12 Week Year in Evernote

[Altruologist 19]

I am interested in implementing the 'The 12 Week Year' in Evernote, (book by Brian P. Moran). I would appreciate learning from another's experience if there is a user who has done this either successfully or not. Thanks.

[BeEfficient 44]

Can you describe what the benefits should be at the end? I don't know this book / concept but sounds interesting.

[agsteele 3,059]

I hadn't heard of this approach either. 

The 12 week year is a time management system created by Brian P. Moran, who authored the book by the same title. Moran describes the gist of the 12 week year in a single sentence: “Stop thinking in terms of a year; instead focus on shorter time frames.”

https://monday.com/blog/productivity/12-week-year-time-management-system/

 

[BeEfficient 44]

I read this, too. However, what does an implementation on EN look like? Why do you need EN at all?

[gazumped 12,057]

I'm lucky enough not to have to think in years anyway - my priorities are something like the Eisenhower Matrix;  there's

1. 'urgent and important' (NOW)
2. ''urgent / not important' (Soon)
3. neither urgent nor important (maybe)

I'll process them in order,  prioritising each category as I go.  Some things have been in my 'maybe' notebook for years...

Individual items are 'parent' summary ToC notes linking to notebooks with progress details.  

With a few extra folders I guess you could convert this outline to something like the described process,  but I find the simplicity of putting tasks in folders and getting through them in order is efficient enough for me.

 

[DrFrankBuck 554]

Thanks to @agsteele for providing the link to a very helpful article. Quoting from the article along with my thoughts:

Define your why.

As you sit down to think about what you want to accomplish in the next 12 weeks, you’ll want to first get clear about the why that’s driving those efforts. Ask yourself: Why are these projects/goals important? How will they help my team?

From there, write two different statements: One should be aspirational and should speak to how you want your life to look from a big-picture perspective. The other should be short-term, speaking to key goals you want to accomplish within the next 1-3 years. This will serve as your foundation as you move forward and provides meaningful context on what you’re ultimately working towards.

To me, this sounds like a note where you would articulate your "why." Maybe make it a pinned note widget on Evernote Home so that you see it every day.

Establish goals for each of the 12 weeks.

12 week is the same as three months, so you’re essentially asking yourself: What do I need to accomplish in this short time frame? Remember to set SMART goals so that you’re not setting yourself up for failure.

“Whether it’s 12 weeks or a quarter, the magic is in these short term sprints that help you stay focused and that keep you from procrastinating or forgetting about things.” -Genki Hagata, Web Developer at HugeInc

My thinking is you would create a note for each 12-week period. Name them Quarter 1, 2023; Quarter 2, 2023, etc. or something like that. Make a bulleted list of the goals or articulate each goal in a paragraph and provide as much detail as needed. Depending on the size of the goals, a variation would be to have a notebook for each quarter and each notebook would have a note for each note goal.  

Build a plan of action.

To start making progress toward your 12-week goals, you’ll need an actionable series of steps that’ll help you get to the finish line. Assign realistic due dates to each task and consider the potential roadblocks ahead of time so you can anticipate them and proactively plan for those as well.

“I’ve found that using quarters as my main time horizon is the perfect balance between the extremes of daily/weekly planning and the annual review.” –Roxine Kee, freelance marketer

For each goal, think through the to-dos and put them in the correct notes as tasks. Be sure to word them clearly enough so they are easy to do with as little referencing back to the note as possible. For example, if the task is an email to send, include the email address in the task rather than having to refer than having to use the link to refer back to the note. You want as little friction as possible. In particular, think through actions that will need to repeat and create them as such.

Review often.

A key component to the 12 week year is frequent review of progress so you can accurately assess how things are going. Schedule a block of time (no more than 30 minutes) into your weekly calendar to look back at what’s been accomplished and what’s still left to do.

