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12週做完一年工作：縮短工時x成果翻倍的高效成功法
你也有這樣的經驗嗎？
●每到年底就懷著雄心壯志，立下新年新計畫，但完成率總是不佳
●計畫的洋洋灑灑，執行力卻零零落落
●慣性拖延症，往往在截止日到期前，才一股作氣趕進度
●想做的事情太多，常常焦慮時間不夠用
無論在學習、工作或生活中，讓自己更高效的重點，不在於做更多的事，而是只做最重要的事；不在計劃安排的多好，而是在於執行力有多高。
●提高執行力、讓成果翻4倍的「一年12週」計畫
指以12週為一個週期，訂下你在12週內想達成的目標，並在這12週內，你只專注在能達成目標的「高價值活動」，減少做或不做「低價值活動」。
本書作者布萊恩．莫蘭和麥可．列寧頓是兩位高績效專家。三十年來，他們利用「一年12週」計畫，幫助許多CEO、團隊和公司發揮超常水準，在更短時間內將績效提高足足四倍。例如，他們的客戶之一是想獲得更高業績的財務顧問，使用「一年12週」後，她不必更努力開發客戶或加更多班，只需專注於原本已經在做的事，把重點放在提高執行力上。一年過去，她的業績高速增長了400%！
●達標每一週，就能複利出一生的成功！
與年度計劃不同，「一年12週」是一種全新的時間管理法，意指「把12週當成你的一年」。這個方法是透過縮短時間和拆解目標，讓你更有效率、更有意識地使用時間，進而擺脫拖延和怠惰心態。不需要高深的技巧或學問，無論你是想提升工作績效、提高收入，或是培養運動習慣，你只要列出項目、貫徹執行，四個12週下來，成果就會像複利般狂飆。
●五步驟開始「一年12週」！
1. 打造願景：你的願景越貼近內心渴望，越能與你建立強大的情感連結，在你執行卡關時提供源源不絕的動力。
2. 制訂12週計畫：計畫越長，越容易失敗，請以12週為單位，訂下與願景一致但更具體、更小的目標。例如：我的願景是一年瘦十公斤，目標就可以設為「在12週內減2.5公斤」。
3. 追蹤管理：隨時檢查計畫，確保沒有偏離軌道。
4. 評量：每週進行評分，將你的執行率數字化，掌握工作進度，或及時修正策略。
5. 分配時間塊：透過三種時間塊改變你花時間的習慣，要更有意識的安排每分每秒。
●每到年底就懷著雄心壯志，立下新年新計畫，但完成率總是不佳
●計畫的洋洋灑灑，執行力卻零零落落
●慣性拖延症，往往在截止日到期前，才一股作氣趕進度
●想做的事情太多，常常焦慮時間不夠用
無論在學習、工作或生活中，讓自己更高效的重點，不在於做更多的事，而是只做最重要的事；不在計劃安排的多好，而是在於執行力有多高。
●提高執行力、讓成果翻4倍的「一年12週」計畫
指以12週為一個週期，訂下你在12週內想達成的目標，並在這12週內，你只專注在能達成目標的「高價值活動」，減少做或不做「低價值活動」。
本書作者布萊恩．莫蘭和麥可．列寧頓是兩位高績效專家。三十年來，他們利用「一年12週」計畫，幫助許多CEO、團隊和公司發揮超常水準，在更短時間內將績效提高足足四倍。例如，他們的客戶之一是想獲得更高業績的財務顧問，使用「一年12週」後，她不必更努力開發客戶或加更多班，只需專注於原本已經在做的事，把重點放在提高執行力上。一年過去，她的業績高速增長了400%！
●達標每一週，就能複利出一生的成功！
與年度計劃不同，「一年12週」是一種全新的時間管理法，意指「把12週當成你的一年」。這個方法是透過縮短時間和拆解目標，讓你更有效率、更有意識地使用時間，進而擺脫拖延和怠惰心態。不需要高深的技巧或學問，無論你是想提升工作績效、提高收入，或是培養運動習慣，你只要列出項目、貫徹執行，四個12週下來，成果就會像複利般狂飆。
●五步驟開始「一年12週」！
1. 打造願景：你的願景越貼近內心渴望，越能與你建立強大的情感連結，在你執行卡關時提供源源不絕的動力。
2. 制訂12週計畫：計畫越長，越容易失敗，請以12週為單位，訂下與願景一致但更具體、更小的目標。例如：我的願景是一年瘦十公斤，目標就可以設為「在12週內減2.5公斤」。
3. 追蹤管理：隨時檢查計畫，確保沒有偏離軌道。
4. 評量：每週進行評分，將你的執行率數字化，掌握工作進度，或及時修正策略。
5. 分配時間塊：透過三種時間塊改變你花時間的習慣，要更有意識的安排每分每秒。
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
6559 people are currently reading
25604 people want to read
About the author
Brian P. Moran
7 books100 followersBrian Moran, President and Founder of The 12 Week Year, has 30 years of expertise as a corporate executive, entrepreneur, consultant and coach. His background as a corporate executive combined with his experience as an entrepreneur positions him with a unique skill set to help individuals and organizations grow and prosper.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,936 reviews
August 5, 2013
Great premise "The 12 Week Year," but save yourself the time and the $23 because the book is oversimplified and repetitious. Read the title, read the subtitle, and execute. There. That's it. Send me the $23.
February 21, 2017
I don’t know why a lot of the reviews on Goodreads are brutal about this. It’s true that a lot of the ideas have been stated more elaborately elsewhere. But to actually come up with the challenge that 90 days are enough? To write a 200-page book on the subject? On an idea that is so simple?
Of course it’s annoying to spend $23 on such an easy idea. It’s committing for three months that’s hard.
Here’s the thing, our brains are trolls. They need all the help they can get to stick to any plan. Whether health, education or work, we have trolls for brains. And a brain's main goal is TO BE AS LAZY AS POSSIBLE.
That’s why a semester usually only lasts 3-4 months. Nobody has the strength to hang on doing the same thing for longer than that without going back to the master plan and a cookie!
I only got the book after I have been practicing the 12-week cycle myself. I had been compartmentalizing my year into quarters. Not just me, a lot of ancient humans too. Like, some folks broke the year down into Spring-Summer-Fall-Winter. Others into semesters. In rice producing countries, the year is broken down into 3 months of tending and 3 months harvest cycles. Go figure.
I have a suspicion that the genetic mindset is built into us too, somewhere along the evolutionary line. Because, for me, the 12-week cycle works great.
Here’s the other thing. While I have been breaking down my year into those manageable quarter-sized chunks, I didn’t realize there was a book that had the language and mindset. All the other self-development books either offered quick fixes (Teach yourself swag in a week!), or eternity in awesome productivity heaven (QUIT SNORING AND GET HAPPY ENDING FOREVER).
This book? The 12 week year? It’s not promising anything that I haven’t been able to do. It’s not promising miracle fixes or unlikely changes that would require a heart attack to make me do something about it. It’s just natural length of a randomly doable project cycle. And it works. By George, it works.
It works because getting into a 3 months cycles doesn’t hurt your brain with uncertainties. It works because you would need a pick-me-up every 3 months. It works because 3 months are a lot easier to control than 365 days.
Give it a shot. Start small. Start with something good you’ve always wanted to do. And recalibrate your plans based on your situation in 3 months. More likely than not, you’d be in a better place than you were three months since you started.
And if you can’t control 3 months of your life and projects, dude, you need more help than a single book could provide.
Of course it’s annoying to spend $23 on such an easy idea. It’s committing for three months that’s hard.
Here’s the thing, our brains are trolls. They need all the help they can get to stick to any plan. Whether health, education or work, we have trolls for brains. And a brain's main goal is TO BE AS LAZY AS POSSIBLE.
That’s why a semester usually only lasts 3-4 months. Nobody has the strength to hang on doing the same thing for longer than that without going back to the master plan and a cookie!
I only got the book after I have been practicing the 12-week cycle myself. I had been compartmentalizing my year into quarters. Not just me, a lot of ancient humans too. Like, some folks broke the year down into Spring-Summer-Fall-Winter. Others into semesters. In rice producing countries, the year is broken down into 3 months of tending and 3 months harvest cycles. Go figure.
I have a suspicion that the genetic mindset is built into us too, somewhere along the evolutionary line. Because, for me, the 12-week cycle works great.
Here’s the other thing. While I have been breaking down my year into those manageable quarter-sized chunks, I didn’t realize there was a book that had the language and mindset. All the other self-development books either offered quick fixes (Teach yourself swag in a week!), or eternity in awesome productivity heaven (QUIT SNORING AND GET HAPPY ENDING FOREVER).
