How to plan your year in 3 steps
Keys to use your time intentionally and effectively
🏷️ Categories: Time management, Software.
I have been trying for years to find the best way to manage my time, looking for a bit of order in the chaos. Knowing how to manage our time is one of the most valuable skills we can develop. If you think about it, time inevitably passes and we often don't have time to do all the things we would like to do. Managing time well is more than just scratching out a few extra minutes to be more productive, it means using our time intentionally and effectively on the things we love.
Some time ago I used the Seinfeld method to develop the habit of writing every day. The method is habit-forming, but it has one aspect that radically changed the way I view the passage of time.
I'm talking about the full view of the year.
I had never seen my time so clearly.
It made me realize how fast time goes by, sometimes without us even realizing it. The reality is that this is not the view we usually have of time. If you use Google Calendar or something like that, you are always looking at the monthly or weekly view and if you use a physical calendar, you just flip through the pages month after month without really seeing what an entire year looks like. We live in 30-day cycles, that's the typical horizon.
So this December I decided to do a version of this Seinfeld method view digitally to plan my year simply with Google Calendar. To do this, I will use 3 views of the application: yearly, monthly and daily.
1. Annual planning
This bird's eye view helps us see what the whole year will look like.
Ideal for dividing time efficiently into routines, habits, trips, appointments, deadlines or vacations without getting overwhelmed by everything that's coming up. As new plans arise, just place them in the days off and you'll have everything under control.
This allows you to see the whole year as a continuum and not fixate on the short term.
In addition, you can use it to anticipate. If you know your pace, you will know how long it will take you to reach your goals. For example, my writing pace lets me know precisely how long it takes me to write an article, so I could know what month in 2025 I will have written 300 articles in Substack and how long it will take me to get there.
If you do this with every predictable area of your life, you'll be able to balance short-term tasks and reserve space for your long-term personal goals.
This is where we draw a detailed plan.
To do this, make time blocks in Google Calendar using the weekly view for your tasks, habits and set aside time for the projects you want to accomplish in the year. If you have already reflected all the predictable aspects, you will already have in the weekly view some time occupied each day of the year with tasks such as writing, reading, doing sports, etc.
I recommend you use a few minutes every Sunday to review your goals and think:
What annual goals can I make progress on next week?
What tasks or projects need immediate attention?
What commitments are coming up this week (meetings, appointments, etc.)?
Do this each week to juggle your habits and responsibilities with long-term goals. If you don't, you'll end up prioritizing the most urgent things and never set aside time for long-term projects that never come.
Define your priorities: Combine your long-term goals with immediate tasks. For example, make progress on the book you've been thinking about for years and write a report for the next meeting. The key is to take advantage of the gaps in your free time each week to move those personal projects forward.
Reserve time for the unexpected: Leave time for the unexpected and don't fill up until the last minute, otherwise you will be falling into the fallacy of planning. If you don't use that time in the end, use it to make even more progress on personal projects.
Group similar tasks: Most people work without order and that leads to lose concentration and take longer. A good example of grouping is to answer emails for an hour instead of leaving what you are doing to answer when you receive them. That saves much more time than you imagine.
In the end, your time blocks would have to look something like this:
3. Daily planning
Before you start your day, review your week and see if any unforeseen events have arisen. For example, if you planned to write an article on Monday but an urgent meeting came up, move your block to another time or slot in later days. Whenever something comes up that might derail your plan, go to Google Calendar and give it a quick reset.
Something like this:
Prioritize deep work: Dedicate blocks of time, ideally in the morning or when you have more energy, to tasks that require concentration and creativity. These “deep work” tasks are the ones that really generate long-term value. Avoid any kind of interruption during these periods.
Be realistic: You will almost never take as long as you think you will, so I recommend you always give extra time to tasks, otherwise you will get more stressed.
Include personal time: Make sure you block some time for yourself: sports, reading or family time. Otherwise, work ends up absorbing all your time.
At first, this technique may seem rigid, but it is ridiculously effective.
The key is to use it to take control of our time. If something unexpected comes up, it's okay to move blocks or priorities around, as long as you keep the focus on what's important. It's like having the superpower to control time.
In addition, the annual, weekly and daily vision will allow you to have the satisfaction of working intentionally and see how each day counts towards your future goals.
Time doesn't come back, but you can decide how to live it.
✍️ Your turn: How do you plan to organize your year 2025?
💭 Quote of the day: “We all know that an hour can seem like an eternity or pass in a breath, depending on how we spend it.” Michael Ende, Momo.
See you next time! 👋
References 📚
Newport, C. (2016). Deep work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.