This document is a worksheet for the original essay found at

http://taylorpearson.me/planning/

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The Process
Preparation

When something you want to think about strategically comes up during the quarter, assign it to
end of quarter to think about. I usually keep these in an Evernote note called “Quarterly Review
Notes”

● Ex. During Q3 I will open a note with the title “Q4 review notes,” and put big-picture
things that I want to think about - “Should I focus on book sales or email subscribers?”
“Should I hire someone?”

Suggested for read/review in preparation for Quarterly Review - I don’t always read all of these
each quarter, but I re-read each at least once a year and find before I do my review is the best

● Regrets of the Dying

● Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
● Ray Dalio Principles Section 1

Purpose
The purpose of the quarterly review is to
1. Set a long term vision (What do I want?).
2. Do an 80/20 analysis of the last 90 days (What am I good at?).
3. Do a Blue Ocean Analysis of opportunities (What does the market want?).
4. Pick the top opportunity and SHIP it in 90 days.

I block out a day (it will take two days the first time you do it) to go through the whole process. I
try not to do any other work on these days as I want to make the decisions from an elevated
position, out of the day-to-day fray. Printing it out and doing it on paper = bonus points.
Step 1: “What do I want” - Long-term/25 Year Thinking (1-2
hours)
The purpose of the first step is to think really long-term about what you want. How has the
feedback from the last 90 day cycle changed it? I do this all with “free writing” or
stream-of-consciousness and focus on getting words onto the page (no one will ever see it
except me).

1. Review General Operating Principles

a. What’s changed in the last 90 days?

2. (Re)write your Aspirational Vision for your life - I find it’s important to start with your
whole life, not just business, otherwise you end up creating a disconnect where there’s a
conflict between the two

a. Questions to journal on (If you find the questions too broad, add domain specific
endings to each “for your health,” “for your business/career” and “for your
relationships”) - Your answers should feel totally impossible and saying them out
loud should feel really embarrassing. The purpose is that you need something to
motivate you when the sh*t hits the fan. It has to be big, or it won’t be motivating
enough, and you’ll quit or get bored. That’s why I like 25 years instead of 3-5,
because it gives you so much time that you can think really expansively. You’ll
apply constraints later, so don’t worry about that for now; dream as big as you
can imagine.

i. What would you do if you couldn’t fail?

ii. “If you were looking back at your life twenty-five years from today, what
has to have happened in your life, both personally and professionally, for
you to feel happy with your progress? Specifically, what dangers do you
have now that need to be eliminated, what opportunities need to be
captured, and what strengths need to be maximized?
3. Review and Update your Perfect Day
a. If there were no limitations or consequences, what would your perfect day look
like?

i. Where would you live?

ii. What would your house look like?

iii. What would it smell like?

iv. What time in the morning would you wake up?

v. What would you do in the morning?

 vi. What would you think about in the morning?

vii. What would you have for breakfast?

viii. Where would you go for the first part of the day?
ix. What would you have for lunch?

x. Who would you eat with?

xi. Who would your friends be?

xii. What kind of conversations would you have with your friends?

xiii. What are your friends like?

xiv. What would you do for personal fulfillment?

 xv. What life purpose would you strive towards?

xvi. What would your business be?

xvii. What time would you start work?

xviii. What would you do in your business each day?

xix. What are your clients like?

xx. What’s your relationship like with your spouse and your family?
 xxi. What would you do for family time?

xxii. What would you eat for dinner?

xxiii. What would you talk about at dinner?

 xxiv. What would you do at night?

xxv. Who would you spend your time with?

xxvi. What would your thoughts be as you went to sleep?

b. h/t to Jaime Tardy and Ben Greenfield for these questions and the exercise.
 4. Edit these answers to create a 25-year vision document and a perfect day document.
i. A 25 year vision document -
The document has three sections: Relationships/Health/Business with the
following structure
1. Role
2. What You want - What does it look like? feel like?
3. Why You want it - What's the importance? Why do I want to be
there/in that role?

Here’s what mine for health looks like, to give an example:

I am a Paleo Power Athlete

What: I have a 330 Wilks score at sub 12% bodyfat. That means I have a 1200lb total at 205lbs -
benching 300, squatting 405, and pulIing 500. I can do 15 pull-ups. I can do a bar weight overhead
squat. I recognize that diet and mobility are the most crucial elements to health.