This book? The 12 week year? It’s not promising anything that I haven’t been able to do. It’s not promising miracle fixes or unlikely changes that would require a heart attack to make me do something about it. It’s just natural length of a randomly doable project cycle. And it works. By George, it works.
It works because getting into a 3 months cycles doesn’t hurt your brain with uncertainties. It works because you would need a pick-me-up every 3 months. It works because 3 months are a lot easier to control than 365 days.
Give it a shot. Start small. Start with something good you’ve always wanted to do. And recalibrate your plans based on your situation in 3 months. More likely than not, you’d be in a better place than you were three months since you started.
And if you can’t control 3 months of your life and projects, dude, you need more help than a single book could provide.
February 3, 2024
HIGHLIGHTS:
1. ACTIONS:
- The goal links the “actions” that you take each day as part of your plan to your long-term “vision”.
- Daily actions need to be intentional and aligned.
- Every 12 weeks is a new start.
2. UNSTUCK:
- Focusing on the activities that matter most, maintaining a sense of urgency to get those things done, and shedding the low-value activity that keeps you stuck.
3. PLANNING:
- Some of the most productive times you have.
- Your plan continually brings you back to the strategically important items.
- Effective planning strikes a working balance between too much complexity and too little detail.
- Your plan should start by identifying your overall goals for the 12 weeks.
- Taking time to plan upfront, and overall time and effort to complete a task can be significantly reduced.
4. MEASURE:
- Measurement builds self-esteem and confidence because it documents progress, achievement, and drives the execution process.
- Provides important feedback that allows you to make intelligent decisions.
- A measure of your execution you have good control of your actions over your results.
5. ACCOUNTABILITY:
- Strive for excellence, not perfection.
- ** The 12-week year system forces you to confront your lack of execution.
- High achievers use the tension as an impetus to move forward.
- People would rather you say “no” than break a promise.
- Accountability deals with reality.
6. DISCIPLINE:
- You become great long before the result shows it.
- The discipline to do extra things.
- The real breakthrough comes when all of them are applied in their entirety.
- Self-correcting: It is a deliberate practice system that is designed for continuous improvement.
7. HIGH-VALUE:
- Carve out time each week to focus on your high-value high-impact activities.
8. CLARIFY EXPECTATIONS:
- Accountability deals with reality.
- Create a written plan that identifies the COST that must be paid to reach the goal.
9. CONTROL:
- Not following through on your commitments destroys relationships and contributes to failure.
- You don't control the result, what you control is your actions.
10. TIME:
- Time is the most squandered of all personal resources.
- Be more mindful about how you spend your time.
- When you spend your time with intention, you know when to say “yes” and when to say “no.”
- ACTION: Block out regular time each week dedicated to your strategically important tasks.
- You will need to guard your time intensely, delegating, or limiting everything possible. It is not one of your strengths or does not help you advance your goals.
********************************************
CHAPTER BY CHAPTER
Ch 1:
- The marketplace only rewards those ideas that get implemented.
- It's not a "knowledge" problem, it's an "execution" problem.
- Focusing on the activities that matter most, maintaining a sense of urgency to get those things done, and shedding the low-value activity that keeps you stuck.
Ch. 2:
- The annual process inherently limits performance.
- Life is lived in the moment, and ultimately success is created at the moment.
- Your actions are always congruent with your underlying thinking.
- Every 12 weeks is a new start.
Ch 3:
- Execution invariably requires taking new actions, and new actions are often uncomfortable.
- A compelling vision of the future that you want even more than you desire your own short-term comfort.
- Your brain has the ability to change and develop physiologically, and it is so based on how to use it.
Ch 4:
- Reduce mistakes --> save time --> provide focus.
- The reality is that planning is one of the most productive times you have.
- Your plan continually brings you back to the strategically important items.
- Effective planning strikes a working balance between too much complexity and too little detail.
- Your plan should start by identifying your overall goals for the 12 weeks.
Ch 5:
- To be truly effective, your daily activity must align with your long-term vision strategies and tactics.
- Acts on that intention for things to get better.
- Your actions tell the story.
- To use your weekly plan effectively, you will need to spend the first 15 to 20 minutes at the beginning of each week to review your progress in the past week and plan the upcoming one.
- Your weekly plan enables you to focus your actions and be great at a few things rather than mediocre at many.
Ch 6:
- Scorekeeping is at the heart of competition.
- Measurement builds self-esteem and confidence because it documents progress and achievement. - Measurement drives the execution process.
- Measurement provides important feedback that allows you to make intelligent decisions.
- Measure of your execution: you have good control of your actions and over your results.
- Your results are created by your actions.
- An execution measure indicates whether you did the things you said were most important to achieving your goals.
- If you're not hitting your goal, you need to know whether it is due to a flaw in plan contents or an execution.
- Breakdown in the plan of content occurs when strategies and tactics are not effective when I break down. Execution occurs when you fail to fully implement the plan tactics.
- Pinpoint the source of the breakdown.
- You should really change the plan unless you've been effectively completing your plan tactics and are still not producing.
- You could have created an awesome plan, but you'll never know unless you implement it.
- Strive for excellence, not perfection.
- The 12-week year system forces you to confront your lack of execution.
- High achievers use the tension as an impetus to move forward. If you decide that quitting is not an option, then the discomfort of productive tension will eventually tell you to act on your tactics.
This encourages you to move forward by executing the plan.
Getting better and better.
- Measurement drives the process.
Ch 7:
- Time is the most squandered of all personal resources.
- If you are not purposeful about how you spend your time, you leave your results to chance.
- Results are created by your actions.
- You must learn to be more mindful about how you spend your time.
- When you spend your time with intention, you know when to say yes and went to say no.
- Block out regular time each week dedicated to your strategically important tasks.
- You can't fit all the things you do on paper, there's no way you will get them done in reality, said exercise of strategically planning your week will cause you to make some hard choices about how to use your time.
TYPES:
1. Strategic blocks: three (3) hours per week uninterrupted time.
2. Buffer blocks: unplanned and low-value activities, grouping tasks that tend to be unproductive, 30 minutes a day.
3. Breakout blocks: three hours of free time.
Ch. 8:
- Accountability is not consequences, but ownership.
- Freedom to choose.
- Accountability is the realization that you always have a choice.
- When you choose to do something, you're able to tap your resources and give your best.
Ch. 9:
- Putting a cap on commitments benefits both parties involved by improving relationships, strengthening integrity, and building self-confidence.
- Commitments are powerful and life-changing.
- A commitment is a personal promise.
- Keeping your promises to others builds trust and strong relationships. Keeping promises to yourself builds character esteem and success.
- A commitment is a conscious choice to act to create the desired result.
- When I commit to something, you accept excuses, only results.
- The question of "if" goes away. The only question you ask is "how".
1. Strong desire: meaningful not to get you through the hard times and keep you on track
2. Keystone actions: actions that will produce the result after.
3. Count the cost: I didn't find the cost before you commit allows you to consciously choose whether you're willing to pay the price of your commitment.
4. Act on commitments, not feelings.
Ch. 10:
- The natural margin in our day is disappearing, but we still need time to mentally relax.
- In our efforts to not miss anything, we unwittingly miss everything.
- You become great long before the results show it.
- Will make the champion is the discipline to do the extra things.
Ch. 12: Vision. Planning. Process control. Measurement. Time use. Accountability.
- Using your time with clear intention is a must.
- Quadrants: Uninformed optimization. Informed pessimism. Belly of despair. Informed optimism. Success and fulfillment.
- The real breakthrough comes when all of them are applied in their entirety.
- Self-correcting: It is a deliberate practice system that is designed for continuous improvement.
Ch. 13:
- A compelling vision is a powerful force to move you forward.
- The most partial visions address the alignment of your personal aspirations with your professional dreams. Your life vision.
- TYPES: Long-term aspirations. Mid Term goals about three years into the future. 12 weeks.
- Vision, when engaging properly, is the ignition switch and power source of high performance.
- Vision has the power to enable us to confront and conquer fears.
- Vision is the starting point of all high performance.
- Your vision should make you feel uncomfortable and challenge you to do things differently.
Ch. 14:
- Taking time to plan upfront, and overall time and effort to complete a task can be significantly reduced.
- The primary drivers of your actions are input triggers.
- Fiercely consistent focus on the few vital actions that drive results.
- Efforts and resources expended to build capacity happen immediately, while the benefits are realized sometime in the future. That's why it's important to always have activity in your plan that creates required short-term results.
