Book Byte #110 "The 12 Week Year" by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington
Get More done in 12 weeks than others do in 12 months
📣 Curious Quotes from the Author
“The number-one thing that you will have to sacrifice to be great, to achieve what you are capable of, and to execute your plans, is your comfort.”
“It’s not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?” —Henry David Thoreau”
“You can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do.” —Henry Ford”
“We mistakenly believe that there is a lot of time left in the year, and we act accordingly. We lack a sense of urgency, not realizing that every week is important, every day is important, every moment is important. Ultimately, effective execution happens daily and weekly!”
“Intentionality is your secret weapon in your war on mediocrity.”
“The most important thing is to believe that you can reach your goals.”
“In God we trust; all others must bring data.” —W. Edwards Deming”
“If we did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.” —Thomas Edison”
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.” —Aristotle”
“The secret to living your life to its potential is to value the important stuff above your own comfort. Therefore, the critical first step to executing well is creating and maintaining a compelling vision of the future that you want even more than you desire your own short-term comfort, and then aligning your shorter term goals and plans, with that long-term vision.”
“Execution is the single greatest market differentiator. Great companies and successful individuals execute better than their competition. The barrier standing between you and the life you are capable of living is a lack of consistent execution.”
“Failures simply become feedback in the ongoing process of becoming excellent.”
📚 Cognition of the Book’s Big Idea:
The 12 Week Year is a technique designed to help you reach your goals by improving your execution skills. It will help you accelerate your execution cycle, eliminate gaps in your annual plan, and encourage you to measure and face reality. But it will only work if you are fully engaged and committed to it, so get to work! Create your vision, goals, and 12-week plan today.
Break down huge jobs into tiny bits.
When you have several large projects ahead of you, it can be overwhelming. However, research suggests that believing a goal is manageable increases your chances of achieving it. So, if the primary actions in your 12-week plan seem intimidating, work on reducing them down. Write down the specific actions involved in submitting a proposal or closing a new business deal. The satisfaction of completing chores and seeing tangible progress will be a terrific motivation!
Example Goal Sheet for the 12 Week Year
🛠️Fixing the Tech Industry
There’s a reason everyone hates annual reviews but tolerates quarterly ones. It’s because they are much more useful. Annual Reviews feel so far into the past, you wonder why talking about it is actually relevant.
Working in a 12 week year period allows for more iteration, its the reason why Agile is well, so Agile. With shorter time periods to determine progress, more progress can be made because when progress is measured, progress is achieved.
🤝Collaborate with others with this Social Media Prompt:
What 12 week plan can you come up for something you want to change in your life.
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