You are a product of your environment. If you want to eat healthier, but your counter is covered in cookies, you will eventually eat a cookie. If you want to do deep work, but your phone is sitting next to your keyboard, you will eventually check your phone. Willpower is a losing game; Environment Design is a winning …

We are conditioned to believe that more is better. We think that to be more successful, we need to add more projects, more habits, and more commitments. But usually, the secret to a designed year isn't addition — it's subtraction. As Jim Collins famously said, "A 'Stop Doing' list is more importan…

We’ve all been there: we decide we’re going to start a new habit (meditating, journaling, or drinking more water) and we rely on "Willpower" to make it happen. But willpower is a finite resource. It’s like a phone battery; it drains throughout the day. By the time you get home from a long day of work, your &…

Most people live their lives in "Reactive Mode." They wake up, check their emails, and spend the rest of the day putting out other people's fires. By the time 5:00 PM rolls around, they are exhausted, but they haven't touched their own North Star goals. Today, we are flipping the script. We are movin…

January doesn’t wait for you to have it all together. I learned that the hard way this week. Between two out of my three kids being sick and our family schedules being tossed out the window, there were a few moments where I almost convinced myself it was pointless to try and "design" a year. Almost . When th…

We’ve spent the last few days mapping out your year in seasons. You’ve identified your "Vital Few" and you’ve visualized your dashboards for Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn. But here is where most people get stuck: they set a goal like "I want to grow my business" or "I want to feel more en…

Most people quit their goals in July. The "Summer Slump" is a real phenomenon; the sun is out, the routine shifts, and the high-octane energy of January feels like a distant memory. In a Designed Year, however, Summer isn't where we quit; it’s where we sustain. And Autumn? Autumn is where we "harves…

We have pruned the list and shortened the timeline. Now, it’s time to build the dashboards for the first half of your year. The first six months of 2026 are about momentum. If you get the first half right, the second half almost takes care of itself. We categorize these into two distinct energies: Winter (The Soil) an…