If you’re anything like me, you’re way behind on your yearly planning and goal setting for 2023. Lucky for us, taking the time to consider where you’ve been, what you care about and where you are headed is always time well spent, no matter the season.
Most traditional yearly planning tools focus on things like goal setting and developing step-by-step plans of action. I have used and been helped by many of these tools over the years, but I always felt like there was something missing. Ultimately I felt like the ‘why’ of it all wasn’t really present. Why am I working towards these goals? To make myself happier? More fulfilled? Because I think these are good things to do? These questions fundamentally point back to a deeper, more philosophic query: What does it mean to live a meaningful life? This is a big question, but without some purchase here, goals seem somewhat unmoored and meaningless. It’s like trying to build a house without a solid foundation underneath.
This is where the OF-KIN Yearly Planning Tool comes in. At OF-KIN we believe that an in depth conceptual phase creates stronger and more meaningful results, and our Yearly Planning Tool is no different. This tool was designed to help you build a solid foundation by looking into the ‘why’ of it all. With this tool we hope to help you bring your relationships, life goals, and meaningful pursuits into focus, and help you move towards what matters most to you in life.
The first section of the tool is all about Relationships. Here, you are prompted to consider which relationships are most meaningful to you and who you want to spend your time with. You will also compare this against who you actually spend time with right now. It’s natural to spend time with whoever is closest to us in proximity, but sometimes these “relationships of convenience” are not the ones we actually want to nurture. This section will make sure we are keeping our most meaningful relationships in our focus.
In the second section, Life Goals, we’ll take a look at activities, pursuits, and the ways you are spending your time. We’ll also take some time to journal and consider what it might mean for us to live a meaningful life.
The third section is The Past Year. This section involves looking back at the past year and assessing how it measures up against what you care about most. You will look through your calendar to identify anything that feels particularly meaningful or important to you. And you’ll think about whether your calendar matches your values.
Next we turn to The Year Ahead. Now that you know what you want to be working on and who with, we need to figure out how to keep these things in your focus. You will consider your current projects, pursuits, and relationships alongside your Life Goals. You will also determine if there is anything you want to give up, decide which projects are most important to you, and build a few simple tools to ensure you stay on track throughout the year.
Finally, our last section deals with Rest & Recovery. Rest is often taken for granted but it is beneficial to think of it as a skill that needs a certain amount of skill building and intentionality. In this section we prompt you to consider all the different ways you rest and recover best, making sure you are well taken care of as you work towards your goals.
This section will help you consider which relationships are most meaningful to you, who you want to spend more of your time with and then check that against who you actually spend time with right now.
1. Who brings you joy, wonder, focus?
2. Who makes you busier, scattered, less fulfilled?
3. Who are your top 5 relationships and why?
4. Who are the top 5 people you spend time with right now?*
5. Is there anyone you want to spend more time with from your #3 list?
6. Is there anyone you want to spend less time with from your #4 list?
*Remember to count things like phone calls and texts when considering this. This does not have to only be time in person.*
If you haven’t read the book “Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals” by Oliver Burkeman I would highly recommend checking it out. In this book Burkeman implores us to face our own finitude: to accept that we have a limited amount of time on earth. Once we accept this feature of our existence we can start to focus on what matters most to us, knowing that there will always be too much to do and never enough time to pursue everything we love. This section is designed to help you figure out which activities, pursuits, and ways of spending your time are most important to you.
Take a few minutes to journal with the above question in mind. Consider things like who you spend time with, what activities you find meaningful, what pursuits you feel are important. When have you felt most alive? What activities and people make you feel peace and joy? And make sure to answer why you find each person, activity, or pursuit meaningful as well. Even if it feels like too big a question, just do your best and see what you discover.
When you finish, look over what you wrote and write your own definition of what it means to live a meaningful life. Try to keep it to just a few sentences that capture what is most important to you. This does not need to be a universal definition. Think of it as a strictly personal definition for you. It doesn’t need to apply to anyone else.
*This exercise comes from the book “Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management For Mortals”*
1. What’s on your to *NOT DO* list?
2. What are your core values? You can use this website to pick a total of 5 values or less.
Now that we know more about the relationships and activities that are most important to you, let’s take a look at the year that is already past. How does last year measure up alongside what you actually care most about? These exercises and questions will help with this assessment.
Look back at the past year. To do this you can look through your google calendar, your planner, you can even peruse the files on your computer that are connected to last year. Take a look at where you’ve been and what you’ve spent your time on and write down anything that feels particularly meaningful or important to you. This includes things like family gatherings, time with friends, projects you worked on, time with yourself, time in the natural world. Really anything that feels like time well spent.
1. Does my calendar match my values?
2. What activities and/or people made life feel meaningful last year?
3. How does last year reflect my Life Goals above?
4. How does last year not reflect my Life Goals?
5. What am I most proud of?
6. What is the best thing that happened?
7. What is the biggest lesson I learned?
Now let’s look at the year ahead. We know what we want to be working on and who with. How can we keep these things in our focus? How can we make sure we don’t distract ourselves with less worthy pursuits or less meaningful relationships? The exercise below is a practical and simple way to answer these questions.
Consider your current projects, pursuits, and relationships alongside your Life Goals.
1. Is there anything you want to give up in favor of something else?
2. Less is more. Only allow yourself 5 projects at most at any given time. A project is anything that takes a significant time investment on your part. Consider which projects are most important to pursue right now.
3. Create two lists, an “open list” and a “closed list”. The “open list” is for anything you might want to pursue. The “closed list” is for what you are actually pursuing right now. You can only have up to 5 projects on your closed list at any given time. You can add something new to the closed list if you finish a project OR decide to move on from it for other reasons. This idea also comes from Oliver Burkeman’s book “Four Thousand Weeks.”
Resting is a skill! Rest is an essential part of life and resting well can be extremely difficult. These questions are meant to help you consider all the different ways you like to rest so you can draw upon them throughout the coming year. The way athletes think about recovery comes to mind: sometimes doing something helps the recovery process more than doing nothing at all. A little bit of movement on your off days can help you come back stronger to your workouts. We can consider this philosophy for our mental and spiritual recovery as well. Sometimes doing nothing feels restful, but sometimes what we need is “recovery” or “restful activity” instead. Having a menu of good rest options will help us replenish well after giving so much to our people and projects.
1. What helps your body rest, heal, enjoy?
2. What helps your mind rest, heal, enjoy?
3. What helps your spirit rest, heal, enjoy?
What would a “day of rest” look like for you? What would you do? What would you definitely not do? Are there any preparations you would need to make the day before? Build yourself an intentional rest day and give it a try.
Build a “Rest Menu.” Everything on this list is something that always provides you with rest, ease, enjoyment, healing, etc, no matter how you are feeling that day or what is going on in your life. These are things that always work. Once you’ve created your menu, put it somewhere where it is easily accessible. When you need a rest, pull it out. You can pick anything from the list. Pick whatever feels best in that moment and go for it!
