"Building" a great 2022
We can’t predict what is going to happen this year. Maybe it will be a tough year or maybe not. Maybe we will experience happiness or sorrow or anything in between. I can only hope it is better than what the last couple of years has been for everybody. While we can’t control everything, we can plan for things that we can. Whenever I take a new job, I begin with the end in mind. This year, I hope you can go on this journey with me to apply some product thinking to our lives make this a more fulfilling year.
I applied the concepts of PR Faq to work backwards from a vision I would like to achieve and running a pre-mortem to ensure I avoid all that will get in the way of achieving my vision this year. The goal of this exercise is to be the best human I can be and not to achieve more material things as those will never be enough. My journey is always towards excellence.
Start by imagining what you would narrate about the past year at the end of this year. Leverage the art of working backwards or writing a press release to imagine all that could be.
Run a pre-mortem to imagine all the things that might get in your way to achieve what you imagine in step #1
For those of you who are not Product Managers, I wrote down 9 questions that you could ask yourself to prepare better for 2022. As I answered these questions, some of my answers to the questions have translated into goals, some into habits I have to build and some into practices I should avoid. My hope is to weave these in to my weekly cadences to ensure I can iterate and progress throughout the year.
End of year self-performance review: Ideally I would love to write my eulogy but since that might be too hard for some, we can use a self-review. What will I write in my self-performance review at the end of the year? I spent my time thinking about my review as an individual, woman, Mom, wife, sister, daughter, friend, employee, colleague, leader, thought leader, advisor, board member and as a global citizen. Jot down what you would like to celebrate as an individual, employee, entrepreneur, parent, partner or whatever role is important for you. Hopefully you can think about this review in more than one role because just one role shouldn’t define us.
What I am most happy about? Think about what brings you joy and think about all that you can do to create many moments of joy and happiness through this year. For ex., we can write about being happy because of an amazing personal life, fun world travel, career growth, etc., What do you want to see happen in 2022?
What threats will get in my way? What can you anticipate coming your way that might slow your progress, that might shake your beliefs, pull your spirts down? What guard rails can you implement to avoid these threats becoming real?
How did I handle tough or unhappy life situations? How will you respond to things that are beyond your control? A lot of things won’t go the way we hope for. When such things happen, how will we respond? Can we pivot? Can we learn from the situation and iterate? Can we experiment alternative approaches? Most importantly, how will you stand strong? My mantra would be “Care for others but also self-care”. What will yours be? Words that could be helpful are Vulnerable, Empathetic, Resilient, Positive, Negative, Cynical, etc.,
What am I grateful for? - Think about all that you are grateful for and how you will weave in gratitude into your daily/weekly/monthly practices. On the flip side, what can you do for others to be grateful for?
What could I have done more of? Would you like to spend more quality time with family, exercise more, focus on your health more, read more? What would you like to do more of in 2022? This will guide you to do more of that throughout the year
What should I have done less of? Would you like to watch less TV, be less angry, worry less? What are things you want to do less of ? And ensure you are continuously ensuring you are doing less of these through the year.
What did I learn this year? While we can’t predict what we will learn in a year, are there specific skills that you want to learn? Do you want to learn how to lead, how to manage, how to write, how to publish, how to eat healthy, how to be more productive, how to be balanced? What do you hope to learn?
How did I recharge this year? Let’s not allow another year to go by where we are feeling tired, exhausted and burnt out. What are the ways that you will practice self-care so that you can rest, rejuvenate and recharge throughout the year?
Are there other questions we can ask ourselves to be better prepared for what might come our way and to build an amazing life? Share in comments below
Some resources on frameworks referenced here
Amazon Narratives — Memos, Working Backwards From Release, More
PR FAQs for Product Documents
HBR article by Gary Klein
Introduction to OKRs