The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months

If you are going to perform at a high level, take new ground, and be great, then you better have a vision that is compelling. In order to achieve a level of performance that is greater than your current performance, you will need a vision of the future that is bigger than the present. You must find a vision with which you are emotionally connected.

The great thing about having a 12 Week Year is that the deadline is always near enough that you never lose sight of it.

Consider other areas like your spiritual, financial, emotional, intellectual, and community life. Maybe it’s time to get out of debt, or finish that degree you put on hold. Perhaps you’ve been thinking about writing a book, starting a foundation, or learning a new language. You might not be able to complete goals like these in 12 weeks, but you can

There are three time horizons that you’ll want to focus your vision on: 1. Long-term aspirations 2. Mid-term goals, about three years into the future 3. 12 Weeks (covered in the next chapter)

In 12 week planning, you identify the top one to three things that will have the greatest impact, and pursue those with intensity. The 12 week plan focuses on a few key areas and creates the energy and urgency to act.

The whole point of planning should be to help you identify and implement the critical few actions that you need to take to reach your goal.

There are three primary components of performance time: strategic blocks, buffer blocks, and breakout blocks

use the tension as an impetus to move forward. If you decide that quitting is not an option, then the discomfort of productive tension will eventually compel you to take action on your tactics.

More than 60 percent of the time the breakdown occurs in the execution process, but usually people assume the plan is at fault and change it. This is a mistake, because you don’t know if the plan doesn’t work if you’re not working the plan.