5 Frameworks for Effective Year-End Planning, Review & Prioritization in 15 Minutes

It’s that time of year again: time to  review, plan, and prioritize for next   year. I’ve realized that the problem isn’t  in planning—putting our thoughts down on   paper and having a direction. Most of us  generally know where we’re headed. But  

the real issue is how to ensure we take the  actions necessary to make that plan happen. So, I’ve revamped my planning process. I  will share with you the five frameworks I   use to ensure I think about the actions and, more  importantly, that I take those actions next year.  

The whole process only takes 15 minutes. We’ll  spend 5 minutes on review, 5 minutes on planning,   and 5 minutes on prioritizing. For me, 15  minutes is the sweet spot. Timeboxing is   also really important, and many of you mentioned  this last year, so we are doing a 5-5-5 approach.

The first box is the review. Let's use the first  framework, the 80/20 rule: 20% of actions lead   to 80% of the results, and 80% of actions lead to  only 20% of the results. Let’s figure it out and   see where the leverage is. First, let’s start with  the 20% of actions that got us 80% of the results.

Now that I look at it, my 80/20 has two themes.  Both involve spending time with others and both   involve who I’m spending it with. This year, I  realized that I need to spend time with people   who love doing what I hate doing. For example,  this year, I worked with Cecil, and we did an  

exercise where we mapped out every project I was  working on—YouTube, writing, teaching courses,   workshops, consulting work—all of it. We examined  everything and said, “Let’s prioritize. Let’s   figure out how long each thing takes, how long  the project is, and which one gives you more joy.”

I dislike doing these types of tasks when I’m in  the middle of creating content or writing my book,   so it was incredibly helpful to have someone  who loved the process to guide me through   it. The second aspect is who I spend time  working with. Towards the end of the year, I  

conducted a small experiment, which  you might have seen in this video,   where I discussed wanting to work with  people whom I enjoy collaborating with   long-term—people who think about the things  we both care about, who want to improve how  

we think and communicate. By making that  shift and working with people one-on-one,   I developed a closer connection with those I work  with, became much more creative, understood the   problems better, and enjoyed creating for  people who were in it for the long haul.

This, for me, was my 80/20. Now, let’s do  the reverse. What are the 80% of actions   or time that we spent that led to only 20% of  our results? Let’s brainstorm for 2 minutes. The 80% of actions that led to only 20%  of the results are, surprise surprise,  

the things I should have just put my foot  down and said “no” to. They include things   like emails where I tried to say “no” to  a collaboration, but somehow allowed the   back-and-forth to continue. Or decisions I made,  like, “Okay, I’m going to try this. I’m going to  

post videos not just on ‘learn from me,’ but  also on ‘learn with me.’” I kept going back   and forth, wondering if I should do it or not.  Eventually, I just realized I needed to move on. I think this is pretty clear for me now—what  I’ve wasted my time on this year. And that leads  

perfectly to the next thing we’re going to do,  which is via negativa: describing something by   what it is not. In this case, what are the things  from 2024 that we’re not going to repeat in 2025? For me, three things are clear:

1. No re-litigating decisions. 2. No last-minute planning where I do  everything in my head, because I need   to delegate and explain things properly. I  will not leave things to the last minute.

3. Stop getting hangry. This came  up last year too, but I know I’m   going to get hangry, so I need to prepare for it. So that wraps up the review of  the good and the bad actions. Now,  

we have that in mind as we move on  to the next part, which is planning. For planning 2025, we’ll use the mind map  from Passion Planner. I’ve been using this   for several years now, and I can tell you that  every single person I know who uses it always  

says 100% of their goals get achieved. For  me, it’s the same. So that’s why we’ll use   this. We are going to invert: if anything were  possible, what would you be doing in 3 months,   1 year, 3 years, and a lifetime?  Let’s spend 5 minutes brainstorming.

[Music] Planning is always my favorite part.  It’s so generative; there are endless   possibilities, and 5 minutes never seems like  enough. Out of all the things you’ve written,  

you’re now ready for the next step:  prioritizing. We’re putting our feet   back on the ground for a second and using  “The One Thing” method to ensure we bring   it back down to earth. With our limited time and  resources, which one thing will we focus on first?

We’ll do this in two steps. The first step is  to pick our prioritization for each time frame:   3 months, 1 year, 3 years,  and a lifetime. Circle one   thing in each time frame that you want to  prioritize. Then, once you’ve done that,  

you have to pick only one out of the four. You  have 2 minutes to do it. Let’s see how it goes. [Music] I’ve never been good at picking “the one thing”  until I realized that if I pick something that  

allows me to do multiple things I love, and they  all funnel their energy toward one direction,   then that’s the right thing to pick.  For example, I’m doing YouTube,   and that’s the right one thing to focus on because  it allows me to learn new things, discuss them,  

distill ideas, and talk to people who also  love to learn and communicate their ideas. So, the one thing for me was YouTube.  Now, as I was doing this exercise,   instead of picking “spend time with family”  (which I feel bad not picking), I chose to create  

a career where I have the creative freedom to  earn money. Even though I didn’t pick family,   I believe that by creating that career, I will  actually be present when I’m with my family,   instead of complaining about this and that.  I will be there for them, and I can create  

opportunities and experiences for us all  to enjoy together. So that’s my one thing. With the one thing in mind, here’s  the next step: In order to achieve it,   there are hard things we need to do. This  goes back to what I was discussing earlier.  

You know it’s good to have a plan,  but how are you going to get there?   The key lies in doing the hard things  that we always try to procrastinate on. In this exercise, we are going to  identify the things that are hard,  

but that we will say “yes” to, and the  things that are hard, but that we will say   “no” to. This will give us a decision-making  tool, and we’ll put it into a time frame. For example, I hate waking up at 5 AM, but maybe  I need to do it to pursue this creative goal. So,  

I’ll say yes to waking up at 5 for two  months, just to see what happens. In 60 days,   can I do it? Does it help me? If it doesn’t, I  can remove it and try something else. If it works,   I’ve proven to myself I can do it for two months,  and I could probably continue for another two.

[Music] Looking at the frogs I need to eat  (which, by the way, Cecil taught me),   I realize they’re my excuses—the “I’m  like this, therefore it’s impossible for  

me” kind of thinking. That’s such a fixed  mindset, so I’m going to put those aside,   usually for a month to three months, and just  let myself see how I actually feel about the   things I think I hate doing. I might not even  hate them; I just don’t know yet. I’ll give  

myself enough time to see it. If I really do  hate it after 3 months, I can always change it. You can get this worksheet for free in the link  below, and let me know in the comments what you   learned about yourself. What will you be focusing  on next year? I’ll see you in the next video. Bye!