The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months

To decide what to focus on, start with your vision, then rate yourself in the seven areas of life balance (i.e., spiritual, spouse/partner, family, community, physical, personal, and business).

Success Tip 1: Share it with others.

Breakout blocks are designed to prevent burnout and create more free time. They are three hours in length, and should be scheduled once a week—after the rest of the 12 Week Year is working for you. We recommend that you only have one per month until everything else is working, and you are executing well.

Notice that I am using my definition of success and satisfaction as the basis for my assessment. If you are single, for example, and you are happy with that, you might score yourself a 10 under the key relationship category.

More than 60 percent of the time the breakdown occurs in the execution process, but usually people assume the plan is at fault and change it. This is a mistake, because you don’t know if the plan doesn’t work if you’re not working the plan.

As you conduct these meetings with your team, start the conversation by focusing on their 12 week goals. Do they own the goal or are they just interested in it? Is the goal realistic and still a stretch for them? Do they believe that they can reach their goal? Make appropriate suggestions for changing their goal if necessary, but make sure that the

The end of the year represents a line in the sand, a point at which we measure our success or failure. Never mind that it’s an arbitrary deadline; everyone buys into it. It is the deadline that creates the urgency.

Trying to spend equal time in each area is unproductive and often frustrating. Life balance is not about equal time in each area; life balance is more about intentional imbalance.

Pitfall 5: You don’t make it meaningful.