This is the fourth blog post in a series about my experiences working through the Productivity Field Guide by David Sparks, available in the Plus and the Standard editions.
In this post, I want to help you move beyond merely having your roles identified and your Arete “best possible version of yourself” statements written. I’ll share the system Sparks has developed to implement these ideals in your life through quarterly and monthly reviews.
Why Have Quarterly and Monthly Reviews?
There are real benefits to doing quarterly and monthly reviews:
• It gives you twelve feedback loops each year. Yearly planning, which is suggested by many productivity gurus, only gives you one feedback loop a year. I need more than that to stay on track.
• Your roles and Arete statements of “your best possible self” will fade if I don’t regularly review them. Quarterly and monthly reviews ensure that I’m reviewing my roles and Arete at least once each month, which helps keep them in my mind.
Quarterly Review Basics
David Sparks has often recommended The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington. The authors argue that yearly planning is ineffective and that quarterly planning dramatically increases the execution of the work that is important to us.
1. Quarterly Planning Can Take Time
The quarterly review is the primary tool to move you closer to your Arete. During this review, you will review and evaluate the last quarter, do a complete roles audit, and plan for the next quarter. To do this process right can take an afternoon, a day, or more.
You’ll be accomplishing a lot. As David Sparks says in the Productivity Field Guide, “At the beginning of each quarter, I sit down for an afternoon to take a look at how I did during the quarter prior and look forward to come up with some realistic plans for making progress on my roles and arete in the coming months.”
2. The Ground Rules of Quarterly Planning
In the Productivity Field Guide, Sparks lists three ground rules:
• Document it. You need to document your work so you can periodically go back and review it to remember what you said you intend to do in the next quarter. It doesn’t matter how you do so.
Some prefer to use digital tools, while others prefer analog tools. I use a template in the Obsidian app based on the quarterly review template in the Productivity Field Guide. Often, I dictate my answers to the prompts; other times, I type them in. You could use a piece of paper; it doesn’t matter how you record your review.
• Take the necessary time. This isn’t something you can rush through. Sometimes, I take an overnight retreat to focus on and complete my review; other times, I take a morning at home. Don’t try to shortcut this process. Its value will correspond directly to how much time you invest in it.
• Be honest. The value of your review depends on an honest evaluation of how you did in the last quarter. Your review is written for you; no one else needs to see it. If you’re not honest with yourself, you won’t be able to learn from your mistakes and improve.
How to Do a Quarterly Review and Planning Session
A quarterly review has three parts:
1. A Look Backward: Evaluation of the Previous Quarter
a. Ask a general open-ended question: “How am I doing?” This is where you get an overall sense of how you did.
b. Answer a series of questions about your last quarter:
- What was my biggest win of the last quarter?
- What was the biggest lesson learned in the last quarter?
- What was the best use of my time in the last quarter?
- What was the worst use of my time in the last quarter?
- What were the most delightful moments of the last quarter?
The purpose of this review is not to make you feel bad about the mistakes you made and to beat yourself up. Instead, it’s to help you identify them and figure out a way to improve next time. Everyone makes mistakes; it’s a question of whether you’ll learn from them. Be gentle with yourself.
2. A Roles Audit
a. Look at your roles and rewrite the Arete statements. I intentionally don’t look at my Arete statements before I do this; I don’t want to be influenced too much by what I’ve written in the past. It’s valuable to take a new pass at writing your Arete each quarter; you’ll discover new aspects of the role you hadn’t considered before. I’ve found that my Arete change over time to reflect changing circumstances.
b. Ask multiple questions about each of your roles:
- Is this role still appropriate?
- What is my Arete NOW for this role?
- How did I do last quarter?
- How do I want to improve in the next 90 days?
- What should I do more of?
- What should I do less of?
- What should I stop doing?
- What action will I take to improve on that role in the next quarter?
- Sparks suggests making multiple passes of each role, using questions 1-2, 3-7, and 8. I haven’t done this before, but I plan to at my next quarterly review. I see real value in reviewing each role multiple times with different questions. This isn’t a linear process; you’ll think of new ideas each time you consider a role.
