We made it (even if it was messy)! We have spent four weeks looking at our lives under a microscope; auditing our past, defining our values, mapping out seasons, and building daily rhythms. I’ll be the first to admit: my 21 days didn't look like the "aesthetic" planners you see on Instagram. There were c…

We have reached the end of the design phase. You have a North Star, a Seasonal Strategy, and a Daily Rhythm. But I have a warning for you: Planning is a form of "Productive Procrastination" if it never leads to a start date. You can have the most beautiful guidebook in the world, but if you don't move yo…

Why do we quit? Usually, it's because the "Hard Work" is happening now, but the "Reward" is six months away. The human brain isn't wired to work for months without a win. If you don't build "pit stops" into your year, your brain will eventually rebel and look for cheap rewards…

We’ve all heard of a "post-mortem," an analysis of why something failed after it’s already dead. But in a Designed Year, we use a Pre-Mortem. We are going to step into a time machine, travel to December 2026, and imagine that your year was a total disaster. You didn't hit your goals, you didn't keep …

A plan that cannot bend will eventually break. Most people fail their year because they design for their "Best Version." The version of them that has 8 hours of sleep, a clean house, and healthy kids. But what happens when the car breaks down? What happens when you’re grieving, or sick, or just plain exhaust…

Have you ever sat down to work on a goal, perhaps one you felt genuinely excited about just twenty-four hours earlier, and heard a small, sharp voice whisper: “Who do you think you are?” Or maybe it sounds like: “You’re just going to quit this like you quit that thing in 2023.” Or: “This isn't original enough.” Th…

The mid-month slump is real. I’m just going to say it: I hit the wall this week. If you’ve been following along and suddenly found yourself staring at your guidebook with a sense of "I just can’t today," please know that I am right there with you. Between the demands of work, the kids, and the general mental…

The reason most planning systems fail is that they are "set it and forget it." We make a big plan on January 1st and never look at it again until we feel like failures in March. To keep a designed year alive, you need a pulse. You need a recurring moment where you step out of the "doing" and into t…

You are a product of your environment. If you want to eat healthier, but your counter is covered in cookies, you will eventually eat a cookie. If you want to do deep work, but your phone is sitting next to your keyboard, you will eventually check your phone. Willpower is a losing game; Environment Design is a winning …

We are conditioned to believe that more is better. We think that to be more successful, we need to add more projects, more habits, and more commitments. But usually, the secret to a designed year isn't addition — it's subtraction. As Jim Collins famously said, "A 'Stop Doing' list is more importan…

We’ve all been there: we decide we’re going to start a new habit (meditating, journaling, or drinking more water) and we rely on "Willpower" to make it happen. But willpower is a finite resource. It’s like a phone battery; it drains throughout the day. By the time you get home from a long day of work, your &…

Most people live their lives in "Reactive Mode." They wake up, check their emails, and spend the rest of the day putting out other people's fires. By the time 5:00 PM rolls around, they are exhausted, but they haven't touched their own North Star goals. Today, we are flipping the script. We are movin…

January doesn’t wait for you to have it all together. I learned that the hard way this week. Between two out of my three kids being sick and our family schedules being tossed out the window, there were a few moments where I almost convinced myself it was pointless to try and "design" a year. Almost . When th…

We’ve spent the last few days mapping out your year in seasons. You’ve identified your "Vital Few" and you’ve visualized your dashboards for Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn. But here is where most people get stuck: they set a goal like "I want to grow my business" or "I want to feel more en…

Most people quit their goals in July. The "Summer Slump" is a real phenomenon; the sun is out, the routine shifts, and the high-octane energy of January feels like a distant memory. In a Designed Year, however, Summer isn't where we quit; it’s where we sustain. And Autumn? Autumn is where we "harves…

We have pruned the list and shortened the timeline. Now, it’s time to build the dashboards for the first half of your year. The first six months of 2026 are about momentum. If you get the first half right, the second half almost takes care of itself. We categorize these into two distinct energies: Winter (The Soil) an…

Traditional New Year’s Resolutions fail because they are built on a 12-month timeline. Twelve months is a psychological "no-man's land." It’s too long for the human brain to maintain intense focus. When a deadline is 365 days away, your brain tells you there is always "plenty of time" to start …

The biggest mistake people make in life design is trying to do too much. We take that massive, 50-item brain dump from Day 5 and try to cram all of it into January. We think that "busy" equals "productive," but usually, busy is just a defense mechanism against doing the hard, scary work that actual…

We are a little over a week into January, and I’m going to be completely honest with you: I already feel like I’ve fallen behind. How did Week One of the challenge go for you? If you weren’t able to sit down with your guidebook every single day, or if your "Word of the Year" still feels a bit fuzzy, I want y…

Your brain is an incredible factory for generating ideas, but it is a terrible warehouse for storing them. If you feel anxious, overwhelmed, or like you’re constantly "forgetting something," it’s probably because your mental hard drive is 99% full. Before we start building your seasonal dashboards next week,…

Resolutions are brittle. If you resolve to "Never eat sugar again," and then you have a piece of cake at a birthday party, the resolution is "broken," and most people give up entirely. But a Word of the Year is different. A word is a theme. A word is a filter. A word can't be "broken,"…

We are taking a break from logic today and stepping into a time machine. Most people plan from the perspective of who they are today... stressed, tired, and perhaps a bit cynical. I want you to plan from the perspective of the person you are becoming. I want you to imagine it's December 25, 2026. The year is wrapp…

Have you ever reached a goal (maybe a promotion, a weight-loss target, or a financial milestone) only to feel... nothing? You expected a sense of arrival, but instead, you just felt tired. This happens when our goals are "stolen." We pursue them because society, social media, or our parents told us they matt…

Most of us approach January 1st like we’re trying to escape a crime scene. We want to bury the mistakes of the previous year, ignore the goals we didn't hit, and sprint toward a "New Year, New Me" version of ourselves. We think that by ignoring the past, we are free from it. But here is the hard truth: i…

You’re standing at the edge of a brand-new year. Usually, this is the moment where we make big, sweeping resolutions... only to watch them fade by mid-February. But 2026 is going to be different. You aren't just going to hope for a good year; you are going to design one. I’ve spent the last few weeks creating the …

Can you feel it? That fresh-start energy of January is upon us! I’ve been thinking a lot about how I want to feel by Christmas 2026. I don't want to just be "busy." I want to feel productive, accomplished, and ready to celebrate a massive list of "wins." I want that for you, too. That’s why I a…