Chris Sparks26 December 2020

How To Properly Do An End Of Year Review - Chris Sparks - #262

1Frameworks

14Insights

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Frameworks in this episode

Productivity7 steps

The Four-Part Annual Review

Close the year and architect the next one with reflection, vision, planning, and immediate action.

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Insights & moments

The myth-busts, hot takes, explainers, and tools worth keeping.

Hot Take· 2

Hot Take05:00

New year, new me is the wrong frame

Nothing actually changes between December 31st and January 1st, but arbitrary cultural milestones like the new year or your birthday are valuable recurring checkpoints. Sparks treats them as check-ins to ask what's changed and what makes sense next, not as a trigger for total reinvention.

Think in continuous small improvements, not overnight transformation.
Arbitrary milestones still serve as useful recurring check-ins.
Ask 'what's changed and what's next', not 'how do I become superhuman'.

“on paper nothing has changed from one day to the next but it can be very useful to have these recurring check-ins”
Chris Sparks · 05:30

#new year resolutions#habits#mindset

Hot Take47:00

The way to stay motivated is to not need motivation

With 80% of new year's resolutions failing, Sparks says the answer isn't more motivation, which is flighty and wispy, but engineering conditions that make motivation irrelevant. Assume long unmotivated stretches will come and set things up so you can't help but stumble into progress by making the desired action easier.

If you need motivation to succeed, you won't succeed.
Assume long unmotivated periods are inevitable.
Engineer conditions so progress happens without willpower.
The implementation step exists to make future progress easier.

“the way to stay motivated is to not need motivation if you need motivation to succeed you're not going to succeed”
Chris Sparks · 47:00

#motivation#habits#systems

Explainer· 4

Explainer02:00

Position yourself to thrive when the world gets weirder

Sparks frames his whole approach around anti-fragility: the world isn't going back to normal, so the goal is to build habits, relationships, and learning that let you thrive amid change rather than just survive it. Most people and organizations are threatened by any change because they're caught with their pants down when the tide goes out.

The world will keep getting weirder; this year wasn't a one-off glitch.
Anti-fragile people are 'already surfing before the wave comes'.
Position via habits, relationships, and learning, not by predicting specifics.
Every disruption is practice for putting what you know into action.

“you're well positioned you're already surfing before the wave comes”
Chris Sparks · 03:00

#anti-fragility#resilience#mindset

Explainer06:30

Why scheduled reflection buys you a more present year

Sparks argues most of our time is spent rehashing the past or stressing about the future. By setting aside a designated time to do that backward and forward thinking, you free up the rest of the year to be present, which is where performance, happiness, and fulfillment come from.

We waste the present regretting the past and rehearsing the future.
A designated reflection window contains that thinking.
Increasing present-moment time even slightly improves output and wellbeing.

“if we can increase the proportion of time that we spend in the present by just a tiny bit we will get more done we…”
Chris Sparks · 07:00

#presence#reflection#mindfulness

Explainer29:00

Both/and: keep the outcome, but plan the process

Asked whether to chase outcome goals or process goals, Sparks says both. The outcome lives in your vision as a north star, but you work backward into controllable inputs you can track daily. Outcomes are lagging measures behind the lead measures of habits and behaviors, so you convert wants into things you can actually control.

Outcomes are lagging measures; habits are the lead measures.
Keep the outcome as vision, then work backward to controllable inputs.
SMART goals are overplayed but underutilized; specificity has real power.
Reducing the delay between action and satisfaction is critical for follow-through.

“i always start with what do i want but then i bring that into what do i have control over what can i do”
Chris Sparks · 33:00

#goal setting#habits#process goals#james clear

Explainer56:00

Why every section gets a timer

Sparks timeboxes each part of the review for two reasons. A timer forces procrastinators past their shallow first answer to go deeper, and it also caps the rabbit-holers who'd chase diminishing returns forever. You can always change an answer later, but you need some answer to close the container and move on.

The first answer is usually not the right one; a timer forces depth.
Timers also prevent going past the point of diminishing returns.
You need a good-enough answer to close the loop and move forward.
Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

“you need some sort of answer in order to close that container and move on”
Chris Sparks · 57:30

#timeboxing#parkinsons law#procrastination

Story· 1

Story13:30

The Dubai dinner that blew Williamson's worldview apart

Williamson recounts meeting founders and CEOs in Dubai, including Steven Bartlett, and realizing he was 'playing checkers' while Bartlett played chess. Where Williamson saw sponsorship, Bartlett had negotiated board equity and an IPO exit with Huel. The story illustrates why the review is a chance to expand your sense of what's possible rather than optimizing small.

