Similar to Cal Newport's [Time Block Planning](https://www.calnewport.com/blog/2013/12/21/deep-habits-the-importance-of-planning-every-minute-of-your-work-day/) method, **Life Block Planning** gives a "job" to each life block (or phase) of your life. The purpose of Life Block Planning is to plot out the major goals and any restrictions, limitations, or important context for each block of your remaining life. By doing this, you can work to accomplish your goals during the periods in which it is most applicable or desirable. At its heart, this is all about staging your trips in the most logical order, given your current expectations. This exercise often adds some urgency to trip planning, especially when you notice how many goals you may still want to accomplish. I find this to be one of the best parts of the practice. Life block planning can also be helpful in working backwards from your goals to ensure that you're doing what you need to in order to reach them. Perhaps you need to save enough money for a big trip, or retire by a certain date, or train in order to accomplish a physical goal. These life blocks can be flexible depending on what makes sense to you, but shooting for roughly 5 year periods is probably a good place to start. For instance, if you had life goals to: 1. backpack a long distance trail 2. do a month-long cruise around the Mediterranean 3. bring your grandkids to Oktoberfest Given this list, it's clear that backpacking would be physically easier to complete while you're younger, whereas the Mediterranean cruise could be completed even decades later. And your grandkids won't even be old enough to really enjoy Oktoberfest with you until 2032. So you can wait to re-live your Oktoberfest glory days until your grandkids can join you. Besides, you should probably get around to backpacking the PCT in the next few years if you want that to ever happen. And you'll probably appreciate the slow cruise more when you're in your early 70s anyway, especially if you're used to [traveling fast](https://rscottjones.com/in-defense-of-traveling-fast/) right now—so there's no need to rush to get that done at the expense of these other trips. ## What factors to consider Here are some factors we considered during our own life block planning: - our future financial plan - likely family obligations, especially related to caregiving - political dynamics of countries we want to visit - physical requirements of our travel goals - our expected health - retirement We don't have any kids, or else they'd figure prominently into the list above. You'll likely have a number of other factors to consider, and some of the ones we identified won't apply to you. ## A flexible plan Your goals and life context will undoubtedly change, so consider your Life Block planning document to always be a rough draft. Sometimes, you'll have a unique opportunity that you don't want to miss, even if it contradicts your plan. That's fine. The point here is simply to be cognizant of your goals, how they relate to your life's expected context, and to use it to make better decisions. I keep a link to it in my [[Travel dashboard]] so that it's always a part of my trip planning. Revisiting and updating your plan at least once a year will help make sure it's still useful and accurate, and will help ensure you stay on track with your goals.