Strategy is a fancy word for a plan that links our decisions and our resources in a way that will get us the results we want.

Strategising is as simple as identifying as many ways as you can to get the results you want and then thinking carefully about the pros and cons of each of them until you find the best one. A strategy is like the route line, on google maps or your satnav device, that shows you the smartest way to get from where you are to where you want to be. Having a strategy in place helps us work more coherently and stops us wasting time guessing what to do next.

As time becomes an increasingly scarce resource for all of us, so the need to think strategically becomes increasingly important.

Logic, reason and planning all tend to disappear quite quickly under pressure and, without a clear strategy in place, people rapidly descend into behaviour patterns based more on urgency and panic than on importance or value.

Many large organisations understand this and, consequently, spend huge amounts of time, energy and money on developing their strategies but it is far less common for individuals or families to think like that. I find that strange, though, because building an effective personal and family life is at least as important, to most people, as having a successful career.

The first time I heard the word "strategy" in a family context was some years ago when I went to stay with some friends in New Zealand. They both had good jobs and they were doing very well financially but their house looked as though it had not been decorated or repaired since the 1970's. As they showed me to my room, they must have noticed my reaction to the eye-watering wallpaper and they said something along the lines of:

"Yeah mate, our strategy is to invest in experiences; not the house."

Pretty much every weekend, they would load up their camper van with canoes, tent, portable barbecue, walking poles and lots of food and head out into the incredible New Zealand scenery for their next adventure. They had made a conscious decision to prioritise their spending on adventure rather than on nice decor for their house and they were happy to accept the consequences of that choice. Although, to be fair, I think it was me who had to pay the consequences. Staring at that wallpaper, as I tried to get to sleep, is the closest I have ever come to hallucinating!

The point of the story is that they had thought about their priorities and how to achieve them and had turned that into an informal strategy - a plan for living, if you like. There are many advantages to having such a plan:

• Strategising allows you to think about the consequences of your decision is BEFORE you make that decision. It is very hard to think about consequences in a considered or rational way when you are already experiencing them.
  When my kids moved to another country following a divorce, I knew I needed to re-think my priorities if I was going to hold on to them at such a distance. My strategy was to switch to self-employed, associate work so that I could ring-fence blocks of time to be with them.
  Being self-employed is far less stable or secure than regular employment but when the lean times came, I did not panic or complain because I had already thought about those consequences when I made my strategy and decided that it was a fair price to pay for a deeper connection with my kids.

• Having a well-considered strategy makes it much easier and faster to communicate your priorities with the people who are walking life's path with you - partners, friends, kids, colleagues etc.

• Thinking from a strategic point of view gives you a greater appreciation for the value of the resources you have at your disposal, such as time, energy, money and health. Valuing them more highly will make you spend them more wisely.

Coming up with a strategy for your next couple of years can seem like a daunting task but it doesn't have to be complicated. It boils down to asking yourself a few key questions:

• What is the result I want? - This is by far the most important question

• What are all the ways I can think of to achieve that result?

• What are the negative consequences (cost, time, complexity, uncertainty etc.) of all those ways?

• What are the steps from here to my desired result?

• What is the best sequence for those steps?

• Based on all the answers above, what is the best way to combine decisions and resources in order to achieve my desired result?

Your strategy is really the answer to the last question, written as clearly as possible.

Strategies come in all shapes and sizes, from the equivalent of a few lines of behavioural code all the way up to a fully-featured "App for life." It could be as simple as leaving home 5 minutes earlier to avoid the traffic near your local school or it could be a 10 year project to achieve a certain qualification or position.

Whatever the size or complexity of the goal you are pursuing, the challenge is the same:

Don't be random - be strategic!