3. A Look Forward – Planning the Next Quarter
In this step, we want to evaluate our work and make concrete plans for the next quarter.
a. It starts with a series of questions that help us to determine what we want to accomplish the next quarter to make progress on our Arete:
- What Do I Love?
- What Do I Dread?
- What (and Who) Am I Undervaluing?
- What Should I Keep Doing?
- What Should I Do More Of?
- What Should I Stop Doing?
- What Should I Put on Hold?
- What would be the best use of my time in the next quarter?
- What would be the worst use of my time in the next quarter?
- What am I Looking Forward To?
b. And then one last question… Anything else?
c. List the projects and habits you want to work on in the next quarter. Be careful not to add too much. We tend to get excited and overcommit ourselves. “In my experience, one or two big projects/habits for a quarter is about the maximum I can realistically complete.” David Sparks, Productivity Field Guide.
d. After you’ve defined your projects and habits, add them to your task manager or project folder and schedule time to do what you plan to do in the next quarter.
I typically add specific tasks and recurring habits to my task manager. For projects, I create a new folder in the Obsidian notes app or the Mac Finder with a document describing the project, my initial thoughts about the project, and the steps I’ll need to go through to complete the project. I’ll also include links to documents I’ll need to reference to complete the project using the Hookmark app.
Sometimes, I’ll do time-blocking or hyper-scheduling, as Sparks calls it, on my calendar for certain activities, but I’ll typically wait until my weekly review or daily planning to do time-blocking. By then, I have a better idea of what my week will look like and can more reliably schedule time.
My sense is the need to hyper-schedule further in advance depends on how busy your schedule is and how many projects you have going on. I tend to hyper-schedule more for recurring projects related to my Arete than time to work on projects.
4. Quarterly Review and Planning Template
Here’s a link to my Quarterly Review and Planning template. This is pretty much the same outline as found in the Productivity Field Guide. Although I use this template in Obsidian, I made a copy in Craft to share it. Feel free to copy and paste it into your app of choice.
My roles will almost certainly differ from yours, so you’ll have to modify them. Revise it in any way that works best for you.
Monthly Reviews
Quarterly reviews are the “heavy lifting” of the roles-based system. Monthly reviews take much less time and effort if you’ve done a good job on your quarterly review.
The primary purpose of the monthly review is to see if you’re on track with the plan you developed during your quarterly review. “The starting point of the monthly plan and review is to look at the list of quarterly planning action items and check in on them. Are you making progress? Is anything stalled? What can you do in the next 30 days to move it forward?” David Sparks, Productivity Field Guide.
1. Ask, “How am I doing on my quarterly action plan items?” Next, answer a series of questions about the last month if they apply to your situation (optional):
- What was the most delightful moment last month?
- What was the big win last month?
- What went wrong last month, and what lessons did I learn?
- What was the best use of my time last month?
- What was the worst use of my time last month?
- What am I looking forward to?
- Anything else?
2. Do a brief roles review. Read your roles and Arete statements to reacquaint yourself with them. You don’t need to evaluate or revise them; just read them.
3. Finally, do some tactical planning. Review and update your calendar for the next month. Audit and update your tasks. Are there special events during the next month that will impact how much you can get done? Form realistic expectations.
Here’s a link to my Monthly Review and Planning template. This is pretty much the same as found in the Productivity Field Guide. Although I use this template in Obsidian, I made a copy in Craft to share it. Feel free to copy and paste it into your app of choice. Modify it so it works for you.
Review and Planning is Mandatory If You Want To Make Progress
Quarterly and monthly review and planning are what take you from theory to practice. It’s where the rubber meets the road and where you make progress in becoming a better person.
I can think of several times when I’ve learned about a new system that will help me be more productive, set it up, and promptly forget all about it. If you identify your roles, write your Arete, and fail to do quarterly and monthly planning, the same thing will happen to you.
Maybe it’s because I’m an old guy, but I need regular reminders to keep my roles and Arete in mind. Life is busy, and there are lots of distractions. Without regular reminders, we tend to forget.
My big “Why?” or purpose in life is to do the best job in each life role. I’ve written Arete statements that describe my understanding of the “best possible version of myself” in each role. To make progress on my Arete, I need quarterly and monthly review and planning sessions. You do, also.