12-Week Year FINAL
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Kirsten Bombdiggity: [00:00:00] Hi, Stacey.
Stacey Ishman: Hello. How are you?
Kirsten Bombdiggity: I am so excited to talk about the 12 week year right now.
Stacey Ishman: Well, I think I'm a proselytizer of this, so I probably gonna need to be held back and it sounds ridiculous, but like this book fundamentally changed how I approach my calendar, my dreams, my time, my urgency.
Kirsten Bombdiggity: I'm thinking this is the book that made you kind of carry on a journal everywhere you go.
Stacey Ishman: I think we call it my emotional support planner. Thank you. And it absolutely is
Kirsten Bombdiggity: like what book are they even talking about? We're talking about the 12 week year and it's by Brian Moran and Michael Lennington. So amazing book. Look at you showing it up. Thank you. Thank you. So i'm just gonna start that. I think this book is great because so many of us are looking at like, new Year's resolution centers have come into the last a hundred days [00:01:00] of 2025. Like some of us are actually kind of battling shame of like what we have or haven't to accomplish this year and, and yet if we break it down into these 12 week ones, it's just so much easier for regrouping.
It's so much easier for clean slate. It's easier to like set up goals that feel doable. And where, I don't know, I just find that my productivity is a heck of a lot higher when I think in terms of 12 weeks instead of 52. How about you?
Stacey Ishman: Well, two things. One is I love the fact you can start anytime. So it doesn't matter if we are a hundred days from the end of the year or if we are February 3rd, your 12 weeks can start on February 3rd.
And so that's one of the things I love about it because. So many times you're like, oh, I gotta start the first day of the month, or the first day of the year, or whatever it is, and you don't, okay.
So that for me was fundamentally empowering, because I didn't have to feel bad about whatever time I started.
And then the other thing is, I have too many goals. I have way too many things written down. And so what it forces you to [00:02:00] do is like, just pick three for 12 weeks. Like, we know you wanna get 12 done this year. If you picked three for three months and then the next three months you have another three goals in the next three months, you have another three goals, whether they're continuation goals or they're totally different.
It actually really empowered me to say, I can focus much more on these three, 'cause I know those are gonna come next quarter. I'm not throwing 'em off till next year. And so it really made me, feel like I need to get it done. And I know in the academic world, we'd be like, I'm gonna get my promotion packet ready this year.
That's like, okay, that we do nothing for five months and then all of a sudden one day we're like, oh, the deadline's in six weeks. And we start to do a ton of things. But it's so much easier if I'm like, oh, I just need to write my personal statement and update my CV, and then the next month, you know, I can get a letter from somebody else and the next month I can worry about whatever the next thing is on your promotion plan or whatever the project is.
But I actually found it really useful to cut the number of goals I was working on at any one time.
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Yeah, that really resonates with me. You know, like, um. I spent a number of years working as the [00:03:00] Chief Experience Officer with Semi-Retired MD and working with wonderful, amazing thousands of Physicians. And, we were always growing and we were always looking for different ways that we could take on.
And there was lots of things that I felt like I was really kind of a badass at and I loved, but then like when you do spread it too thin, and this ended up happening for me, with Semi-Retired MD is that I just felt like. I ended up compromising my superpower so that I felt like I was being adequate at everything and I wasn't feeling awesome about anything, and that that's not a good feeling.
And so one of the things that I love about this book is that it's like, you don't have to say no to any of these other curiosities, cravings, interests, talents, blessings, whatever you wanna call it, like. No. Like it is just a matter of picking out what do you want your hyper focus to be for the next few months.
Stacey Ishman: Yeah. And I also think it acknowledges that we all know what we have to get [00:04:00] done.
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Yeah.
Stacey Ishman: Like I bet every single one of us has a really reasonable to-do list. It's about doing this stuff. It's the execution part. And this book's core concept is that the execution is more important than the ideas 'cause we have the ideas.
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Yeah.
Stacey Ishman: We need a system that helps us get them done.
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Yeah. And as someone who was just recently diagnosed with diabetes, and I can't even hear diabetes without thinking of, you know, Wilford, whatever his name is, diabetes, and you know, but like, I had to do 90 days of Metformin but it had me thinking like, how is that different than then, you know, we set ourselves up for success in other ways.
