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Look back on 2018, look forward to 2019

I hope you survived the Christmas, spent meaningful time with your family and had delicious food.

Originally I wanted to share my achievements for 2018 and plans for 2019, however the planning is still in progress, so I’ll do that in a later post.

It’s the perfect time of the year to review the past year and plan for this one. I’ll recommend two tools to help you with this below. I’ve used them both (unravel your year this time) and they are great tools.

Before the recommendations let me share my list of questions to help you evaluate your current situation. These questions are inspired by the getting things done horizons by David Allen and many others.

Horizon 5: Purpose and principles

What is your purpose? Who are you, really? Are you connected to your soul? Do you feel good in your body? Do you feel integrated? Are you dependent, independent or interdependent? Are you fulfilling your purpose and reaching your dreams? Are you spending enough time on the important things?

Horizon 4: Five-year vision

I recommend two yearbooks to help you with your yearly review:

Where you’ll be in the next five years? Where is your company will be? Some suggest if you are not scared from the future, you don’t have big enough goals. Set your goals high. Aim for the moon. Think of your relationships, department, etc. What could you influence? What changes can you make to make a difference? What investments are you planning in terms of learning?

Horizon 3: Two-year goals and objectives

What is your job or role taking you next? What is something that you want to achieve within a year or two? How are you thinking out of the box? Are you focusing on the strength of other people? Are you using your strong values to achieve your bigger goals? Are you doing things which lead to the bigger goals?

Horizon 2: Areas of focus and accountability

Are you focusing on the important? Are you satisfied with your daily activities? Are you acting responsible in your relationships? Are you showing an exanmple for others and for your children? Are you raising issues, saying “no” when you need to say no?

Horizon 1: Projects

Did you define your projects? Are you working on them? Do they correlate with your purpose and your vision for the next ten years? 

Ground: Calendar/actions

Are you working on your planned actions? Are you busy or are you making a progress? Do your daily decisions and habits move you forward every day? Are you focusing on the results? Are you working on important and urgent tasks? Are you working on important and not urgent tasks to avoid most of the urgent tasks in the future?

Year compass

This yearbook is available in many languages (English, Hungarian, etc.). It’s free, printable in A4 or as A5 booklet and about 20 pages long. Actually, I’ve just noticed that this yearbook was developed by a team of Hungarians. I’ve used this yearbook a couple of times.

Unravel your year

This yearbook is massive! Created by Susannah Conway, it’s a 60 pages long year review and new year, planner. I’ve already printed a copy of it and will start filling it out very soon. This is the first time I’ll do this one, it was recommended to me in one of the productivity facebook groups, I’m a member of 5-6 groups and plan to create my own Facebook group in the future.

Additionally, I’ll do the usual monthly review and cleanups (Dropbox, Evernote, budget, folders, ideas, etc.)

I encourage you to fill out at least one of the yearbooks. Please let me know if you do, share a photo with it and send it to me, share your opinion and suggestions or ways you do your yearly look back.

Please comment your biggest achievement in 2018 and greatest plan for 2019 below!

Have an amazing and successful happy new year!
András Kapros