- Criteria: make them specific and measurable. State than positively. Ensure they are a real stretch. Assigned accountability.
- Each tactic should start with a verb. If you take time to plan before engaging with a complex task, you reduce the overall time required to complete the task by as much as 20%.
Ch. 16:
- Measurement drives the execution process.
- A feedback loop that lets you know if your actions are effective.
- The scorecard measures whether you did what you said was important to achieve your goals. Your weekly scorecard is the most accurate predictor of your future.
- The process is less about the result and more about daily actions.
- Measurement is not accountability, it's simply feedback.
Ch. 17:
- Your choices make it seem like you are staying "busy" when you’re choosing to avoid a more important, and often a more difficult activity. The number one thing you will need to sacrifice is your comfort. You have to choose to spend time on the difficult things that create your biggest plans.
- To be great you will need to live with intention.
- You will need to guard your time intensely, delegating, or limiting everything possible. It is not one of your strengths or does not help you advance your goals.
- If you are not in a row that plays to you or magnifies your strengths, you're probably in the wrong spot.
- Successful individuals work to their strengths. You need the capability, are one or two things you do absolutely the best. Do you know what or not your unique capabilities are responsible for your greatest successes throughout your life?
- To be your best, you miss intentionally aligning your time in activities with your strength and your unique capabilities.
- To stay focused on your strengths you will need to manage your interruptions and keep the low pay-off activities to a minimum. Spent time on what matters.
Strategic blocks or three hours in length should be scheduled early in the week so that if one gets interrupted or canceled, you have time to reschedule it.
- Blocks are designed to deal with low-level activities that are typically between 30 minutes and one hour in length scheduled 1 to 2 times per day.
- Breakout Blocks are designed to prevent burnout and create more free time, three (3) hours once a week.
The intent is first to design a week that allows you to be your most productive and then to begin to adjust your actual schedule to align with your model week.
- Carve out time each week to focus on your high-value high-impact activities.
- The items in the schedules are the tasks that are instrumental in achieving your vision and taking your business to the next level.
- Personal effectiveness is about your intentionality.
- Many of our clients value others' time above their own.
- You'll need to find a way to officially handle the low-path activities. And you need time to refresh and rejuvenate.
- Words and actions need to align to have a positive impact.
- If you have buffer blocks at a consistent time each day your team members will know that they can get your attention at those times and will feel that they have a more reliable axis when they need it.
Ch. 18:
- Successful people are accountable.
- Acknowledge their role and outcomes. What it takes to create better results.
- We are truly empowered to create the results we desire.
- Desire simply becomes feedback in the ongoing process of becoming excellent.
- If you're serious about your goals, you must take ownership of your situation.
- People deliver on what they own.
- As leaders try to hold people accountable, it puts people on the defensive and unintentionally produces a victim culture.
- Become aware of victim conversations – focus those conversations on first acknowledging reality and then on what can be done differently in the future.
Clarify expectations.
- Accountability deals with reality.
Ch. 19:
- Not following through on your commitments destroys relationships and contributes to failure and self-esteem issues.
- Areas of life: spiritual. Spouse key relationships. Family. Community. Physical. Personal. Business.
- People would rather you say “no” than break a promise.
- You don't control the result, you control your actions.
- When you commit, don't give yourself an out.
- Something is empowering and liberating about knowing if you say you're going to do something that you can count on yourself to come through.
Ch. 20:
- The goal links the actions that you take each day as part of your plan to your long-term vision.
- Daily actions need to be intentionally and parsley aligned.
- Create a written plan that identifies the COST that must be paid to reach the goal.
- Create a sense of measurable progress right at the gate.
1. ACTIONS:
- The goal links the “actions” that you take each day as part of your plan to your long-term “vision”.
- Daily actions need to be intentional and aligned.
- Every 12 weeks is a new start.
2. UNSTUCK:
- Focusing on the activities that matter most, maintaining a sense of urgency to get those things done, and shedding the low-value activity that keeps you stuck.
3. PLANNING:
- Some of the most productive times you have.
- Your plan continually brings you back to the strategically important items.
- Effective planning strikes a working balance between too much complexity and too little detail.
- Your plan should start by identifying your overall goals for the 12 weeks.
- Taking time to plan upfront, and overall time and effort to complete a task can be significantly reduced.
4. MEASURE:
- Measurement builds self-esteem and confidence because it documents progress, achievement, and drives the execution process.
- Provides important feedback that allows you to make intelligent decisions.
- A measure of your execution you have good control of your actions over your results.
5. ACCOUNTABILITY:
- Strive for excellence, not perfection.
- ** The 12-week year system forces you to confront your lack of execution.
- High achievers use the tension as an impetus to move forward.
- People would rather you say “no” than break a promise.
- Accountability deals with reality.
6. DISCIPLINE:
- You become great long before the result shows it.
- The discipline to do extra things.
- The real breakthrough comes when all of them are applied in their entirety.
- Self-correcting: It is a deliberate practice system that is designed for continuous improvement.
7. HIGH-VALUE:
- Carve out time each week to focus on your high-value high-impact activities.
8. CLARIFY EXPECTATIONS:
- Accountability deals with reality.
- Create a written plan that identifies the COST that must be paid to reach the goal.
9. CONTROL:
- Not following through on your commitments destroys relationships and contributes to failure.
- You don't control the result, what you control is your actions.
10. TIME:
- Time is the most squandered of all personal resources.
- Be more mindful about how you spend your time.
- When you spend your time with intention, you know when to say “yes” and when to say “no.”
- ACTION: Block out regular time each week dedicated to your strategically important tasks.
- You will need to guard your time intensely, delegating, or limiting everything possible. It is not one of your strengths or does not help you advance your goals.
********************************************
CHAPTER BY CHAPTER
Ch 1:
- The marketplace only rewards those ideas that get implemented.
- It's not a "knowledge" problem, it's an "execution" problem.
- Focusing on the activities that matter most, maintaining a sense of urgency to get those things done, and shedding the low-value activity that keeps you stuck.
Ch. 2:
- The annual process inherently limits performance.
- Life is lived in the moment, and ultimately success is created at the moment.
- Your actions are always congruent with your underlying thinking.
- Every 12 weeks is a new start.
Ch 3:
- Execution invariably requires taking new actions, and new actions are often uncomfortable.
- A compelling vision of the future that you want even more than you desire your own short-term comfort.
- Your brain has the ability to change and develop physiologically, and it is so based on how to use it.
Ch 4:
- Reduce mistakes --> save time --> provide focus.
- The reality is that planning is one of the most productive times you have.
- Your plan continually brings you back to the strategically important items.
- Effective planning strikes a working balance between too much complexity and too little detail.
- Your plan should start by identifying your overall goals for the 12 weeks.
Ch 5:
- To be truly effective, your daily activity must align with your long-term vision strategies and tactics.
- Acts on that intention for things to get better.
- Your actions tell the story.
- To use your weekly plan effectively, you will need to spend the first 15 to 20 minutes at the beginning of each week to review your progress in the past week and plan the upcoming one.
- Your weekly plan enables you to focus your actions and be great at a few things rather than mediocre at many.
Ch 6:
- Scorekeeping is at the heart of competition.
- Measurement builds self-esteem and confidence because it documents progress and achievement. - Measurement drives the execution process.
- Measurement provides important feedback that allows you to make intelligent decisions.
- Measure of your execution: you have good control of your actions and over your results.
- Your results are created by your actions.
- An execution measure indicates whether you did the things you said were most important to achieving your goals.
- If you're not hitting your goal, you need to know whether it is due to a flaw in plan contents or an execution.
- Breakdown in the plan of content occurs when strategies and tactics are not effective when I break down. Execution occurs when you fail to fully implement the plan tactics.
- Pinpoint the source of the breakdown.
- You should really change the plan unless you've been effectively completing your plan tactics and are still not producing.
- You could have created an awesome plan, but you'll never know unless you implement it.
- Strive for excellence, not perfection.
- The 12-week year system forces you to confront your lack of execution.
- High achievers use the tension as an impetus to move forward. If you decide that quitting is not an option, then the discomfort of productive tension will eventually tell you to act on your tactics.
This encourages you to move forward by executing the plan.
Getting better and better.
- Measurement drives the process.
Ch 7:
- Time is the most squandered of all personal resources.
- If you are not purposeful about how you spend your time, you leave your results to chance.
- Results are created by your actions.
- You must learn to be more mindful about how you spend your time.
- When you spend your time with intention, you know when to say yes and went to say no.