A single conversation can shatter your ceiling on what's achievable.
Same path, but others are far further along with bigger ambitions.
Use the review to think bigger, not to tweak an email conversion rate.

“okay yeah no i'm playing checkers and you're playing chess like this is a total fundamental different world view”
Chris Williamson · 15:00

#ambition#vision#networking

Q&A· 1

Q&A51:30

The one prompt: what would make this year a success?

Williamson shares a prompt he finds powerful: 'what would have had to have happened by the end of this year for me to look back and consider it a success?' Sparks and Williamson also invoke the Bill Gates line that people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate five, revealing a blind spot for compounding.

Ask what would have to happen for the year to count as a success.
People overestimate one year and underestimate five.
We have a blind spot for how powerful compounding is.

“most people overestimate what they can achieve in one year and underestimate what they can achieve in five”
Chris Williamson · 52:30

#prompts#compounding#reflection

Tool· 1

Tool49:30

The green/yellow/red monthly review system

Sparks's biggest recurring check-in is a monthly review, a couple of hours on a Sunday over tea, scoring each life area green, yellow, or red. Green means keep going, yellow means you're not going backward but could accelerate, red means get it together. The quarterly review then decides whether to scale goals up or down.

Monthly: a few hours scoring every life area green/yellow/red.
Green keep it up, yellow could do better, red nothing's happened.
The aversion to two reds in a row drives change.
Quarterly reviews add optionality to swap or rescale goals.

“assume that if you don't change anything nothing's going to change”
Chris Sparks · 50:30

#review cadence#monthly review#tracking

Takeaway· 5

Takeaway07:30

Treat next year as a chapter you get to author

Sparks thinks of each year as a chapter in his life story, currently chapter 34. Stepping back as the writer, he asks what's likely to happen to the character, what tension will emerge, and what opportunities will appear, so he can outline and architect the chapter ahead of time and be ready to seize what's coming.

Each year is a chapter in an ~80-year story.
As the 'writer', anticipate the tension and opportunities coming.
Outlining ahead of time lets you prepare and seize opportunities.

“i can architect this next chapter of my story if i do some outlining of it ahead of time”
Chris Sparks · 08:30

#narrative#life design#planning

Takeaway13:00

The rare chance to explore before you exploit

Williamson and Sparks note that the urgent almost always beats the important; you can spend an entire life dealing with email and laundry and feel busy while covering little real ground. Year-end is a rare window to assess fundamentals and question everything before resuming the sprint.

The urgent perpetually crowds out the important.
Busyness gives the sensation of progress without the ground covered.
Year-end offers space to explore fundamentals before exploiting them.

“i could literally spend the rest of my life... just dealing with urgent and never doing important and i'd always feel busy”
Chris Williamson · 13:30

#prioritization#explore-exploit#productivity

Takeaway39:00

Apply a warm-lead funnel to dating, not the algorithm

For a relationship goal, Sparks argues the most direct path isn't swiping but asking the few people who know you well to make a warm introduction. It's uncomfortable and requires asking for help, which is exactly why people default to passive, comfortable swiping that feels productive but rarely is.

The fastest path to a goal is often the most uncomfortable one.
A warm intro from someone who knows you both beats an algorithm's random heap.
Swiping is passive and easy, so we justify it as progress.
Also work on becoming the person your ideal partner would want to date.

“usually the most direct path the fastest way to achieve our goals is really uncomfortable”
Chris Sparks · 42:30

#relationships#dating#warm leads#mental models

Takeaway43:30

Transplant what works in one life area into another

Sparks observes people who are absolute outliers in one domain yet completely wing another. The fix is to take a mental model that already works for you, say marketing skill, and deliberately apply it elsewhere, because the underlying principle (large goal to sub-tasks to daily actions) is the same everywhere.

People often solve one life area and totally neglect another.
Ask: what's working here that I could try over there?
The decomposition principle is identical across health, career, relationships.

“this thing that's working for you over here have you tried that over here it's surprising how often that works”
Chris Sparks · 44:00

#mental models#transfer#self-mastery

Takeaway52:30

Direction beats speed every time

Sparks warns that sprinting flat-out in the wrong direction is the ultimate way to waste your life. It's worth a few minutes to check where you're going. But he cautions achiever types against demanding a perfect vision before starting: treat goals as a rough draft written in pencil, and course-correct continually.

Running fast in the wrong direction just gets you further from where you want to be.
It's not what your vision is, it's what your vision does, it gives you something to head toward.
Don't wait for a perfect vision; write goals in pencil and adjust.
The core skill is continual course correction.

“it's not the vision it's the power of the vision it's not what your vision is it's what your vision does”
Chris Sparks · 54:30

#direction#vision#course correction