Action Plan Templates & Best Practices to Write Action Plans

An action plan is an outline that allows you to control every step and task of your project. With action plans, you and your team can easily access the main task list and view the tasks that need to be completed. It is important to keep all tasks, no matter how big or small, in an easily accessible format for employees on any project. Action plans make it easier to find information, reduce the number of times your team asks questions to leaders, and guide employees. If you don’t know how to write an action plan, we’ve got you covered!

In this article, we will explain what an action plan is and explore how to write one.

If you’re ready, let’s get started!

TL; DR

• An action plan is a concise and clear way to outline tasks and steps for a project's success.
• The purpose of an action plan is to provide an overview of tasks, subtasks, deadlines, and project progress.
• To create an action plan, you need to set SMART goals and identify tasks, actions, timelines, and milestones.
• You can improve your action plan by holding meetings with your employees or teammates.
• If you want to improve and speed up your action plan writing process, ZenoChat with its multiple LLMs and knowledge bases is the way to go.

What is an Action Plan?

An action plan template is a concise and clear way to outline tasks and steps for a project’s success. Action plans can also be called to-do lists and project outlines. With action plan templates, you can create dashboards that include tasks, sub-tasks, steps, and deadlines. Thus, you can ensure that project managers and stakeholders can monitor the entire project process.

Purpose of an Action Plan

With an action plan, you can organize the tasks of a project and improve communication between employees. An action plan serves as the table of contents of a novel. The only difference with an action plan is that it specifies the tasks to be completed, deadlines, and the overall process of the project. This way, readers of the project can have an idea of ​​what to expect.

An action plan can provide stakeholders with a clear project direction and show them exactly what needs to be done. Adding goals to action plans helps employees remember the purpose of the project and stay focused. You can track project progress using action plans.

How to Create an Action Plan?

Starting an action plan from a blank page is a tedious and tiring process. For this reason, we have prepared an action plan writing outline that will fill the blank page for you. You can start writing your action plan by sticking it to this outline.

1-) Set SMART Goals

You've heard before your professional career that SMART goals stand for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. These are concrete goals that can be easily measured and evaluated for success. By adding these goals to your action plan, you can ensure that all employees are on the same page and avoid potential confusion.

2-) Identify the Tasks and Actions

Once you set SMART goals, you can write down the tasks and actions needed to achieve them. At this stage, starting from the final goal and moving towards the beginning will save you time. You can smooth the process by listing the tasks and actions that need to be taken to complete the final goal. At this stage, you can increase the efficiency of your team members by considering their strengths. Once you have listed all the tasks, you can meet with your teammates to assign them the tasks.

3-) Set the Timeline and Milestones

After you create your task list, you know what you need to complete your project. Next, you need to add acceptable timelines, deadlines, and milestones for these tasks. This will cause your teammates to focus and mentally relax as each milestone and timeline is completed. An employee will feel satisfied, and their productivity will increase after reaching the goal specified by the timeline, deadline, or milestone. You can hold meetings with your employees to ensure that the timelines and milestones you set are compatible with them.

4-) Identify and Utilize Resources

Action plans are a good document to gather resources, external links, graphics, and visuals that your team will use. In this way, each employee can easily access resources related to the project and focus on their tasks without interruption. However, we recommend that you categorize the resources you will use in action plans according to timeline, milestones, or tasks. In this way, employees can easily access the resources needed for their tasks instead of dealing with all the information at the same time.

5-) Evaluate and Improve

While action plans and project roadmaps are essential, rigid adherence to them can potentially decrease productivity. As projects progress, employees often encounter unforeseen challenges or develop innovative ideas. It's beneficial to maintain flexibility in your project management approach. Regularly scheduled team meetings provide an excellent opportunity to gather feedback on the project's current status and incorporate new insights.

Create Action Plans with ZenoChat

Writing action plans can be a long, tiring, and stressful process, but don't worry because ZenoChat is here to help! ZenoChat is an AI co-pilot developed by TextCortex that provides its users with multiple Large Language Models (LLMs), strong Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), individual personas, and knowledge bases.