- Block out regular time each week dedicated to your strategically important tasks.
- You can't fit all the things you do on paper, there's no way you will get them done in reality, said exercise of strategically planning your week will cause you to make some hard choices about how to use your time.
TYPES:
1. Strategic blocks: three (3) hours per week uninterrupted time.
2. Buffer blocks: unplanned and low-value activities, grouping tasks that tend to be unproductive, 30 minutes a day.
3. Breakout blocks: three hours of free time.
Ch. 8:
- Accountability is not consequences, but ownership.
- Freedom to choose.
- Accountability is the realization that you always have a choice.
- When you choose to do something, you're able to tap your resources and give your best.
Ch. 9:
- Putting a cap on commitments benefits both parties involved by improving relationships, strengthening integrity, and building self-confidence.
- Commitments are powerful and life-changing.
- A commitment is a personal promise.
- Keeping your promises to others builds trust and strong relationships. Keeping promises to yourself builds character esteem and success.
- A commitment is a conscious choice to act to create the desired result.
- When I commit to something, you accept excuses, only results.
- The question of "if" goes away. The only question you ask is "how".
1. Strong desire: meaningful not to get you through the hard times and keep you on track
2. Keystone actions: actions that will produce the result after.
3. Count the cost: I didn't find the cost before you commit allows you to consciously choose whether you're willing to pay the price of your commitment.
4. Act on commitments, not feelings.
Ch. 10:
- The natural margin in our day is disappearing, but we still need time to mentally relax.
- In our efforts to not miss anything, we unwittingly miss everything.
- You become great long before the results show it.
- Will make the champion is the discipline to do the extra things.
Ch. 12: Vision. Planning. Process control. Measurement. Time use. Accountability.
- Using your time with clear intention is a must.
- Quadrants: Uninformed optimization. Informed pessimism. Belly of despair. Informed optimism. Success and fulfillment.
- The real breakthrough comes when all of them are applied in their entirety.
- Self-correcting: It is a deliberate practice system that is designed for continuous improvement.
Ch. 13:
- A compelling vision is a powerful force to move you forward.
- The most partial visions address the alignment of your personal aspirations with your professional dreams. Your life vision.
- TYPES: Long-term aspirations. Mid Term goals about three years into the future. 12 weeks.
- Vision, when engaging properly, is the ignition switch and power source of high performance.
- Vision has the power to enable us to confront and conquer fears.
- Vision is the starting point of all high performance.
- Your vision should make you feel uncomfortable and challenge you to do things differently.
Ch. 14:
- Taking time to plan upfront, and overall time and effort to complete a task can be significantly reduced.
- The primary drivers of your actions are input triggers.
- Fiercely consistent focus on the few vital actions that drive results.
- Efforts and resources expended to build capacity happen immediately, while the benefits are realized sometime in the future. That's why it's important to always have activity in your plan that creates required short-term results.
- Criteria: make them specific and measurable. State than positively. Ensure they are a real stretch. Assigned accountability.
- Each tactic should start with a verb. If you take time to plan before engaging with a complex task, you reduce the overall time required to complete the task by as much as 20%.
Ch. 16:
- Measurement drives the execution process.
- A feedback loop that lets you know if your actions are effective.
- The scorecard measures whether you did what you said was important to achieve your goals. Your weekly scorecard is the most accurate predictor of your future.
- The process is less about the result and more about daily actions.
- Measurement is not accountability, it's simply feedback.
Ch. 17:
- Your choices make it seem like you are staying "busy" when you’re choosing to avoid a more important, and often a more difficult activity. The number one thing you will need to sacrifice is your comfort. You have to choose to spend time on the difficult things that create your biggest plans.
- To be great you will need to live with intention.
- You will need to guard your time intensely, delegating, or limiting everything possible. It is not one of your strengths or does not help you advance your goals.
- If you are not in a row that plays to you or magnifies your strengths, you're probably in the wrong spot.
- Successful individuals work to their strengths. You need the capability, are one or two things you do absolutely the best. Do you know what or not your unique capabilities are responsible for your greatest successes throughout your life?
- To be your best, you miss intentionally aligning your time in activities with your strength and your unique capabilities.
- To stay focused on your strengths you will need to manage your interruptions and keep the low pay-off activities to a minimum. Spent time on what matters.
Strategic blocks or three hours in length should be scheduled early in the week so that if one gets interrupted or canceled, you have time to reschedule it.
- Blocks are designed to deal with low-level activities that are typically between 30 minutes and one hour in length scheduled 1 to 2 times per day.
- Breakout Blocks are designed to prevent burnout and create more free time, three (3) hours once a week.
The intent is first to design a week that allows you to be your most productive and then to begin to adjust your actual schedule to align with your model week.
- Carve out time each week to focus on your high-value high-impact activities.
- The items in the schedules are the tasks that are instrumental in achieving your vision and taking your business to the next level.
- Personal effectiveness is about your intentionality.
- Many of our clients value others' time above their own.
- You'll need to find a way to officially handle the low-path activities. And you need time to refresh and rejuvenate.
- Words and actions need to align to have a positive impact.
- If you have buffer blocks at a consistent time each day your team members will know that they can get your attention at those times and will feel that they have a more reliable axis when they need it.
Ch. 18:
- Successful people are accountable.
- Acknowledge their role and outcomes. What it takes to create better results.
- We are truly empowered to create the results we desire.
- Desire simply becomes feedback in the ongoing process of becoming excellent.
- If you're serious about your goals, you must take ownership of your situation.
- People deliver on what they own.
- As leaders try to hold people accountable, it puts people on the defensive and unintentionally produces a victim culture.
- Become aware of victim conversations – focus those conversations on first acknowledging reality and then on what can be done differently in the future.
Clarify expectations.
- Accountability deals with reality.
Ch. 19:
- Not following through on your commitments destroys relationships and contributes to failure and self-esteem issues.
- Areas of life: spiritual. Spouse key relationships. Family. Community. Physical. Personal. Business.
- People would rather you say “no” than break a promise.
- You don't control the result, you control your actions.
- When you commit, don't give yourself an out.
- Something is empowering and liberating about knowing if you say you're going to do something that you can count on yourself to come through.
Ch. 20:
- The goal links the actions that you take each day as part of your plan to your long-term vision.
- Daily actions need to be intentionally and parsley aligned.
- Create a written plan that identifies the COST that must be paid to reach the goal.
- Create a sense of measurable progress right at the gate.
May 11, 2019
I give this book 3.5 stars. The steps are basic:
* Identify goals to complete in 12 weeks (instead of 1 year).
* View each week like a month (focus and commit to the goals; say no to interruptions and distractions).
* Write out a plan with steps and results for each week.
* Review the plan each day and identify what needs to get done daily.
* Score yourself every week (achieve at least 85% of plan).
The book often uses losing weight as an analogy. The 12-week plan should include details like exercise routine and schedule, meal plans, and weekly weigh ins (not just exercise and eat healthy). The book would have been better if it had more examples.
* Identify goals to complete in 12 weeks (instead of 1 year).
* View each week like a month (focus and commit to the goals; say no to interruptions and distractions).
* Write out a plan with steps and results for each week.
* Review the plan each day and identify what needs to get done daily.
* Score yourself every week (achieve at least 85% of plan).
The book often uses losing weight as an analogy. The 12-week plan should include details like exercise routine and schedule, meal plans, and weekly weigh ins (not just exercise and eat healthy). The book would have been better if it had more examples.
September 15, 2017
This is one of those books where the author had a set page number or word count that they needed to reach in order for someone to accept it. I remember doing that in middle school "This book report is about a character which is a dog that has a name that is Jerry. The name of the dog, Jerry, is also the name of the book which is called "The Dog Named Jerry"."
This book is so repetitious that the purpose almost gets lost in all of the words. I think if you were to read the middle 30 pages of the book you would get everything you needed to know out of it.
I think reading a summary of the book would be more beneficial.
This book is so repetitious that the purpose almost gets lost in all of the words. I think if you were to read the middle 30 pages of the book you would get everything you needed to know out of it.
I think reading a summary of the book would be more beneficial.
November 17, 2018
There are people for whom this book will be an excellent starting point for isolating their goals and tactics and achieving that they want. (Indeed, one of my colleagues, whom I respect for her tenacity and ability to set and achieve goals is the one who recommended this to me.) I am not one of those people.
