Checking in on your 2021 intentions
#29 - 04.04.21
Brother -
In letter 15, we talked about doing a "Prior Year Review" and "2021 Intentions". Now that we've just finished Q1, this is a good opportunity to review the quarter and check in on your intentions.
Over the past couple of years, I've gotten in the habit of doing this "Prior Year Review" and "Intention Setting" quarterly (instead of yearly). It's partially because I'm a nerd for these types of goal-setting activities, but it also gives me an excuse for a long weekend getaway with Katia.
More importantly, though - things change. Doing the exercise may take a few hours now, but you make it up later with more focus on where you spend your time and energy over the next three months. Also, you can extract personal learnings on what's important for you… and therefore should be a priority.
As I shared before, "You don't learn from experience. You learn from reflecting on it".
My approach for the check-in follows this process:
Go through your calendar for the past three months and write out the quarter's highlights and lowlights. Call out things that gave you energy and things that took it away.
Go back to your 2021 intentions and rate each of them between 1-10 (no 7's allowed), with a few words or short sentences for why you gave yourself that score.
For items 6 and below, ask yourself if this is truly a priority? If not, scratch it from your next quarter's intentions.
Look ahead and ask yourself what the things you want to accomplish in the next three months are. Write them all down.
Refine and group them into categories.
For this past quarter, I've realized some things are just not a priority. We had grand ambitions for a bathroom remodel in which we made very little progress. I did replace a shower head… but I'm far from being the next Tim "The Toolman" from Home Improvement.
Other elements were better, namely this newsletter that I continued to send out every Sunday, or meditation which I continued regularly and learned a new form called Transcendental Meditation.
Because I know it's easier to see examples, I've included an abbreviated version of mine below for you to see (if you're interested).
Let me leave you with a quote and a question.
"If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first."
-Mark Twain
What's your biggest priority for Q2?
Enjoy the dance,
Nate
Nate’s Q1 Review & Q2 Intentions
Q1 Review
Routine (e.g., health): (8/10)
Learned TM, and meditated most days
Gyms closed. Didn't workout enough, but improvised with some YouTube workouts
Slept 8+ hours most nights
Frogs & Tadpoles (e.g., admin): (4/10)
No progress on bathroom remodel, fired designer, couldn't lock in contractors, and almost all furniture delivery is delayed
Covid restrictions prevented driver theory exam
Solved many small admin tasks (e.g., passport, insurance, small home items)
Notes2MB: (9/10)
Published every Sunday
Started sharing with more friends and colleagues
Time to complete each letter continues to shorten
Avoid distractions: (6/10)
Spent too much time on Twitter, and total phone usage grew past 3 hrs/day
Check stock market too frequently and made some stupid day-trade bets
Q2 Intentions
Routine (e.g., health): "Continue healthy habits to give you energy each day"
Workout and meditate daily
Read before bed
Get 8 hours of sleep
Rest & Reflect: "Take the time to rest and reflect after a long Uber journey"
De-uberize self and write about biggest learnings
Explore some new countries and meet new people
Catch-up with old friends
Learn: "Keep writing N2MB, and learn some new things (incl. being handy and no-code tools)"
Continue to grow N2MB, and take a writing course
Become handier around the house
Learn some basic no-code and creator economy tools
Frogs & Tadpoles (e.g., admin): "Eat the biggest frogs (e.g., taxes) and a handful of tadpoles too"
Finalize NL and US taxes
Sort out Netherlands visa post-Uber
Pass NL drivers theory exam
… and many more small admin items :)