“Get more done in 12 weeks than others do in 12 months.” This is the powerful promise of The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennigton.

This is especially enticing when you know that a study conducted by the University of Scranton found that 92% of people who set New Year’s Resolutions never achieve them. The 12 Week Year not only explains why this is the case but also lets you in on a clear, actionable plan makes your long-term goals more achievable than ever.

The 12 Week Year: 3 Major Insights to Take Control of Your Life

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Book: The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennigton

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

12 Week Year Summary

The 12 Week Year is a productivity and goal-setting system designed by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington. Its core idea is to redefine your annual goals into 12 week periods – enabling you to focus on the same goals within a shorter time frame and with a sense of urgency.

Why the 12 Week Year Works

It shifts how you think about time.
It’s predictable because your deadlines are always near.
It ensures that you will be great at a few things and not mediocre at a lot of things.

Elements of the 12 Week Year

Vision: A compelling vision creates a clear picture of the future.
Planning: Clarifies and focuses on the top-priority actions needed to achieve the vision.
Process Control: Consists of tools and events that align your daily actions and plan.
Measurement: Drives the process and is the anchor of reality.
Time Use: Be in control of your time to be in control of your results.
Accountability: Willingness to own actions and results regardless of the circumstances.
Commitment: Personal promises that you make to yourself.
Greatness in the Moment: Make the choice to do what is necessary to become great.

Concepts and Thoughts: The Highlights

Annualized Thinking Trap

“The Annual Planning Process is when you set annual goals, create annual plans, and even go as far as to break down the goals into quarterly, monthly and even weekly plans. But ultimately, will only evaluate their success annually.”
– Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington

Annualized thinking is:

“An unspoken belief that there is plenty of time in the year to make things happen.”

One of the biggest reasons why people fail to achieve their goals is because they use the Annual Planning Process and hold on to annualized thinking.

Here are the flaws with annualized thinking:

Flaw #1: We lack a sense of urgency. Annualized thinking doesn’t take into consideration that each week/day is important for making progress.
Flaw #2: We believe that significant improvement will come at some point later in the year. Annualized thinking causes us to procrastinate for most of the year.

Vision

“Success and the ability to execute despite discomfort come from having a strong emotional connection to the outcome: a vision.”
– Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington

When tackling a difficult task, the discomfort we feel can make the short-term cost seem greater than the long-term benefit. Because of this discomfort, it will be tempting to abandon your goal and strategy altogether. But having a strong, emotionally connected vision will help to push you through—even when things feel overwhelmingly difficult.

Scorekeeping

“Every time you execute, you produce something – it may not be what you expected, but something will happen. This something is market feedback.”
– Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington

A big misconception about scorekeeping is that it damages self-esteem. The truth is that measurement simply provides clear feedback about our actions and can build confidence.

Measurement provides immediate feedback about:

Whether the strategy we’ve implemented is effective
What is or isn’t working

The point of scorekeeping is to measure your execution (lead indicators) and your results (lag indicators).

It’s most important to track your execution because results can take weeks, months, and even years to provide feedback. The key is to separate your emotions from the measurement. The score simply reports what happened or didn’t happen. It is not a direct reflection of you.

Intentionality

Learn to spend your time with intention so that you do not procrastinate with low-level activities to avoid less comfortable high-payoff activities.

Use time-blocking to intentionally control your day and maximize effectiveness

Strategic Blocks: (3-hour block of uninterrupted time scheduled each week)
- What will help you achieve your goals? What will make you money?
- Only work on pre-planned tasks
Buffer Blocks: (30-min – 1-hour block to deal with all unplanned and low-value activities)
- Group together activities that are unproductive so you can deal with them at once
Breakout Blocks: (3-hour block to spend on things other than work.)
- Refresh your mind and replenish your energy so that you don’t get burnt out

Major Takeaways

The #1 thing that you will have to sacrifice to be great is your comfort.
Strive for excellence, not perfection. If you successfully complete 85% of the activities in your weekly plan, you are most likely to achieve your objectives.
Life balance is achieved when you are purposeful about how and where you spend your time, energy, and effort. At different times in your life, you will choose to focus on one area over another.

Actionable Practice

Create a Vision Statement: Create a vision of the future that is greater than the present.
Set 12-Week Goals: Identify your overall goal(s) for the 12 weeks
Plan Tactics and Lead Measures: Determine your tactics for the goal(s) (Tactics must be specific, actionable, and include due dates.) To be truly effective, your daily activity must align with your long-term vision, strategies, and tactics.
Weekly Execution and Time Blocking: Block your time using the Performance Time time blocking system.
Scorekeeping and Accountability: Measure both lead indicators (activities that produce the end result) and lag indicators (the end result).
12-Week Review and Reset

Inspirational Quotes

“Vision is the starting point of all high performance. You create things twice; first mentally, then physically.”
“If you want to know what your future holds, look to your actions; they are the best predictor of your future.”
“If you are not purposeful about how you spend your time, then you leave your results to chance.”
On Commitment – “When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstances permit, but when you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.”

Final Thoughts

If you struggle with time management and achieving your goals, this book should be your go-to reading material. The concepts in this book aren’t brand new, but the most important aspect of the 12 Week Year system is that it is immediately actionable. This is especially crucial if you are feeling overwhelmed and need a clear system to implement. From visualization to execution, you’ll have what you need to finally achieve your BIGGEST goals!