Perhaps because I read so much about time management and productivity, there was nothing novel here for me to explore. I don't disagree with any of the content so much as I didn't find it to be particularly helpful for my use personal use case, nor for most of my clients. The truths told by Moran (and his co-writer, Lennington) permeate the book -- getting rid of a victim mentality, seeing accountability in terms of "ownership" of one's obligations rather than the consequences of achieving or failing to achieving them -- these truths are all valid. However, I suspect that only the very ignorant, the very young, or the very self-unaware would not recognize the general truths described in this book.
Every paragraph seemed to find me talking back to the authors, "Yeah, of course, but what are you going to tell them to DO about it?" Perhaps because so many of my clients suffer from depression and/or anxiety disorders, my concerns about this are more heightened, but I kept saying, "the people who need your advice CAN'T just say "I'm going do to this even if my feelings tell me I don't want to" because they literally, without intervention, cannot." Perhaps Moran fails to recognize how pervasive depression is in society and how depression, anxiety, and executive function disorders are the reason why people need books like this purport to accomplish, but why books EXACTLY like this don't work.
The central conceit is that instead of making yearlong goals and plans, you should isolate what you want to accomplish in tight time frames of 12 weeks. This prevents all of that wishy-washy laziness (my words, not the authors') that let us let up. So far, so good. Then, identify up to three main goals, and the specific tactics you will use to move yourself forward, each week, toward your goals. Next, measure those achievements, identifying lead indicators (what you DO, like making sales calls) and lag indicators (measures or signs of achievement, like winning contracts), and focus that active, strategic use of metrics to redouble your efforts and track where you fall by the wayside. Fine. Dandy.
Except, as a professional organizer, I know that these instructions are merely window dressing. Most people who have trouble achieving things don't have issues with creating plans, but executing them, and then have trouble executing because a) they do the wrong things for the right reasons or b) they avoid doing the right things (for mostly the "wrong" reasons). This book will work fine for people who have trouble creating frameworks of what they should do, and the concepts are helpful for people who don't pay attention to their metrics.
Basically, you are supposed to do 4 things: Plan your week (and, one assumes, do what you planned), score your work (what percentage of your goals did you achieve?), and have a weekly accountability meeting (WAM) to give yourself a reality check. Yay. Rah.
Unfortunately, I find most people don't do stuff, not because they don't know what to do, but because "they don't really wanna." And there's just not enough here to conquer that. Yes, near the end, there's a chapter with focus on other authors' books, like Duhigg's The Power of Habit or Chip and Dan Heath's Switch, which talks about the psychology of change, and throughout the book, Moran and Lennington push the idea of commitment to one's goals and near the end almost get into some interesting and helpful material on conquering one's hidden intentions. But it comes too late, and there is too little.
Mostly, this book sets up a framework (which seems designed to sell Moran and Lennington's web-based service-oriented coaching business) and then sets out, in an incredibly repetitive manner, to hit the same points. The book would have been (and probably was) a series blog posts, and I think I might have found it less annoying that way than as a full book (though I don't begrudge anyone from making money from creating a book like this).
I also found the book to be painfully, paint-dryingly, boring. There are a handful of earnest anecdotes about how clients (and their young adult children) have put the precepts of the 12 Week Year into place, but there's not the tiniest degree of humor in this earnest tome.
A friend pointed out that "Get It Done" is more about identifying what needs to be done than execution; The 12 Week Year is certainly more about execution than identifying what must be done. The problem, which may be more systemic in humanity than just in self-help books, is that there's a vast psychological and motivational chasm between knowing what to do and actually doing it, and this book fails to bridge the chasm.
I should note, this is not a "bad" book, per se. None of the advice is flawed, in and of itself. The guidance for designing an effective weekly schedule, for example, is not much different from how I'd advise someone (though the book seems to really be targeted for upper-middle class, white collar knowledge workers and executives and not solo professionals with small children or elderly relatives for whom they care, or basically any aspects of their schedule over which they don't have mastery and decision-making prowess).
If you've never read a book on produtivity or time management, don't start here. If you've read tons, this won't hurt you. I'm just not sure how much it will help you. If you're great at follow-through but just want to try a new framework to tighten up your response time and keep yourself accountable and committed, this may be your book. But I know it wouldn't be right for most of my clients, and it is not right me.
Perhaps because I read so much about time management and productivity, there was nothing novel here for me to explore. I don't disagree with any of the content so much as I didn't find it to be particularly helpful for my use personal use case, nor for most of my clients. The truths told by Moran (and his co-writer, Lennington) permeate the book -- getting rid of a victim mentality, seeing accountability in terms of "ownership" of one's obligations rather than the consequences of achieving or failing to achieving them -- these truths are all valid. However, I suspect that only the very ignorant, the very young, or the very self-unaware would not recognize the general truths described in this book.
Every paragraph seemed to find me talking back to the authors, "Yeah, of course, but what are you going to tell them to DO about it?" Perhaps because so many of my clients suffer from depression and/or anxiety disorders, my concerns about this are more heightened, but I kept saying, "the people who need your advice CAN'T just say "I'm going do to this even if my feelings tell me I don't want to" because they literally, without intervention, cannot." Perhaps Moran fails to recognize how pervasive depression is in society and how depression, anxiety, and executive function disorders are the reason why people need books like this purport to accomplish, but why books EXACTLY like this don't work.
The central conceit is that instead of making yearlong goals and plans, you should isolate what you want to accomplish in tight time frames of 12 weeks. This prevents all of that wishy-washy laziness (my words, not the authors') that let us let up. So far, so good. Then, identify up to three main goals, and the specific tactics you will use to move yourself forward, each week, toward your goals. Next, measure those achievements, identifying lead indicators (what you DO, like making sales calls) and lag indicators (measures or signs of achievement, like winning contracts), and focus that active, strategic use of metrics to redouble your efforts and track where you fall by the wayside. Fine. Dandy.
Except, as a professional organizer, I know that these instructions are merely window dressing. Most people who have trouble achieving things don't have issues with creating plans, but executing them, and then have trouble executing because a) they do the wrong things for the right reasons or b) they avoid doing the right things (for mostly the "wrong" reasons). This book will work fine for people who have trouble creating frameworks of what they should do, and the concepts are helpful for people who don't pay attention to their metrics.
Basically, you are supposed to do 4 things: Plan your week (and, one assumes, do what you planned), score your work (what percentage of your goals did you achieve?), and have a weekly accountability meeting (WAM) to give yourself a reality check. Yay. Rah.
Unfortunately, I find most people don't do stuff, not because they don't know what to do, but because "they don't really wanna." And there's just not enough here to conquer that. Yes, near the end, there's a chapter with focus on other authors' books, like Duhigg's The Power of Habit or Chip and Dan Heath's Switch, which talks about the psychology of change, and throughout the book, Moran and Lennington push the idea of commitment to one's goals and near the end almost get into some interesting and helpful material on conquering one's hidden intentions. But it comes too late, and there is too little.
Mostly, this book sets up a framework (which seems designed to sell Moran and Lennington's web-based service-oriented coaching business) and then sets out, in an incredibly repetitive manner, to hit the same points. The book would have been (and probably was) a series blog posts, and I think I might have found it less annoying that way than as a full book (though I don't begrudge anyone from making money from creating a book like this).
I also found the book to be painfully, paint-dryingly, boring. There are a handful of earnest anecdotes about how clients (and their young adult children) have put the precepts of the 12 Week Year into place, but there's not the tiniest degree of humor in this earnest tome.
A friend pointed out that "Get It Done" is more about identifying what needs to be done than execution; The 12 Week Year is certainly more about execution than identifying what must be done. The problem, which may be more systemic in humanity than just in self-help books, is that there's a vast psychological and motivational chasm between knowing what to do and actually doing it, and this book fails to bridge the chasm.
I should note, this is not a "bad" book, per se. None of the advice is flawed, in and of itself. The guidance for designing an effective weekly schedule, for example, is not much different from how I'd advise someone (though the book seems to really be targeted for upper-middle class, white collar knowledge workers and executives and not solo professionals with small children or elderly relatives for whom they care, or basically any aspects of their schedule over which they don't have mastery and decision-making prowess).
If you've never read a book on produtivity or time management, don't start here. If you've read tons, this won't hurt you. I'm just not sure how much it will help you. If you're great at follow-through but just want to try a new framework to tighten up your response time and keep yourself accountable and committed, this may be your book. But I know it wouldn't be right for most of my clients, and it is not right me.
April 15, 2015
This book is largely a sales pitch for a service website. To be fair, there are some useful ideas, but not enough to warrant an additional purchase.
January 13, 2016
The big idea of the 12 Week Year is that you should envision each 12 weeks as a single year, set big goals, and achieve those goals.
