Unfortunately no one can answer how to plan in a single post like this. To be able to see the imbalances on the chess board and to develop a plan for defeating your opponent is something that requires study. There are great books on this topic and there are chess coaches that can help with that as well.
How to Reassess Your Chess - This book focuses on seeing the imbalances on the board. I'm reading this one now and am enjoying it.
But in essence, planning is about assessing the entire board and targeting the weaknesses of your opponents position as a whole. Tactics are the individual attacks, but you do have to develop a sense of seeing the strengths and weaknesses of an entire position.
You will find that some battles are simply unnecessary. Some trades actually weaken your position. Consider how many moves you might be wasting or how many openings you might be creating when you just "trade pieces".
It's been almost a year now since I've started playing Chess, and recently I've found that my progress has really slowed.
After getting my living daylight beaten out of by many players much more powerful than myself, I asked some of them on where I'm going wrong. Their replies seemed to be along the lines that I don't have a plan.
I'm not quite sure exactly what a plan is in chess (seen it mentioned a lot, "a bad plan is better than no plan"). Is it just simply thinking ahead?