I’m always looking at ways to become more productive and get more of the right things done in less time. A few years ago, I found the book 12-week year and love it. It’s pretty clear that having personal and professional goals are the building blocks to bigger and faster success. In business or in a professional practice, they key is finding ways to move the needle on a few key goals while juggling the day-to-day chaotic whirlwind. The most common way to tackle goals is to think about 12-month goals and then systematically work towards achieving them. This is what we all do for new year’s goals-right? And how does that workout?! 12-months is too long, it feels like we have too much time and that causes a lack of urgency and focus—which are the two things crucial to actually making goals happen.
The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months
This a great book for anyone wanting to be more productive and achieve more in less time. It advocates a complete shift in your mindset and approach to goal setting by adjusting your timeframe from 12 months to 12 weeks. This helps you to stay more focused and motivated because the urgency is now.
The old way of goal setting has many pitfalls. While it might give you comfort knowing you have plenty of time to achieve what you set out to do, time just isn’t on your side. It opens the door for other goals to distract you and dilute your focus. Moran explains how in 12 weeks, there just isn’t enough time to get complacent.
With just 12-weeks to make it happen, you are forced to stay focused and consistently work towards achieving what you set out to do. Moran’s process has several supporting steps like regularly checking progress and streamlining the way you do things by prioritizing actions to high value tasks. No more wasting time on unimportant low value tasks that only distract you from the goal at hand.
The book sets out a clear step-by-step strategy supported by a guidebook to help you make things happen. You can open the book to almost any section and find real nuggets you can use. Like the three principles for continuous improvement that include accountability, ownership and focus.
The book talks about the five disciplines that you need to cultivate including:
I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to be more productive and get more done in less time. The clarity that comes from following this book’s advice makes goals much more achievable. Achieving bigger goals in less time does wonders for your mental health and happiness because you start see results and making progress in less time.
For more information on 12-week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington click here.
You can also learn more about the book, guidebook and the courses at the 12 Week Year Website to fully embrace the program.
