“The 12 Week Year” — A Book Review
And how it helped me achieve 4 times more within a year
In this read, you are going to learn about the 12-week-year method which I have been using for the last 4 years and which made me extremely efficient in terms of achieving goals and analyzing the outcomes.
Setting up A Scene
I loved to read. And I still do. But I was mostly reading classical Russian literature until about 17. Around that time I discovered “non-fiction” books that were actually written by real people to real people. That was sort of a breakthrough.
One of the first books I read was “The 12 Week Year”.
It created a whole new approach for me in terms of setting up goals, reviewing them, and getting non-biased feedback. Like many, I didn't know whether the system that I had developed before this fresh new approach was efficient.
And honestly, I didn't have both tools and skills to find that out.
I was casually planning something in my head, obviously forgetting tons of important stuff along the way and I thought I was doing great. What a naive young boy!
I did have some big, ambitious goals I was moving towards, but there was no actionable framework to track these. That’s where the “12-week year” method came in.
Breaking Down “The 12 Week Year”
The main idea of this whole book is to break down a year into four 12-week years. So you are basically living through 4 shorter years instead of one long one. What benefits it gives:
1. Easy goal-setting process
Our brain is not particularly great at building a long-term view of anything really.
So, instead of focusing on what we wanna achieve during the next year (which is a pretty long time, to be honest), we should make it easier for our brains and shorten this period to 12 weeks at a time.
You can’t predict entirely what is going to happen in the next 12 weeks, but the accuracy of your predictions is definitely higher compared to a 1 year period.
2. Efficient reflecting process
Emotions and the memories of the events that had happened over the past 12 weeks are pretty fresh and therefore more accurate.
Accuracy, in turn, means that you will be able to process these more efficiently, and based on that your future decisions would be more thought-out.
Imagine trying to remember what impact a certain event 8 months ago had on you. Quite tough, right? That's exactly the point.
3. You actually achieve more!
I am convinced, that with that framework you are gonna set more clear goals and achieve much more compared to if you were setting up your goals on a yearly basis.
And honestly, it also just feels great being able to check more goals on your list than you would have otherwise — certainty gives you the motivation to move forward.
How I Improved the “The 12 Week Year” Method
Since I have been using the framework from this book for years now, I believe there are some “tips and tricks” that I can share on how to make this system work for you even better.
Global Task
Before every 12-week period, I write down a so-called “Global Task”, describing the most ambitious objectives for the next 12 weeks. I am trying to be as precise as possible and imagine what the future would truly look like.
It can be any kind of goal: emotional state, finance, books to read, projects to start/finish, holidays to plan, etc. Sometimes I even let myself fantasize a bit to see how far it can go so to speak — it’s just funny to read it 12 weeks later :)
Weeks breakdown
After I’ve finished writing down the “Global Task”, I would start with the plan for the Week 1. My rules for “Global Tasks” and “Regular Week Tasks” are different but fairly simple.
When writing down objectives for the next week, I also try to imagine what the week is gonna look like. However, since the week is a more predictable period of time than 3 months, I will write even the minor, seemingly unnecessary details.
It includes: who I meet up with this week, what I read and watch, what I write and post, etc.
Time to review
End of each week I review how it went. It a quite standard procedure — I usually note what I got a chance to achieve, which tasks I have completed and which I haven't (including the reason why), perhaps any over-/underachievements, etc.
The same applies to the bigger chunk of time — the whole 12-week period. Every 12 weeks I sit down for an hour or two to go through my “Global Tasks” in as much detail as possible remembering and reflecting on everything that happened during that period.
The goal is to understand as much as possible what went according to the plan, where I fucked up, and so on. Taking away out important lessons and insights is the key part.
The 13th Week
Since 13 is the lucky number (duh), this week is created to give you a break, to “catch a breath”. Feel free to stop planning, setting up goals, and keeping track — just enjoy the chaos of life and see where this flow of it brings you :)
Important Rules
- Always leave space for more. During the reviewing/reflecting process, you must add something unexpected/unplanned that happened during the time period you are reviewing.
- Write down the date.
- Add check marks — feels good.
- Add some emojis or come up with our own symbols.
- You can calculate the percentage of tasks completed after each week — didn't work out for me.
- Do a small comment on either “Regular Week Tasks” or “Global Tasks” if you feel like it.
- Don’t set goals for the pure sake of self-praise. Yes, it feels good to mark goals completed, but once you fall into this trap, you achieving these goals won't matter a bit.
- It probably won’t go that smoothly on the first try. But be consistent — the more you keep track of things, the more momentum you build the less friction you would feel learning a new habit and sticking to it.
- Keeping track doesn't make you a slave to your schedule. It frees you instead. Those who are capable of managing their time are truly free.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it :)
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