Using ZenoChat, you can generate action plan templates from scratch or improve your existing action plans. ZenoChat also offers features such as text generation, paraphrasing, spelling, and grammar fixes. The ZenoChat browser extension is also integrated with 30,000+ websites, meaning it can support you anywhere and anytime.

ZenoChat – Knowledge Bases

The feature that makes ZenoChat the perfect companion AI co-pilot is its knowledge base. ZenoChat’s knowledge base allows you to upload or connect your internal data.

Then, with ZenoChat, you can use this data to generate outputs such as action plans. By integrating ZenoChat into your enterprise, you can increase the productivity of your employees and boost the profitability of your business. See the results from one of our case studies:

• TextCortex was implemented for Kemény Boehme Consultants as a solution to tackle these challenges and today employees report increased efficiency and productivity (saving 3 work days per month per employee on average).
• AICX, an ecosystem partner of TextCortex, was integral to the onboarding and helped achieve a 70% activation rate of the team within the first weeks.
• Employee confidence in using and working with AI increased by 60%.‍
• The implementation results in a 28x return on investment (ROI).

Free Action Plan Template

Using ZenoChat’s advanced AI features, it can generate a generic action plan template or create one for specific cases based on your prompt. Let’s take a look at a generic action plan template created by ZenoChat.

Project Title:
Date:

Objective:
Describe the primary goal you want to achieve. Example: Increase website traffic by 25% in 6 months.

Milestones:
Break down your objective into smaller, manageable milestones.

Milestone 1:
[Target Date:]
[Status:]

Milestone 2:
[Target Date:]
[Status:]

Milestone 3:
[Target Date:]
[Status:]

Tasks:
List all tasks required to achieve each milestone.

Task 1:
[Responsible Person:]
[Resources Needed:]
[Due Date:]
[Status:]

Task 2:
[Responsible Person:]
[Resources Needed:]
[Due Date:]
[Status:]

Task 3:
[Responsible Person:]
[Resources Needed:]
[Due Date:]
[Status:]

Resources:
Identify the resources needed to complete tasks (e.g., tools, budget, personnel). Example resources:

• SEO tools (e.g., Ahrefs, SEMrush)
• Budget for online marketing: $1,000
• Content Writers
• Graphic Designers

Timeline:
Provide an overview timeline of major milestones and tasks.

Example:

Month 1:
Milestone 1: [Description]
Task 1.1: [Description] [Due Date:]
Task 1.2: [Description] [Due Date:]

Month 2:
Milestone 2: [Description]
Task 2.1: [Description] [Due Date:]
Task 2.2: [Description] [Due Date:]

Month 3:
Milestone 3: [Description]
Task 3.1: [Description] [Due Date:]
Task 3.2: [Description] [Due Date:]

Potential Risks:
Identify any potential risks and their mitigation strategies.

Risk:
[Likelihood:]
[Impact:]
[Mitigation Strategy:]

Risk:
[Likelihood:]
[Impact:]
[Mitigation Strategy:]

Risk:
[Likelihood:]
[Impact:]
[Mitigation Strategy:]

Metrics for Success:
Define how you will measure the success of your action plan. Example metrics:

• Increase in organic search traffic by at least 25%
• Higher SEO ranking for targeted keywords
• Improved engagement metrics (e.g., lower bounce rate, higher time on site)

Review and Adjustments:
Plan regular reviews and make necessary adjustments.

Review Date:
[Participants:]
[Areas to Review:]

Review Date:
[Participants:]
[Areas to Review:]

Review Date:
[Participants:]
[Areas to Review:]

Sign-Off:
Get sign-off from stakeholders.

Name:
[Role:]
[Signature:]
[Date:]

Name:
[Role:]
[Signature:]
[Date:]

Want to create your custom action plan template? Click here to leverage ZenoChat in your enterprise to automate workflows like this.