survive past March, you’ll want to press play on this conversation.

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Realistic Annual Planning for Women Entrepreneurs: How to Create a Flexible Roadmap for Your Year

If you’re anything like me, the thought of annual planning either gives you hives, or you’ve just stopped doing it altogether because it feels pointless.

Before I had kids, I would sit down every December or January and map out my goals for the year.

I’d fill my planner with launches, content ideas, personal milestones, and travel. It felt inspiring and motivating.

But once motherhood entered the picture? Forget it. My carefully color-coded plans fell apart by March. (Here’s a podcast episode post I had about balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship.)

Between pregnancy, postpartum, unpredictable childcare, toddler meltdowns, and just plain old life, my plans never seemed to survive real-world circumstances.

And I know I’m not the only one.

Many of the women entrepreneurs I coach feel like annual planning is a waste of time because their reality is so unpredictable.

Why bother writing down goals that will probably get derailed anyway?

That’s why I recently had a conversation with time management expert Megan Sumrell, and it completely shifted how I think about planning.

Megan has developed a system designed specifically for women, one that takes into account our unique biology, mental load, and the realities of caregiving.

Today I want to share my biggest takeaways from our conversation and show you how to create a flexible roadmap for your year that won’t fall apart the moment life throws you a curveball.

Because the truth is: annual planning for women entrepreneurs doesn’t have to feel rigid or unrealistic.

It can actually help you create more freedom, joy, and space in your business and life.

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Why Traditional Planning Systems Fail Women

Most of us were taught planning strategies that were built for men.

Think: Franklin Covey planners, the “5AM Club,” time-blocking your day down to the minute, or productivity hacks that assume you can sit uninterrupted at a desk for 12 hours.

That might work for single men with no kids and no caregiving responsibilities. But for women (especially moms) those systems often backfire.

Here’s why:

• Unpredictable responsibilities. We’re usually the first phone call when a child is sick, school is closed, or a family member needs help.

• Fluctuating energy. Our bodies and hormones shift throughout the month (and even more so in perimenopause and menopause), so we can’t always count on having the same energy day to day.

• Mental load. Women tend to carry the invisible work of remembering schedules, meal plans, appointments, birthdays, and household needs—whether or not we’re moms.

So when we try to force ourselves into rigid, masculine planning systems, we end up frustrated.

We tell ourselves we just need to “work harder” or “be more disciplined,” when really the system itself wasn’t designed for our reality.

Sound familiar?

The good news is, there’s another way.

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The Mindset Shift That Makes Annual Planning Work

The first thing I had to shift in my thinking is this: a plan is not a set of rules. It’s a roadmap.

Too often, we treat planning like a contract. If we write it down, we’re not allowed to deviate from it. And when life inevitably interrupts, we feel like we’ve failed.

Instead, think of your annual plan like using GPS on a road trip.

You set your destination, map out your route, and start driving. But what happens when there’s an accident or a detour? The GPS reroutes you.

You still get to your destination, even if the path looks different than you expected.

That’s what an annual plan is meant to be: a flexible guide that points you in the right direction while allowing you to pivot when needed.

When you give yourself permission to adjust your plan along the way, you’ll stop abandoning it every time life goes sideways.

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Start With Reality, Not Just Goals

Here’s where so many entrepreneurs get tripped up: we create plans in a vacuum.

We go to an inspiring workshop, build a vision board, set 20 ambitious goals for the year, and then head home feeling pumped.

But when daily life kicks in—the dog gets sick, there’s a snow day, or your toddler refuses to nap—those goals start to feel impossible.

Why? Because we didn’t account for our actual time budget.

Think about it like money. If you earn $5,000 a month but $4,200 is already spoken for with bills, you don’t really have $5,000 to spend—you have $800.

Time works the same way. Maybe you technically have 168 hours in a week, but after sleep, meals, childcare, household responsibilities, and recurring commitments, your available hours for business are much smaller than you think.

If you don’t plan based on your real capacity, you’ll overspend your time just like you can overspend money. And eventually, that leads to burnout and frustration.

One of the most practical tools I learned from Megan is to look at your year and assign a “capacity percentage” to each month.

For example:

• May might be 30% capacity because of school events, Mother’s Day, and sports tournaments.