Why: I prize my physical health so my brain functions at its optimal condition to be able to DO THE
WORK. I want people to respect and admire me for my commitment to health and fitness. I want to
feel healthy and vibrant for the next fifty years.

b. A Perfect day document - Take your answer from above and write them as
though you were writing a screenplay of a day in your life.

Step 2: Quarterly Review and Planning - “What am I good at?”

and “What does the market want?”

Review notes made over the course of the quarter for specific, big-picture things to think about
(like “should I hire more people or 80/20 my clients?”).

[Insert Life Area] (Relationships/Career/Health)

1. Do an 80/20 Analysis - Review previous quarter’s big initiatives and respond to the following
questions:
 1. What went well? What are the 20% of things I’m doing that are driving 80% of results? -
While it’s important to make a decision on what you want without considering resources
currently under control, once you start thinking about how to get there, you have to
change that. I find this answer is usually surprisingly simple. When I look back at the last
five years of my life, I can pretty much file everything under two buckets: Generating IP
(writing, building internal processes, etc) and Building Strategic Partnerships (I would
include internal team management/hiring within this as well).
2. What went badly? What were the biggest mistakes I made? Why didn’t I achieve what I
set out to achieve?
3. What are the three least-valuable things I'm doing? What are the 80% of things I’m doing
achieving 20% of the results? What am I doing to avoid The Resistance? If you get stuck
on this one, think of someone that is three to five years ahead of you in your field. What
do you do that they don’t? Stop doing that. - It’s easy to think of more stuff to do, and
much harder to STOP doing things which either aren’t working or are simply working
worse than other things you could be devoting energy to.

2. Clearly Define a Goal - Thinking about the 25 year vision document, Perfect day as well as what
is and isn’t working, ask:
1. What’s the one thing that makes everything else easier or unnecessary?

2. “If I am reading this twelve weeks from today, and I am looking back over the past
quarter, what has to have happened for me to feel happy with my progress?
 3. The How - How do I get there? Specifically, what dangers do you have now that need to be
eliminated, what opportunities need to be captured, and what strengths need to be maximized?”
What does the day-to-day life of someone that has already achieved this goal look like?

The biggest dangers I have that need to be eliminated are…

The biggest opportunities I see that need to be captured are…

The biggest strengths I have that need to be maximized are…

On an average day, someone that has achieved this goal…

Count the costs - Write all the things you will have to give up and sacrifice to get there and make sure it’s
worth it.

4. Choose 1-3 Key Performance Indicators for the goal

1. They must be specific and measurable - either a number or definitive yes/no
2. State them positively - rather than focusing on a 2 percent error rate, you would target a
98 percent accuracy rate.
3. I usually pick 1 key indicator and 1-2 lead indicators
1. Ex. The key indicator could be revenue, then lead indicators may be new
leads/week and sales calls/week. You roughly know how many of those you need
to be hitting to hit a revenue goal so you catch issues before they happen.

Step 3: Convert into Quarterly Big Initiatives Document

Goal: From Question 2

KPIs: From Question 4
How: Copy from Question 3. You brainstormed a ton of possible options. It’s now time to pick the key
ones, then prioritize them.
Step 4: Post-Review (1-2 hours)
● Update your not-to-do list with answers to questions 1-3 - I also keep this in my Evernote to look
over every week during my weekly review as a reminder to keep me from getting pulled back into
stuff that’s lower leverage.
● For the business document, move the document for business into the company standard
operating document and have it highly visible in the company for everyone to see/report on every
day
○ Talk about it in the next team meeting
● Restructure tasks in project management to conform to quarterly objectives
● Update Tracking System as needed or move to another system so you are updating and tracking
KPIs every day - I currently use Geckoboard, but don’t find it particularly good. I’ve heard good
things about Cyfe and also have just used a spreadsheet in the past

Put these documents somewhere that you will review them every morning as part of your morning ritual.
Weekly review here

Sources
I have taken elements for this process from all of the following
● Darren Hardy - Living Your Best Year Ever
● Asian Efficiency - Agile Results
● I Found Freedom in an Unfree World
● The 12 Week Year
● Dan Sullivan and Joe Polish 10x Talk Podcast
● Chet Richard’s Certain to Win
● Tim Ferriss interview with Derek Halpern