It's an outstanding concept, and one that Keren and I have been working towards. Before she even heard of the 12 Week Year, Keren created an elegant and powerful system for achieving massive results in 90-day periods of time, and launched a group that is pioneering the method.
Moran's approach is highly tactical, and he explains a system for setting, following, and achieving 12--week-year goals.
His section on "accountability" confused me at first, but I think this is one of the most powerful concepts in the book. Accountability, as he defines it, is a mindset of personal responsibility, not external punitive oversight.
Another great facet of the book is his approach to planning and scoring the week.
12 Week Year picks up, in a sense, where Grant Cardone's 10x Rule leaves off. Cardone's 10X is the "RA-RA" of doing more, but Moran is the "and here's exactly how to acheve it." The two books would work well as companions.
I'm eager to put the 12-week-year into motion, and see how it changes my approach to life and business.
It's an outstanding concept, and one that Keren and I have been working towards. Before she even heard of the 12 Week Year, Keren created an elegant and powerful system for achieving massive results in 90-day periods of time, and launched a group that is pioneering the method.
Moran's approach is highly tactical, and he explains a system for setting, following, and achieving 12--week-year goals.
His section on "accountability" confused me at first, but I think this is one of the most powerful concepts in the book. Accountability, as he defines it, is a mindset of personal responsibility, not external punitive oversight.
Another great facet of the book is his approach to planning and scoring the week.
12 Week Year picks up, in a sense, where Grant Cardone's 10x Rule leaves off. Cardone's 10X is the "RA-RA" of doing more, but Moran is the "and here's exactly how to acheve it." The two books would work well as companions.
I'm eager to put the 12-week-year into motion, and see how it changes my approach to life and business.
September 12, 2025
2025 Review
Long story short: it's an OK book to get you into the 'Go-go-go' mood if you are in the unfortunate position when you have to really get things done on a tight schedule. Better not to get into this position, but this is not always for us to decide, is it?
The long story: I've listened to this one again in 2025. I turned to this book not because I liked it on the first listening, but because I wanted to get a lot of things done in the miserable months of July and August and then free up my Autumn for enjoyment and fun. (And this is not how life works, of course, but that's another story).
So this book is mostly aimed at peoplewho can't plan whose situation is simple in that they seem to have the time and opportunity to perform evident daily actions that should eventually lead to the achievement of their goals. Like, you're a sales rep and you have to make that many calls; well, schedule to do the calls, then do them; and you'll find some useful tips on how not to postpone doing them, or how to work with your strong and understandable desire to avoid them.
On the other hand, if you know what you want, but do not know exactly what steps can guarantee this result, if your work situation is unstable and dependent upon many factors out of your control (and, sadly, I think I'm not the only one who was still smug about her income in 2021, and am terrified by it in 2025), if sometimes things just happen in your household, like somebody gets sick, that make you postpone all other things, or maybe you have a lot of responsibilites to juggle and you cannot always prioritize work over chores or chores over family time or vice versa, the book is of no help.
But it did give me the inspiration to try a new system of planning. I mean, not the system in the book; my own system; but I suspect it only worked for me in my particular situation, so I will not bother you with the details. I am sure that if you are, like me, a planning enthusiast, you have lots of tricks up your sleeve.
And my system did work in that I accomplished most of the things I was hoping to achieve. This did not make me particularly happy, mind you, but the stuff had to be done and it got done, even though life did happen, as it tends to do.
So, I guess my conclusion is this: this book is a nice reminder that you can get creative with your planning. Following the rules in the book might work for some people, but do not count on them very much in tricky situations.
---
2021 Review
I saw the negative reviews for this book but decided to give it a try because I already was practising planning for seasons (I'm a gardener and my life in winter is quite different from what it is in spring, for instance) (also, I have to do a lot of boring work when I just have to be listening to something).
The beginning was very pompous, with quotes from people I have not the least idea about (they always made me think about those fake Maya Angelou quotes) and repetitive, so, like many other reviewers before me, I entertained myself by jotting down sarcastic comments.
But mid-way into the book, I realized the following:
The reason for the bad reviews is that, although the book is written for people who know zero about planning and do not practise it, - of course, planning enthusiasts are drawn to this book and then are disappointed by the repetition of the obvious (to us) key concepts like vision, revision, time blocking, greatness in the moment etc. At the same time, for somebody quite new to planning, it is a great resource because it does explain all those things which are necessary for successful planning. Also, a season or twelve weeks is really a good time frame to plan for.
So, if you're new to planning, or you want a revision of planning keystones, this is a good book for you. If you've already read a lot on planning and practice it constantly, then you probably don't need it.
Typical quote (not a fake one ;)):
Long story short: it's an OK book to get you into the 'Go-go-go' mood if you are in the unfortunate position when you have to really get things done on a tight schedule. Better not to get into this position, but this is not always for us to decide, is it?
The long story: I've listened to this one again in 2025. I turned to this book not because I liked it on the first listening, but because I wanted to get a lot of things done in the miserable months of July and August and then free up my Autumn for enjoyment and fun. (And this is not how life works, of course, but that's another story).
So this book is mostly aimed at people
On the other hand, if you know what you want, but do not know exactly what steps can guarantee this result, if your work situation is unstable and dependent upon many factors out of your control (and, sadly, I think I'm not the only one who was still smug about her income in 2021, and am terrified by it in 2025), if sometimes things just happen in your household, like somebody gets sick, that make you postpone all other things, or maybe you have a lot of responsibilites to juggle and you cannot always prioritize work over chores or chores over family time or vice versa, the book is of no help.
But it did give me the inspiration to try a new system of planning. I mean, not the system in the book; my own system; but I suspect it only worked for me in my particular situation, so I will not bother you with the details. I am sure that if you are, like me, a planning enthusiast, you have lots of tricks up your sleeve.
And my system did work in that I accomplished most of the things I was hoping to achieve. This did not make me particularly happy, mind you, but the stuff had to be done and it got done, even though life did happen, as it tends to do.
So, I guess my conclusion is this: this book is a nice reminder that you can get creative with your planning. Following the rules in the book might work for some people, but do not count on them very much in tricky situations.
---
2021 Review
I saw the negative reviews for this book but decided to give it a try because I already was practising planning for seasons (I'm a gardener and my life in winter is quite different from what it is in spring, for instance) (also, I have to do a lot of boring work when I just have to be listening to something).
The beginning was very pompous, with quotes from people I have not the least idea about (they always made me think about those fake Maya Angelou quotes) and repetitive, so, like many other reviewers before me, I entertained myself by jotting down sarcastic comments.
But mid-way into the book, I realized the following:
The reason for the bad reviews is that, although the book is written for people who know zero about planning and do not practise it, - of course, planning enthusiasts are drawn to this book and then are disappointed by the repetition of the obvious (to us) key concepts like vision, revision, time blocking, greatness in the moment etc. At the same time, for somebody quite new to planning, it is a great resource because it does explain all those things which are necessary for successful planning. Also, a season or twelve weeks is really a good time frame to plan for.
So, if you're new to planning, or you want a revision of planning keystones, this is a good book for you. If you've already read a lot on planning and practice it constantly, then you probably don't need it.
Typical quote (not a fake one ;)):
'Time is the most squandered of all personal resources.'
September 14, 2013
Nothing new - goal setting, accountability, breaking visions into smaller tasks, short-term goals / horizons in service of long-term goals.
It reminds me of all the different books & techniques to knit socks. For all intents and purposes - they're the same thing, the only difference is marketing & a tiny novelty to hook you... I should probably stop reading business / finance books for that reason. All the same basics with different presentations / levels of intricacy in guidance.
The only 2 chapters that I found useful were 17 on time management and 19 on commitments.
It reminds me of all the different books & techniques to knit socks. For all intents and purposes - they're the same thing, the only difference is marketing & a tiny novelty to hook you... I should probably stop reading business / finance books for that reason. All the same basics with different presentations / levels of intricacy in guidance.
The only 2 chapters that I found useful were 17 on time management and 19 on commitments.
December 12, 2021
I was asked to read this book by my boss at work, hoping it would help my thinking and approach to success. I choose not to review this book, allowing others with more understanding and comfort in this realm to discuss strengths and weaknesses of the approach.
September 14, 2017
This was basically a blog-post worth of information shoved in 190 pages of "This is the best book you've ever bought" padding. The title plan isn't even revealed until around page 90. The actual plan is helpful, though a little over-corporate for my tastes, but it's buried in useless information and over-used cliche anecdotal parables to try and connect pretty easy-to-understand concepts to the reader.
September 8, 2024
Good ideas and tools but incredibly boring.