• June and July might be 25% because of summer break.

• September might be closer to 90% once school routines are back in place.

When you know your true capacity, you can set realistic expectations instead of constantly overcommitting.

(Here’s a related read: How to Implement an Effective 90-Day Business Planning Strategy: The Ultimate Guide for Coaches and Practitioners)

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How to Create Appropriately Scaled Plans

I’ll be honest: one of my biggest struggles is adjusting my expectations.

Before kids, I had an unusually high level of productivity. I could lock myself in my office for 8 hours, crank out client work, write content, and build programs without batting an eye.

But motherhood changed everything. Sleep deprivation, constant interruptions, and the sheer unpredictability of raising young kids meant I couldn’t count on having those marathon workdays anymore.

Yet for years, I kept planning as if my old capacity still applied. I’d set goals based on my “hyper-productive” self, then feel frustrated when I couldn’t keep up.

Here’s the hard truth I’ve had to embrace: it’s better to accomplish one meaningful goal this year than abandon five because they were unrealistic.

That doesn’t mean we can’t be ambitious. But it does mean we need to right-size our plans for the season of life we’re in.

Practical tip: When you sit down to plan your year, write down your real-life capacity for each quarter.

If you know summer is chaos, don’t plan a big launch then. If December always gets swallowed up by holidays, protect that time for rest instead of overloading yourself.

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Balancing Big Vision with Flexibility

Now, you might be wondering: what about those big, bold “10x goals” everyone’s talking about?

I’ll admit, I’ve fallen into that trap. I’d hear advice like “think bigger!” or “don’t settle for 2x when you could 10x” and get inspired.

I’d dream up huge goals, only to burn out trying to achieve them with the same old strategies.

Here’s what I’ve learned from Megan: you don’t have to abandon big vision, but you do need to approach it differently.

Instead of asking, “How can I do 10x more?” start asking, “How can I make what I already have 10x better?”

For example:

• Could you improve your sales page so it converts at a higher rate instead of running 10x more ads?

• Could you enhance your client onboarding experience so people stay longer and refer others?

• Could you refine your signature program to create better results without adding more to your plate?

This kind of thinking allows you to pursue exponential growth without sacrificing your health, your relationships, or your sanity.

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A Simple First Step for Your Annual Plan

If the idea of creating a full annual plan still feels overwhelming, here’s the best place to start:

Reflect on the past year with two simple questions:

1. What did I love about this year that I want more of?

2. What did I not love that I want to change or eliminate?

That’s it.

Grab a notebook and make two lists. Don’t overthink it. Include both personal and business experiences.

Maybe you loved the weeks you took Fridays off. Maybe you hated launching during back-to-school chaos. Maybe you loved collaborating with a partner, or hated saying yes to projects that drained you.

This simple reflection creates a filter for your future decisions. When you sit down to plan 2026, you’ll already know what to prioritize and what to avoid.

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Conclusion: Your Year, Your Way

Annual planning for women entrepreneurs doesn’t have to feel like a futile exercise.

When you shift your mindset from “rules” to “roadmap,” plan based on your true capacity, and give yourself permission to pivot, planning becomes empowering instead of overwhelming.

Here are the key takeaways from Megan’s interview that I want you to remember:

1. Traditional planning systems weren’t built for women. You need a system that acknowledges your reality.

2. A plan is a roadmap, not a contract. Detours are normal.

3. Start with your capacity. Think of time like money—you only have so much to spend.

4. Scale appropriately. One meaningful goal accomplished is better than five abandoned.

5. Dream big differently. Improve your existing assets 10x instead of trying to do 10x more.

6. Reflect before you plan. Use your “love it/didn’t love it” lists as your filter for the year ahead.

If you’re tired of flying by the seat of your pants and ready to create a realistic, flexible roadmap for your business and life, start with that reflection exercise today.

And if you’d love more guidance, tools, and structure, my friend Megan is hosting her Planapalooza annual planning event.

I signed up myself, because I know I need the accountability and support to stop waiting for life to get easier and start planning with the reality I have.

You can learn more about Planapalooza here.

Here’s to entering 2026 with confidence, clarity, and a plan that actually works for your life.

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