Like if I could promise to take care of myself medically, like prioritize my physical health for the next 90 days and have it become a habit. Then it's not like I'm abandoning those 90 days from now, but then it just becomes part of like my muscle memory, and so I'm actually gonna get more done and I'm gonna have better health a year from now just because I'm spending 90 days focusing on learning what it means to be a type [00:05:00] two diabetic.
Stacey Ishman: Sorry to hear you're a type two diabetic, but good that you're using the time to actually say, okay, I'm gonna take the medicine, but I'm also gonna work on the lifestyle.
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Yes.
Stacey Ishman: I also think unrelated to our now medical talk, that there are also other ways to talk about habit stacking. And so this actually feels like it's going back to the conversation we had about atomic habits, right?
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Yep.
Stacey Ishman: Because I think they really work well together. If you start thinking about. Accountability and how,
Kirsten Bombdiggity: which is why everybody needs to listen to every episode on
Stacey Ishman: Yes. Because everything we say is sage.
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Right?
Stacey Ishman: So, just kidding. But we say some good stuff anyway. So tell me, in your everyday, how are you using 12 week year?
Like, do you, you use this system, how long have you been using? 'cause I know when I started an accountability group and some people were really religious about it, they would write it out. They would have to hit 65 to 85% completion in order for it to be good enough. And I was not actually quite as good at like [00:06:00] daily execution until I got the emotional support planner.
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Right,
Stacey Ishman: which I am holding in the video if you are seeing the video, but you're probably not, so you don't know that I'm just crazily walking around with this book at all times and I actually went out of town and forgot it and made my wife mail it to me because after two days I'm like, no, it's not gonna work.
I need to have the book. So
Kirsten Bombdiggity: I need it. I need it. I'm starting to go through withdrawal,
Stacey Ishman: but really is so helpful.
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Workbook that I bought to kick off my, and that just having it as a person whose background is in education, there is something very, very different that happens in your brain and then neuroplasticity and enjoy and dopamine when you are actually physically writing it versus just typing something up on a computer or a Word doc or an email or whatever.
And so for me, even having a conversation, it's a very different part of, of the learning process. And so. Whether you're using, you know, the planner of Stacy uses the 12 week, like anything like that, it can, it can be one of those cute little fuzzy [00:07:00] diaries that has a lock on it, you know, whatever it is, you know.
Stacey Ishman: Well, that's one option.
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Yes.
Stacey Ishman: Is that what you're using right now?
Kirsten Bombdiggity: No. No, but I, I would be open to it, you know, but usually the paper on those doesn't meet my, like office supply, like high.
Stacey Ishman: Snobbery.
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Yeah. So yeah, it's a little thin,
Stacey Ishman: well, which one are you using right now? So I'll tell you, I use the full focus planner.
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Yep.
Stacey Ishman: And I love it. It is not pretty though. And Kirsten likes her things to look cute.
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Yeah. Yeah.
Stacey Ishman: So which one are you using?
Kirsten Bombdiggity: I do think, but. To be fair, I've also decided now that it can be cute internally. Like, so if I buy myself like stickers and things like that, scratch and snap, I'm totally all about that.
They make even scented pens now that you can use, you know, but it has to have the gel element too, because now that I'm in my fifties, I have to pretend exactly
Stacey Ishman: I have so many colored pens. I went to this workshop this past weekend. And everybody was like, I need another, I had like 16 pens in my pocket.
I'm like, well, it's time to out myself. I have a pen [00:08:00] problem
Kirsten Bombdiggity: And yeah, life is good.
Stacey Ishman: I mean colored pens and a boring looking planner and I am happy.
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Okay, so I'm gonna put you on the spot and I wanna know, tell me a time when a tight deadline made something easier for you
Stacey Ishman: so I think it helps with focus.
It really, because you know, it's the only thing that you have to get done. All of a sudden you can get rid of all the other stuff and you can prioritize the time. I also really love time blocking, and it does make us much more efficient. And so if I say like, Hey, I have this amount of time, I'm just gonna work on this one thing.
It does actually also get rid of all the distractions so your brain can focus.
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Yep.
Stacey Ishman: And maybe a little bit of fight or flight that, gets beautifully coupled with flow state. So for me
Kirsten Bombdiggity: mm-hmm.
Stacey Ishman: I actually do think that works. One of the geniuses of this technique, I think, is that you allow yourself to focus on things every week like that instead of being like, Hey, I'll do that next week.