The narrator in this audio book should look for another job.
The narrator in this audio book should look for another job.
January 31, 2023
This was a good read with a lot of ideas. It goes along well with a lot of other books I’ve been reading about business and self-help, so no really big new ideas. The emphasis was a lot on implementation being the answer. I did appreciate the mindset to track what you do rather than the results you get, and then if you aren’t getting the desired results, figure out what you need to apply differently.
“You create things twice. First mentally, then physically.”
“You create things twice. First mentally, then physically.”
June 4, 2016
Really 3.5.
This book is one of those that should have been just a blog post. The title kind of gives away what the point is -- chapters only build up on the idea of 12 week work bursts.
If you want to save some time, skip the entire first part as the concepts described in it are again briefly explained in part two as well. I even noticed some exactly identical sentences from part 1.
Powerful idea, but doesn't justify the length of this book. Reading a good summary will give you the gist of it, without all the seen before productivity tips and other filler.
This book is one of those that should have been just a blog post. The title kind of gives away what the point is -- chapters only build up on the idea of 12 week work bursts.
If you want to save some time, skip the entire first part as the concepts described in it are again briefly explained in part two as well. I even noticed some exactly identical sentences from part 1.
Powerful idea, but doesn't justify the length of this book. Reading a good summary will give you the gist of it, without all the seen before productivity tips and other filler.
October 22, 2016
year
noun
1. the time taken by the earth to make one revolution around the sun.
2. the period of 365 days (or 366 days in leap years) starting from January 1st used for reckoning time in ordinary circumstances.
3. 12 weeks. Apparently. Because some marketing bozo said so.
noun
1. the time taken by the earth to make one revolution around the sun.
2. the period of 365 days (or 366 days in leap years) starting from January 1st used for reckoning time in ordinary circumstances.
3. 12 weeks. Apparently. Because some marketing bozo said so.
December 30, 2019
I'm all about systems to increase productivity, measure progress and get more done, but this book seemed more like a sales pitch for a series of FranklinPlanner-like worksheets and forms hawked by productivity mentors and life coaches.
The premise is that if you focus on execution, you can get 1 year's worth of output produced in 12 weeks. That number seems arbitrary--and it is--at least in the context of a period of time that is short enough to sustain a sense of urgency, yet long enough to make meaningful progress on any set of objectives.
I can't argue with that, and I certainly like the approach of frequent review, evaluation, measurement, and recommitment. Agile methodology is largely based on this philosophy. But don't expect to see me running out to drop cash on the 12-week-year coaching sessions, workbook, calendar, lunchbox, action figures, and bedsheets, at least not quite yet. I've got too much to get done in the next 12 weeks!
The premise is that if you focus on execution, you can get 1 year's worth of output produced in 12 weeks. That number seems arbitrary--and it is--at least in the context of a period of time that is short enough to sustain a sense of urgency, yet long enough to make meaningful progress on any set of objectives.
I can't argue with that, and I certainly like the approach of frequent review, evaluation, measurement, and recommitment. Agile methodology is largely based on this philosophy. But don't expect to see me running out to drop cash on the 12-week-year coaching sessions, workbook, calendar, lunchbox, action figures, and bedsheets, at least not quite yet. I've got too much to get done in the next 12 weeks!
August 6, 2019
Essentially this is a book on goal setting, planning, and then executing the plan. The novelty is in making it all happen at an accelerated pace in 12 weeks rather than over the span of one year (which is how we most often set goals).
The idea is to RESOLVE and BELIEVE you can more easily focus on goals and making things happen over a shorter period of time. Like I mentioned it's the idea of making it happen in just 3 months that sets this book aside from all others. The basics of goal setting and such are all reviewed and there is really nothing new that is presented in this book. Bottom line you won't get any new info on "how to" achieve your goals. I give it 5 stars for the idea but 3 stars for everything else in this book.
The big take away: set goals and work to achieve them in 12 weeks as opposed to 52 weeks. If you can grasp that concept and apply it you won't have to buy this book.
The idea is to RESOLVE and BELIEVE you can more easily focus on goals and making things happen over a shorter period of time. Like I mentioned it's the idea of making it happen in just 3 months that sets this book aside from all others. The basics of goal setting and such are all reviewed and there is really nothing new that is presented in this book. Bottom line you won't get any new info on "how to" achieve your goals. I give it 5 stars for the idea but 3 stars for everything else in this book.
The big take away: set goals and work to achieve them in 12 weeks as opposed to 52 weeks. If you can grasp that concept and apply it you won't have to buy this book.
March 27, 2022
A solid idea, but you don't need this book. Just change your yearly goals to quarterly and execute the SMART goals and tasks required to reach them.
Save your time and skip the book. Just read someone's key summary.
Save your time and skip the book. Just read someone's key summary.
August 20, 2013
This is a must have "time management" book. This belongs right along side titles by authors David Allen, Steven Covey, and Tim Ferris. This book is an excellent follow up to Sh Muhammad Alshareef's "Visionaire" workshop.
Excellent method of compressing your yearly plans into 12 weeks and celebrating the successes like you would at the end of the year. Only reason I didn't give this book 5-stars is because their vision setting section is weak. However, that may be unfair since I'm comparing an NLP based experience (Visionaire workshop) to that of this book.
Excellent method of compressing your yearly plans into 12 weeks and celebrating the successes like you would at the end of the year. Only reason I didn't give this book 5-stars is because their vision setting section is weak. However, that may be unfair since I'm comparing an NLP based experience (Visionaire workshop) to that of this book.
December 13, 2020
The premise is the following: most business (authors claim up to 40%) is done in the last 12 weeks before Christmas. People slack off less, etc. But New Year is an arbitrary deadline. Authors suggest just to keep setting 12week deadlines to keep yourself well stressed.
My advice: just read Getting Results the Agile Way: A Personal Results System for Work and Life and get a system that works, esp. for people in intellectual occupation where reflection and prioritisation across multiple projects is important for future success.
My advice: just read Getting Results the Agile Way: A Personal Results System for Work and Life and get a system that works, esp. for people in intellectual occupation where reflection and prioritisation across multiple projects is important for future success.
June 4, 2014
Довольно слабая книга по тайм-менеджменту, в которой авторы пытаются оригинальничать, выдавая систему квартального планирования за очередную супер-новую "волшебную таблетку" для достижения успеха. Много банальностей, и лишь отдельные проблески интересных идей.
Основные идеи книги, плюсы и минусы в подробной рецензии в моём блоге: http://s-kalinin.blogspot.ru/2014/05/...
Основные идеи книги, плюсы и минусы в подробной рецензии в моём блоге: http://s-kalinin.blogspot.ru/2014/05/...
December 24, 2016
The premise is good, but the book is not.
