I’ve always been a New Year’s resolution kind of person, and I have generally been good at keeping myself honest with my yearly goals without becoming too obsessed about it. Trust me, this has been years in the making to get to this point. This year, however, because I love iterating and trying out new things, I decided to experiment with a new approach.

Introducing, the 12 week year.

Watching one of the videos posted by one of my go-to people when it comes to productivity (Ali Abdaal), I came across a concept I had heard before and wanted to try out. This bit in particular resonated with me as I remembered the hilarious meme that became popular last year. I read the book, and even though I didn’t love it, I did extract some actionable insights.

Without going into too much detail, the main points are that it’s better to keep the number of goals to a minimum and to avoid looking too far ahead. When you believe you have plenty of time to reach a goal, you often feel less pressure to accomplish it. This is especially true for anyone whose other priorities easily take over.

In my case, there was something else that struck me as important to remember. More often than not, I would set an aspirational goal, only to realize months later that I no longer cared about it. These goals became irrelevant because I was no longer the same person I was or because my interests had shifted. This was similar to my experience with books.

One book at a time

Some years ago, even while reading one or more books at the same time, I couldn’t resist the urge to buy new ones that looked interesting. The problem was that by the time I finished my current reads, I had a pile waiting for me. It felt as if the books were laughing at the money I had spent. The main issue was that rarely any of them were the ones I really wanted to read at the moment once I was ready to pick up a new book.

This was exactly the experience I had with my yearly goals. I could have made slow progress in many areas, only to feel that none of them were being accomplished at the pace I desired, and, more importantly, that I was also engaging in activities that no longer excited me. What a terrible plan, isn’t it?

That is why at the beginning of this year I decided to set both a few Personal and Work goals following the 12 week year framework.

Today marks the end of the first 12 week year period (~3 first three months of the year), and I can say I feel extremely happy with what I have done so far. To highlight only some of the goals I did set and finished are:

• Scheduled family travels for the year to help save costs in the long run.
• Finished decorating my office.
• Finished Duolingo course in Italian.
• Re-designed and coded this new website in Svelte.
• Shipped Conduit CLI.

As I’m concluding the first 12-week period, my only hope is that I continue with this sweet balance between making progress on the things I care about without adding unnecessary stress to this already busy life.

Wish me well.