Let’s review year 2020 as a forward approach to 2021. What we have accomplished, struggled and learned in 2020 will determine a better outcome in 2021. We also ought to review what were positive and negative so we can focus on what would considered best in 2021. One of the strategies I find most effective is Tim Ferris’s approach to New Year’s resolution. He created a year-in-review with two columns: positive and negative. Then reviewed the list by asking “What 20% of each column produced the most reliable or powerful peaks?” For the positive ones, do more of those immediately. For the negative ones, put them on “Not-to-do-List.”
As this is an exercise, we must spend 30 minutes to an hour to complete this approach.
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Here is Tim Ferris’s blog based on the strategy:
“P.S. Last year, around this time, many of you found the text below helpful. I am including it again, as this what I do every year. Have a wonderful NYE!
I’m often asked about how I approach New Year’s resolutions. The truth is that I no longer approach them at all, even though I did for decades. Why the change? I have found “past year reviews” (PYR) more informed, valuable, and actionable than half-blindly looking forward with broad resolutions. I did my first PYR after a mentor’s young daughter died of cancer on December 31st, roughly eight years ago, and I’ve done it every year since. It takes 30-60 minutes and looks like this:
1 Grab a notepad and create two columns: POSITIVE and NEGATIVE.
2 Go through your calendar from the last year, looking at every week.
3 For each week, jot down on the pad any people or activities or commitments that triggered peak positive or negative emotions for that month. Put them in their respective columns.
4 Once you’ve gone through the past year, look at your notepad list and ask, “What 20% of each column produced the most reliable or powerful peaks?”
5 Based on the answers, take your “positive” leaders and schedule more of them in the new year. Get them on the calendar now! Book things with friends and prepay for activities/events/commitments that you know work. It’s not real until it’s in the calendar. That’s step one. Step two is to take your “negative” leaders, put “NOT-TO-DO LIST” at the top, and put them somewhere you can see them each morning for the first few weeks of 2019. These are the people and things you *know* make you miserable, so don’t put them on your calendar out of obligation, guilt, FOMO, or other nonsense.
That’s it! If you try it, let me know how it goes.
And just remember: it’s not enough to remove the negative. That simply creates a void. Get the positive things on the calendar ASAP, lest they get crowded out by the bullshit and noise that will otherwise fill your days. Good luck and godspeed!”