December 28, 2017
For those looking for a new way (in a new year) to look at goal orientation, this book is a fascinating read. I had to read this book for a client I am helping who uses this in his curriculum, and it's a powerful helper for those who are at the beginning of the personal development curve. It walks you through all the hows and whys of goal setting, then establishes it within a proven system that turns 12 weeks into a year, which effectively gives you 4 "years" worth of goal setting within a single year:
"A 12 Week Year creates greater focus by highlighting the value of each week. With the 12 Week Year, a year is now equivalent to 12 weeks, a month is now a week, and a week is now a day." (p. 31)
quoting Stephen Pressfield: "...most of us have two lives: the lives we live and the lives we are capable of living." (p. 1)
"Execution is the single greatest market differentiator." (p. 3)
"In order to achieve a level of performance that is greater than your current performance, you will need a vision of the future that is bigger than the present." (p. 20)
"It's not enough to have the intention of changing; you have to act on the intention for things to get better - and not just once, but consistently." (p. 30)
"Effective measurement captures both lead and lag indicators that provide comprehensive feedback necessary for informed decision making." (p. 34-35)
"Ultimately, you have greater control over your actions than over your results. Your results are created by your actions." (p. 35)
quoting Deming: "In God we trust; all others must bring data." (p. 34)
quoting Thoreau: "Its not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?" (p. 40)
quoting Franklin: "If we take care of the minutes, the years will take care of themselves." (p. 40)
quoting Welch: "There's no such thing as work-life balance. There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences." (p. 62)
"Strategic blocks (the authors' term for what is popularly known as "deep work") concentrate your intellect and creativity to produce breakthrough results. You will likely be astounded by the quantity and quality of the work you produce. For most people, one strategic block per week is sufficient." (p. 41)
"In our efforts not to miss anything, we unwittingly miss everything. Our attention is spread over various subjects and conversations, and when we strive to do so much, we actually apply very little of ourselves to any individual activity." (p. 56)
"The first stage of change is most often exciting, as we imagine all of the benefits and have not yet experienced any of the costs." (p. 73)
"That's because simply knowing what to do isn't enough. the world is noisy, the unexpected happens, distractions arise, our innate desire for comfort tugs at us, and we lose focus on the things that we know we should do." (p. 90)
"Focus is critical. If you establish too many goals, you end up with too many priorities and too many tactics to execute." (p. 103)
"Faced with the imminent threat of death, an overwhelming majority of people still failed to consistently make more productive choices." (p. 108)
"In our experience, you are 60 to 80 percent more likely to execute a written plan than a plan that is in your head." (p. 112)
"Many clients we work with, driven by the natural desire to earn revenue whenever the opportunity arises, will discard their pre-planned schedule without a second though to accommodate the requests of prospects and clients. They do this repeatedly, seemingly without regard to the long-term impact on their business." (p. 137)
"It is the understanding that the quality of your choices determines the quality of your life." (p. 148-149)
"A 12 Week Year creates greater focus by highlighting the value of each week. With the 12 Week Year, a year is now equivalent to 12 weeks, a month is now a week, and a week is now a day." (p. 31)
quoting Stephen Pressfield: "...most of us have two lives: the lives we live and the lives we are capable of living." (p. 1)
"Execution is the single greatest market differentiator." (p. 3)
"In order to achieve a level of performance that is greater than your current performance, you will need a vision of the future that is bigger than the present." (p. 20)
"It's not enough to have the intention of changing; you have to act on the intention for things to get better - and not just once, but consistently." (p. 30)
"Effective measurement captures both lead and lag indicators that provide comprehensive feedback necessary for informed decision making." (p. 34-35)
"Ultimately, you have greater control over your actions than over your results. Your results are created by your actions." (p. 35)
quoting Deming: "In God we trust; all others must bring data." (p. 34)
quoting Thoreau: "Its not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?" (p. 40)
quoting Franklin: "If we take care of the minutes, the years will take care of themselves." (p. 40)
quoting Welch: "There's no such thing as work-life balance. There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences." (p. 62)
"Strategic blocks (the authors' term for what is popularly known as "deep work") concentrate your intellect and creativity to produce breakthrough results. You will likely be astounded by the quantity and quality of the work you produce. For most people, one strategic block per week is sufficient." (p. 41)
"In our efforts not to miss anything, we unwittingly miss everything. Our attention is spread over various subjects and conversations, and when we strive to do so much, we actually apply very little of ourselves to any individual activity." (p. 56)
"The first stage of change is most often exciting, as we imagine all of the benefits and have not yet experienced any of the costs." (p. 73)
"That's because simply knowing what to do isn't enough. the world is noisy, the unexpected happens, distractions arise, our innate desire for comfort tugs at us, and we lose focus on the things that we know we should do." (p. 90)
"Focus is critical. If you establish too many goals, you end up with too many priorities and too many tactics to execute." (p. 103)
"Faced with the imminent threat of death, an overwhelming majority of people still failed to consistently make more productive choices." (p. 108)
"In our experience, you are 60 to 80 percent more likely to execute a written plan than a plan that is in your head." (p. 112)
"Many clients we work with, driven by the natural desire to earn revenue whenever the opportunity arises, will discard their pre-planned schedule without a second though to accommodate the requests of prospects and clients. They do this repeatedly, seemingly without regard to the long-term impact on their business." (p. 137)
"It is the understanding that the quality of your choices determines the quality of your life." (p. 148-149)
March 2, 2021
I've always found the compression of any criteria as a unique way to drive results. For example, the book "The Talent Code" underscored how Brazilian soccer players become so good because they compress the field by playing in these small, concrete soccer enclosures. Indoor lacrosse is played the same way, mostly in Canada, and creates players with some of the most adept stick-handling. As a coach, I would constantly look for ways to compress elements of performance (size of the field in a drill, amount of time, etc.).
I didn't think I would like "The 12 Week Year" as much as I did. Goal-setting books like this tend to be repetitive and follow the same pattern. What made this book different for me was the reframe of compressing time: consider a week the same as a month, and 12 weeks the same as one year.
It's a trick, a mental hack, for sure. But we do this everyday in small ways to motivate ourselves. Setting goals within a shorter time frame is certainly one way to optimize for the most essential use of your resources. For example, if you have 6 weeks to finish a project, try asking yourself the question: "if I only had 6 hours to do this, what would I focus on?" The reframe may seem slight, but it can pivot you from wasted energy toward more productive and satisfying results.
Happy Reading!
I didn't think I would like "The 12 Week Year" as much as I did. Goal-setting books like this tend to be repetitive and follow the same pattern. What made this book different for me was the reframe of compressing time: consider a week the same as a month, and 12 weeks the same as one year.
It's a trick, a mental hack, for sure. But we do this everyday in small ways to motivate ourselves. Setting goals within a shorter time frame is certainly one way to optimize for the most essential use of your resources. For example, if you have 6 weeks to finish a project, try asking yourself the question: "if I only had 6 hours to do this, what would I focus on?" The reframe may seem slight, but it can pivot you from wasted energy toward more productive and satisfying results.
Happy Reading!
April 16, 2023
3 stars. I’m not sure exactly what I think of it. As far as the book goes, it was super repetitive. Sounds like Moran wrote a pamphlet and wanted to make it a book, so he added about ten more chapters trying to expand on what he already said, but just succeeded in repeating it. I liked all the quotes and some of the info was really encouraging, but overall the first 13 chapters took me forever because it was just “I MADE THE BEST THING EVER” but he kept telling me what it would DO to help and didn’t tell me what it actually WAS.
Once I finally got to the actual 12-week year set up, it was pretty cool. Right now, it’s not really something I can implement; but once my season of life changes, I plan to come back to this idea and try it out. I’ll update my review once I figure out what I actually think of the 12-week year!
Once I finally got to the actual 12-week year set up, it was pretty cool. Right now, it’s not really something I can implement; but once my season of life changes, I plan to come back to this idea and try it out. I’ll update my review once I figure out what I actually think of the 12-week year!
August 20, 2021
DNF ~25%
I should have realized this book would not be for me. Maybe a couple of years ago, but I'm not longer subscribing to the ridiculousness of grind culture, nor am I here for the privileged "cis-het-white-man" energy of the prose, nor the consistently fatphobic (and flat-out inaccurate) examples of losing weigh for this 12-week plan.
I should have realized this book would not be for me. Maybe a couple of years ago, but I'm not longer subscribing to the ridiculousness of grind culture, nor am I here for the privileged "cis-het-white-man" energy of the prose, nor the consistently fatphobic (and flat-out inaccurate) examples of losing weigh for this 12-week plan.
January 30, 2024
This author is insufferable. As someone who likes quarterly goal planning, I thought this book would be perfect for me, but it's written in such an irritating, self-aggrandizing manner that I couldn't focus on anything else.
If you were thinking about reading this book: don't. Find an article or video that summarizes the concepts instead and spare yourself the tension headache.
If you were thinking about reading this book: don't. Find an article or video that summarizes the concepts instead and spare yourself the tension headache.
March 19, 2024
I get it, the 12 week year way of planning and setting goals is probably very effective but this should not be a book. It should be a workshop, or a planning notebook. The book is repetative and annoying. The author writes about how "most people" do things and how "all of us" has done things and I find that stupid. Writing that most people today talks on the phone in the car on their way home from work irritates me. I do not think that most people drive home from work, and most of those who do is probably not talking on the phone.
The book makes it sound like this method will help you go from being stressed during december to being stressed four times every year instead and all you have to do is sacrifice your personal comfort. Thanks!
The book makes it sound like this method will help you go from being stressed during december to being stressed four times every year instead and all you have to do is sacrifice your personal comfort. Thanks!
April 5, 2015
Краткое содержание книги примерно такое: "Чтобы корова меньше ела и больше давала молока - её нужно меньше кормить и больше доить". Автор предлагает укоротить жизненный цикл примерно вчетверо и каждую неделю проживать так же насыщенно, как мы привыкли проживать месяц. Откуда при этом должны появляться силы на покорение новых вершин и время, в которое должно вместиться планирование, оценка и групповая поддержка действий - мне непонятно.
Лишний раз прочитать про пользу организации труда невредно, впрочем. А главу про ответственность я знаю, кому подсунуть для изучения.
Лишний раз прочитать про пользу организации труда невредно, впрочем. А главу про ответственность я знаю, кому подсунуть для изучения.
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