Instead of New Year’s resolutions or regular goal setting, for the past few years I’ve been doing Yearly Themes instead.
A yearly theme is more of a state of mind than a goal. You identify not just what you want to accomplish, but the mindset around how to get there. In this way, you can’t really fail either — as long as you are working towards your goals, you win. It is a way to prioritize what you are doing around where you want to be heading, rather than just “I will achieve X this year.”
To me, this is even better than the standard “SMART goals” and other ways of thinking about it. One problem with any kind of goal is usually it is a pass/fail state at the end. You either achieved, or you failed. And failing sucks. Failing makes you less motivated to do the next one.
The other issue of a goal is the time duration. Set it for a year, and you’ll wait until October and then be mad at yourself because now you can’t “win.” This compounds the pass/fail aspect. Some processes like the 12-Week Year try to avoid that by planning out only 3 months at a time. I’ve found this to be much more reasonable, and do use it to some extent.
However, this planning is all well and good until Real Life shows up to mess with it. Lose two weeks to illness, and suddenly your whole quarter is off the rails. House things, family things, dog things, and all other sorts of unexpected things can happen. Sure, you can plan in some slack but it is often not enough at the right time.
So on top of any concrete planning, the Yearly Theme is there to guide you through the rough waters. The plan might be lost in the storm, but the mindset doesn’t have to be.
I learned of the Yearly Theme idea from the Cortex podcast. One of the hosts, CGP Grey, also did a great YouTube video talking about what it means if you want more detail.
My theme for 2023 is Small Things. I often have lots of small bits of time, and I’m not very good at using them wisely. (Hello, Reddit, my own time-sucking friend). Often this is during the weekday between meetings, but also in the evening between dog walks and dinner and then whatever else is going on.
My plan is to aim to be more intentional about how I use these small blocks. I’m starting out with a list of categories of types of things and ongoing tasks that can be done in those small blocks of time. These can be fun, but mostly they need to be things I deem useful to my life and overall goals. They do include chores that I tend to put off but can be broken down and done in small chunks (fold laundry or clean out fountain pens) but can also be things like reading a downloaded resource or watching a how-to video.
I will report on it throughout the year, probably when I do a quarterly review of some sort, but also as I adapt or change things.
What’s your Yearly Theme for 2023?