And so I do think it helps overcome, like waiting for the perfect time. 'cause it has to happen right now.
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Mm-hmm.
Stacey Ishman: What do you think? [00:09:00]
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Yeah, I think that for me that the key is just knowing that giving myself the grace that I already know what I need to be doing. Because sometimes when you have so many things going on, it can just be very overwhelming and you think, you know, imposter syndrome can kick in.
So if we know, if we trust that we have all the answers we need to make all of those goals come true. We also come to different solutions and I love the time blocking that you were saying. It reminds me of an upcoming book that we've got on the, um, list of the inbox zero that's coming up. Same kind of thing, like let's focus on intensely on like being concentrated times like just like athletes would pre-season and if we look at ourselves as people who are intellectual athletes and being able to knock stuff out like that, like magic things happen. And so I would encourage somebody to set short-term goals and, and to be writing them down and to report them out to the people that are your cheerleaders. One of the things that I adore about having you, Stacey, in my life is, and I think [00:10:00] everyone should have this, and I'm getting ready to do this summit. So last night I was writing the article, and I don't know if you saw it yet on LinkedIn today, but it was basically just like bragging all much and how like you are the ultimate wingman. You know, we want people who, who believe in our best stories. And so when we have these 12 week things, it kind of feels more gamified, kind of feels more fun and it makes me excited to just really prove myself right.
Stacey Ishman: And you give yourself an opportunity every 12 or 13 weeks. To actually reassess, right?
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Yeah.
Stacey Ishman: This is, Ooh, I'm gonna pull it back to the gap in the gain.
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Yeah.
Stacey Ishman: Which is where you actually get to see, this is all really just one long podcast. We chopped up into 20 different ones. But I love the idea that you can actually then go back and say like, what have I attained in the last 12 weeks?
Yeah. And you can see the progress, which we're in real time in a week. I don't necessarily think I've had huge growth. If I can look back 12 or 13 weeks, I really can see it and it's so much more immediate and motivating than if I have to wait that long. So [00:11:00] I'm sure if you look back at your last quarter, what does it look like?
What does it make you feel?
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Mm-hmm. Yeah. One of the stats I promoted in the book that I wrote down in my little scribbles here, clients who implement weekly scoring out reform annual goal setters by four or five times,
Stacey Ishman: which is beautiful.
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Yeah.
Stacey Ishman: So if you were gonna take one thing from this book and tell everybody to take it forward, what would it be?
Kirsten Bombdiggity: I think that as someone who is kind of a chubby cheerleader for a lot of people in the world, I would say look at yourself as an athlete. Like, how would you do this? If you were an athlete, how would you look about it if it was your on season? Knowing that you can have multiple sports, knowing that you can add some, all these athletic go ball, strategies.
But, I think just setting yourself up for success and write it down. That's my big takeaway. Write it down.
Stacey Ishman: I also think examining what you're gonna do every week has been really useful for me. So I spend time on Sunday and I plan my [00:12:00] week out.
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Mm-hmm.
Stacey Ishman: Even if it's in some broad strokes and I have those one to three measurable goals for the week.
And the other thing you realize is like if I'm going on vacation this week, the goal can be to enjoy vacation. I have one goal. So it doesn't have to be something that doesn't fit in your life. You are not like, oh, I can never get a, a moment of rest. I loved when I learned that you get the same dopamine hit from the checkbox.
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Mm-hmm.
Stacey Ishman: It says read a book as you do from the one that says like, write your summit script. So I write those things down too, because I like the dopamine hit and the check mark. I might make the check marks for things I've already completed just to make 'em on the list. We don't have to talk about that.
Kirsten Bombdiggity: I can cross them off
Stacey Ishman: Absolutely.
Winning. But I do think if you just pick one thing this week that you think you're gonna accomplish and find a time block and start thinking in these shorter time spans
Kirsten Bombdiggity: mm-hmm.
Stacey Ishman: I think that's the win. But if you get a chance, read the book or listen to the book, and consider how to work this way forward.
'cause I think it's really useful.
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Agreed. It really, and it comes down to it. It isn't about getting more done, it's [00:13:00] about becoming the person we want to be. That gets those things done naturally
Stacey Ishman: and you get more done
Kirsten Bombdiggity: and you get more done.
Stacey Ishman: Okay. Thank you all for joining us this week and we look forward to talking to you in the next couple weeks.
Kirsten Bombdiggity: Go ball.
