> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.sonto.app/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Plan your Year and Quarter > Plan states, linking, and the Plans area — the reference for long-term planning A step-by-step guide to planning a quarter from start to finish. Yearly and quarterly **plans** are documents you create to capture your [intention](/reference/glossary#intention), your [groups](/reference/glossary#group), and the goals or [milestones](/reference/glossary#milestone) under them. Unlike planning a day or week — which simply schedules tasks — a plan is a thing in its own right that lives in your sidebar. ## Starting a plan There are a few ways to begin: * On Mac, click `File → Planning → Plan your Quarter or Year…`. * Hover the **+** at the bottom of the sidebar and choose **New Plan**. * Sonto also prompts you near the start of a new quarter or year. * On iPhone, tap the **+** on the home screen and choose **New Plan**. Creating a new plan from the sidebar ## The guided flow Creating a plan puts you in planning mode, which walks you through four steps — **Review → Intention → Plan → Finalize** — and then you commit. For the full step-by-step, see the [tutorial](/guides/planning-your-year-and-quarter). The guided step-by-step flow is currently a **Mac** feature. You can create plans on iPhone, but without the guided flow. It's recommended to plan your **year before your quarter**, and your **quarter before your week or day** — each level anchors the next. That said, starting at the quarter is perfectly fine if a year feels like too much. ## Plans live in your sidebar A plan is a document — think of it as a roadmap with your goals and vision — and it lives in your sidebar, always a click away. Yearly and quarterly plans listed in the Sonto sidebar ## Updating plan progress As the quarter or year unfolds, click a plan in the sidebar and check off what you've completed; long- click a checkbox to mark something in progress. Plans behave much like projects. When a plan is finished — at the end of the period, or once you've done what you set out to — **close** it by clicking the green progress pie next to its title. Closed plans leave the sidebar to keep it uncluttered; you can always find them in the Plans area. A closed plan shown with a completed progress indicator ## Plan states A small badge below a plan's title shows its state: * **Active** — planned, current, and open. The stuff to focus on. * **Past** — planned but no longer current, and still open. Worth reviewing and closing. * **Future** — planned but starts later. Prepared, but not yet begun. * **Draft** — you haven't finished planning it yet. * **Closed** — reviewed and done. ## Linking plans When you create a plan, Sonto links it to relevant others — the quarter or year before it, or the year a quarter belongs to. Linking lets Sonto show the right previous plan during the Review step, and lets you jump quickly between plans. Set links in the new-plan dialog, and change them later on the plan page. A plan showing its linked plans, with controls to navigate and change the link ## The Plans area New plans are gathered in a `🎯 Plans` area, created automatically with your first plan. Closed plans leave the sidebar but remain here, so current and past plans are always in one place. The Plans area gathering all current and past plans in one place ## Multiple plans for the same period You can create more than one plan for the same period — for example, separate work and personal plans, so you can share your work plan without revealing everything personal. Double-click a plan's title to rename it to something more descriptive. Multiple differently-named plans for the same period ## Related The shorter routines that draw on your plans. Intention, goal, milestone, group, intensity score.