“I love the aspect of ‘halting production’ and getting up in the helicopter to review whether we’re still moving in the right direction. We use the same methodology with our clients, and it works so well.” -Andrew Lolk, Founder of Savvy Revenue

Create a weekly repeating task to review the goals. Perhaps, create a weekly repeating task for each individual goal with a link to the note that expands on the goal. As you review, update what tasks have perhaps been completed but not marked off, what remaining tasks and no longer relevant and delete them, and what new tasks are emerging and add them. Of course, the biggest thing is you have to get in there and to the stuff (always the toughest part 🥸).

[DTLow 5,744]

On 6/23/2023 at 1:40 AM, agsteele said:

Stop thinking in terms of a year; instead focus on shorter time frames.”

For planning, my time frame is today   
I use a daily planner note to time-block my day    
The note is created each morning from a template     
and I insert entries from my calendars and task list    

My task list is sorted by due-date / priority / duration   
   
Look to this day:
For it is life, the very life of life.
...
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision;
And today well-lived, makes
Yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.      Kalidasa

[Altruologist 19]

On 6/23/2023 at 8:48 PM, DrFrankBuck said:

Thanks to @agsteele for providing the link to a very helpful article. Quoting from the article along with my thoughts:

Define your why.

As you sit down to think about what you want to accomplish in the next 12 weeks, you’ll want to first get clear about the why that’s driving those efforts. Ask yourself: Why are these projects/goals important? How will they help my team?

From there, write two different statements: One should be aspirational and should speak to how you want your life to look from a big-picture perspective. The other should be short-term, speaking to key goals you want to accomplish within the next 1-3 years. This will serve as your foundation as you move forward and provides meaningful context on what you’re ultimately working towards.

To me, this sounds like a note where you would articulate your "why." Maybe make it a pinned note widget on Evernote Home so that you see it every day.

Establish goals for each of the 12 weeks.

12 week is the same as three months, so you’re essentially asking yourself: What do I need to accomplish in this short time frame? Remember to set SMART goals so that you’re not setting yourself up for failure.

“Whether it’s 12 weeks or a quarter, the magic is in these short term sprints that help you stay focused and that keep you from procrastinating or forgetting about things.” -Genki Hagata, Web Developer at HugeInc

My thinking is you would create a note for each 12-week period. Name them Quarter 1, 2023; Quarter 2, 2023, etc. or something like that. Make a bulleted list of the goals or articulate each goal in a paragraph and provide as much detail as needed. Depending on the size of the goals, a variation would be to have a notebook for each quarter and each notebook would have a note for each note goal.  

Build a plan of action.

To start making progress toward your 12-week goals, you’ll need an actionable series of steps that’ll help you get to the finish line. Assign realistic due dates to each task and consider the potential roadblocks ahead of time so you can anticipate them and proactively plan for those as well.

“I’ve found that using quarters as my main time horizon is the perfect balance between the extremes of daily/weekly planning and the annual review.” –Roxine Kee, freelance marketer

For each goal, think through the to-dos and put them in the correct notes as tasks. Be sure to word them clearly enough so they are easy to do with as little referencing back to the note as possible. For example, if the task is an email to send, include the email address in the task rather than having to refer than having to use the link to refer back to the note. You want as little friction as possible. In particular, think through actions that will need to repeat and create them as such.

Review often.

A key component to the 12 week year is frequent review of progress so you can accurately assess how things are going. Schedule a block of time (no more than 30 minutes) into your weekly calendar to look back at what’s been accomplished and what’s still left to do.

“I love the aspect of ‘halting production’ and getting up in the helicopter to review whether we’re still moving in the right direction. We use the same methodology with our clients, and it works so well.” -Andrew Lolk, Founder of Savvy Revenue

Create a weekly repeating task to review the goals. Perhaps, create a weekly repeating task for each individual goal with a link to the note that expands on the goal. As you review, update what tasks have perhaps been completed but not marked off, what remaining tasks and no longer relevant and delete them, and what new tasks are emerging and add them. Of course, the biggest thing is you have to get in there and to the stuff (always the toughest part 🥸).

Thanks to all of you for your contributions. I really appreciate your thoughts. Frank, I am grateful for your input on structuring this process. I am looking forward to building this out in Evernote. This model really proves how flexible Evernote is.