Join me for reflection and 2024 planning in Trello!
You know I've got a template for you ;)
Hi folks! Happy last newsletter of the year!
I’m going to be taking a break next week. I always take the days off between Christmas and New Years and unwind, relax with fam, and plan for the new year.
Speaking of planning, I’ve got a special edition newsletter for you today, inspired by
- one of my faithful fans and readers - on how I reflect and plan for the year ahead with Trello!I’m sharing my process and template, so if anyone wants to join, I’ll host a zoom in January for sharing our boards and goals for 2024!
I’ve recorded some videos in the past going through my process, but I thought it might be easier if I broke it down a little more simply and just gave a step-by-step approach of my thought process that you can implement however you’d like.
Disclaimer: A big part of this process comes from a Google Doc I discovered years ago from
at Annual Life Review. I’ve used that Google Doc for years and adjusted a bit , and now have modified it slightly to work in Trello.I love their process and have really enjoyed the thought-provoking questions that help me plan for the year, so I’m excited to share with you as well. Thanks !
If you prefer doing this process in a Google Doc instead, get Steven’s 2024 file!
Pre Req’s
Here’s what you’ll need to get started:
Quiet space and a couple of hours
Fresh copy of this Trello template
Beverage of your choice
Snacks are always helpful too
Prefer to watch?
I created this 12 minute video that walks through the whole process, but feel free to skip for now and read the steps below if you’re more of a skimmer
Looking Back
First I start by looking back.
My favorite part is listing out all the things that happened this year. It’s wild how much you forget! The year flies by, but when you list out all that happened, it really helps the year feel… full. This is my favorite exercise, even when I have to list out the hard things from the year.
If you can't think of the things you did throughout the year, go through your camera roll, social media, your emails, your calendar, or your journal! I particularly find my calendar and camera roll/social media to be really helpful.After listing what happened throughout the year, Steven lists some really thought-provoking questions that help you kinda make sense of everything that happened. Again, great for getting some closure on hard things that happened and having a sense of pride and gratitude for the good things.
Next, you’ll analyze where you’re at right now.
Current Life Assessment
Ever heard of a Wheel of Life exercise? It looks something like this:
Basically you rate yourself in various categories. 1 means “not good” and 10 means “couldn’t be better”. Typically we all find there are certain areas of life we’re thriving in and some that are being neglected.
In this list, we’ll open a card for various areas and reflect on where we are in that section. Feel free to use the description or comments to add specific notes or thoughts about that, which can be helpful in the next list.
I’m using Amazing Fields to keep track of the score on a card, and I applied conditional logic so the color of the field changes based on the score.
This is useful for the last card in this list, which has questions for reflecting on these scores and identifying which ones are low and high.
Just because something is low doesn’t mean it has to be high, and just because something is high doesn’t mean it can’t continue to be a focused area for you!
Once you’ve reflected on those, you’re ready to move into the next list and starting thinking high level about 2024.
Intentions for Next Year
There are several cards in this list and each has their own series of questions.
This part can take a while! Don’t rush it. Be patient because I find whenever I rush on this part, I end up having a bunch of specific tasks all over the place that don’t really connect well and I end up spending half the year running around like a chicken with my head cut off!
Once you’ve spent time reflecting on those questions, take a quick break to stretch your legs or something. We’re in the home stretch now!
Goals and Actions
The next list is where we start to get a bit more tactical. You’re going to answer 3 big questions.
You can open up the card and answer it inside, or you can create a card below each one with the answer.
Trello pro tip: Did you know you can create a new card by hovering your mouse over a card or using keyboard keys to select a card then pressing “n”?
After that, you’ll answer specific questions about each goal. Really dive into this.
You will tempted to pick more than three goals. Try not to do it. I always pick more than three and halfway through the year I regret it. (See my earlier comment about running around like an overly ambitious chicken with its head cut off and then narrowing down my goals to three for the rest of the year.)
Okay now make it happen!!
This is part I added, this wasn’t specifically in Steven’s framework but I needed to make it more tangible.
I usually do this part of the process in another board (you’ve probably seen more of these in my annual planning livestreams), but this is where rubber meets the road!
For the goals you identified, create lists or labels for each. The reason for this is that you want to create smaller blocks of tasks that will lead to you reaching that goal, and you’ll categorize those smaller tasks by the list or label.
Try to break things down into smaller pieces- no card should take more than a week to complete if you can help it. This will help you see progress and momentum towards that goal.
Let’s say your goal is to run a marathon. You might have cards for:
Find a running buddy
Create a running plan
Recurring task for running every other day
Pick a 5k to run
Run the 5k
Pick a 10k to run
Run the 10k
Research runner supplements
Define best stretches for running
And so on. You can do whatever feels right!
And then feel free to add any other stuff you want to keep track of for the year. (For 2023, I made a list for my trips so I could keep track of when I’d be away.)
Now drink some eggnog and relax!
If you’ve made it this far, then hopefully you’ve really found this process helpful and you’re well on your way to being set for 2024. If you want to share what you’ve done with the class, I’ll be hosting a Zoom in January where we can all meet and share what we’re learning and working on!
Remember to take some time to relax and take it easy. The work will get done, and there will always be a task to do. Do what brings you joy around this time of year!
👋 I’ll see you next year!!
Special shoutout to my premium sponsors!
Thanks to:
Mike Day -
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Great article, I love the information and the template! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for the shout out. I read the article AND will also watch the YouTube video.