It seems patronisingly obvious, but you'd be very surprised how many businesses and individuals within them don't really use action planning as an organisational tool. "What do you mean?" you cry - "I always have a plan of action on what I'm going to do!". That may be so, but the best action plans are long-term, not just what you're going to do that day. You could even form an action plan around your whole career path. Here are five ways you can use action planning to make sure that when you set yourself a goal or objective, you're far more likely to achieve it than if you hadn't made that plan.

1. Fleshing out the objective in writing

For this example, let's say that a businesswoman, new to the company, would like to improve her language skills so that she can possibly get a job in the company's overseas department. That's her objective. She may know this in her head, but truthfully - how many people actually write down a long-term goal like that? Not many. Usually we know what we want in our heads, and that's it.

Writing down the plan and fleshing it out makes it a real, tangible goal instead of a dream. It may sound simple but it is a very powerful psychological tool. Naturally, an action plan doesn't need to have such a wide scope. Yours could be that you want to improve your time management, or to redesign the company website, or to get a promotion. Whatever it is, you should write it down.

Next, you should assess how you're going to achieve it (although you may not even know yet). The first step is to consider where you are now and what tools are at your disposal.

In our example, the lady in question may think "all right, I got GCSE Spanish" and knows that she has to improve a lot before she'll be fluent enough to work in a Spanish speaking environment. Tools at her disposal? She knows there is a language centre teaching evening classes, so she now has a short-term goal of investigating that further and enrolling. Then, while doing the classes, she could start to speak to the HR department about relocation packages and so on. This should all be written down, too - then instead of daydreaming about the end result, you can start to see the steps to get there and ultimately, the end goal. You may have a few steps, or you may have plenty, but if you flesh out your plan, it will start to look much more obtainable.

2. Have a contingency plan

We can't always get what we want in life, so sometimes things conspire to throw a spanner in our action planning work. Always have a second choice, or else you'll be completely lost and without a sense of direction if something causes your long-term goal to change. Flexibility is, after all, a great business skill. Let's say in our example that the lady in question has a family who suddenly announce that they don't want to move to another country. This isn't her fault, but now her goal may change. She has a contingency plan that she could volunteer for the foreign department one month a year instead of relocating and thus still improving her skills.

3. Review your progress

Any plan should be revisited often so that you can tell if you're on track or if you're starting to deviate from the steps to need to take to achieve it. If you fail to review your progress (or have others, such as a manager review it with you), you can lose objectivity as to how well you're really doing, and if you've set yourself a goal that is either too large, too difficult, or just impossible to complete in the timescale you've given yourself.

4. Use visualisation and positivity

Having an action plan is a positive step in itself, and having a fleshed out idea on paper can be very motivating. Don't forget to motivate yourself during the process, though. It can be hard when things don't go your way, or that part of your plan relies on other people that don't prioritise it like you do, but constant positive reinforcement - remember that end goal! Can be a great help in preventing procrastination and keeping at it when the going gets tough.

5. Reward yourself

Many of us are so pleased at achieving a goal, we consider the achievement itself to be reward enough - but stop! Step back, take a look at all those steps you completed, all those reviews you amended, how you stuck at it and finally, reached your goal. Give yourself a pat on the back in any way you see fit - this will help in that even if the process was painful and drawn out, you'll still be in a positive frame of mind to get to that next goal...and with a bit of action planning, you can aim higher, plan it out, and know that it really is possible.