{"id":29245,"date":"2021-03-24T14:19:20","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T18:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=29245"},"modified":"2021-03-28T09:27:29","modified_gmt":"2021-03-28T13:27:29","slug":"the-12-week-year-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-12-week-year-book\/","title":{"rendered":"The 12 Week Year: Book About Getting Things Done"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is <em>The 12 Week Year<\/em> book about? How do the authors challenge the annualized goal-setting approach? What alternative do they propose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In <em>The 12 Week<\/em> <em>Year<\/em>, the book&#8217;s authors challenge the conventional approach to goal setting and execution that is based on annualized thinking\u2014where execution plans are aimed at attaining yearly results. Further, they propose an alternative approach that is based on the principle of periodization\u2014 achieving yearly results within a three-month timeframe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to understand the premise behind Brian Moran and Michael Lennington&#8217;s book <em>The 12 Week Year<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>The 12 Week Year<\/em>: Book Premise <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In your personal and professional lives, you tend to set goals based on an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/annual-goal\/\">annual plan<\/a> of attack. New Year\u2019s resolutions begin in January and aim to create the desired change by the end of the year. Likewise, organizations set productive goals annually and tend to do annual reviews of their progress. This view is called \u201cannualized thinking\u201d and actually hinders your progress.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the New York bestselling book <em>The 12 Week Year<\/em>, Brian Moran and Michael Lennington challenge the traditional annualized approach and offer a better alternative based on the principle of periodization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Periodization: Fast Track to Success<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When you embrace periodization, you change your long-term year-long plans of attack to shorter periods focused on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-more-is-less\/\">maximizing<\/a> one important skill at a time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you truncate your annualized plan into three months, your deadline is always in sight, so you lose the mantra of \u201cthere\u2019s still plenty of time\u201d and get busy immediately. If you have a slow week, you might be able to make it up the following week, but you know you can\u2019t have too many bad weeks if you\u2019re going to be successful at the end of 12 weeks. This mindset makes every day important and the need to produce results every week vital.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The other benefit of the 12-week year is the relaxation and celebration you look forward to after all your hard work. You now have four opportunities to reflect on your achievements and take a few days off to recharge. And when you come back, you have a fresh slate to begin another 12 weeks of heightened activity. If your first 12 weeks didn\u2019t work out as you\u2019d hoped, you don\u2019t have to wait another year to see whether you\u2019ve improved. The next 12 weeks are an immediate opportunity to attain better results or build on the momentum of your previous success.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is The 12 Week Year book about? How do the authors challenge the annualized goal-setting approach? What alternative do they propose? In The 12 Week Year, the book&#8217;s authors challenge the conventional approach to goal setting and execution that is based on annualized thinking\u2014where execution plans are aimed at attaining yearly results. Further, they propose an alternative approach that is based on the principle of periodization\u2014 achieving yearly results within a three-month timeframe. Keep reading to understand the premise behind Brian Moran and Michael Lennington&#8217;s book The 12 Week Year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":29491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,45,43],"tags":[235],"class_list":["post-29245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-business","category-self-improvement","tag-the-12-week-year","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The 12 Week Year: Book About Getting Things Done - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Is there a fast track to success? In the book The 12 Week Year, the authors explain how to achieve yearly goals within a 12-week timeframe.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-12-week-year-book\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The 12 Week Year: Book About Getting Things Done\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Is there a fast track to success? In the book The 12 Week Year, the authors explain how to achieve yearly goals within a 12-week timeframe.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-12-week-year-book\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-24T18:19:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-03-28T13:27:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/productivity-efficiency-execution-planning.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-12-week-year-book\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-12-week-year-book\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"The 12 Week Year: Book About Getting Things Done\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-24T18:19:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-28T13:27:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-12-week-year-book\/\"},\"wordCount\":418,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-12-week-year-book\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/productivity-efficiency-execution-planning.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The 12 Week Year\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Books\",\"Business\",\"Self-Improvement\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-12-week-year-book\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-12-week-year-book\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-12-week-year-book\/\",\"name\":\"The 12 Week Year: Book About Getting Things Done - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-12-week-year-book\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-12-week-year-book\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/productivity-efficiency-execution-planning.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-24T18:19:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-28T13:27:29+00:00\",\"description\":\"Is there a fast track to success? 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