How I plan my year (after ruthlessly simplifying the process for 5 years)

Every January, I have a tradition. I rent a small cottage in the middle of the Czech Republic (hotel Kouty, absolutely amazing place), disconnect from everything, and spend a weekend reflecting on the past year and thinking about the year ahead.

This year was my fifth time doing it. And I’ve finally found a system that works.

In the past, I always thought I had to get the most out of the weekend. I came prepared with pages of questions, various planning frameworks and templates. I would spend hours filling them out, setting quarterly goals, and creating elaborate tracking systems. I came back home with a plan and felt productive, but also tired and overwhelmed. Most of it was abandoned by February.

So each year, I simplified.

I ruthlessly cut what didn’t work and intentionally did less. And after 5 years, I ended up with something I can actually stick to. A process that’s more about thinking than filling out templates.

This year, I went with 3 priorities for the weekend:

1. Reflect – Look back at the past year. What worked and what didn’t? What gave me energy?
2. Relax – Rest and chill. I deliberately scheduled most of my Saturday to do nothing. But as you’ll see, this is the most productive part of the entire process.
3. Realign – Check my direction. See what’s important, where I’m heading. Return home with energy and clarity.

Reflection is where the weekend starts, though this time I started earlier during Christmas vacation. I went over my notes from the year to see what resonated with me — wins and failures, repeating patterns, etc. By the time I arrived at the offsite on Friday evening, I just needed to wrap it up.

I use Bullet Journal as the main source (previously I tracked most of this in Notion). Throughout the year, I capture events, tasks, and notes. At the end of each month, I review and write down the key stories, ideas, and lessons. This ongoing practice makes the yearly reflection much easier — I’m not trying to remember twelve months of life from scratch.

Some of the questions I ask myself:

• What were my biggest achievements and key events?
• What went well this year?
• What didn’t work?
• What gave me energy?
• What drained me?
• What am I grateful for?

I don’t overthink this part. The goal is to get an honest picture of the year, not to write down every single detail. You can see the complete list of questions in my Notion template.

On Saturday morning, I thought about the year ahead. Not about specific goals, but the general direction. What do I want to do (in my career or as a hobby)? What changes would make my life better? How can I support my family? Where do I want to steer my career? I wrote whatever came to mind. Questions, ideas, half-formed thoughts. I didn’t try to structure it too much at this point, just bullet points.

I also did a personal SWOT analysis. I don’t do it every year, but it’s useful when I feel stuck or when I’m considering bigger changes (like AI taking over the world). Another great tool for this purpose is Ikigai.

That was it for most of the day.

The relaxing part started with a late and long breakfast (hotel breakfasts are the best). I didn’t have any specific plans. A walk in the snowy countryside. Sat on the couch, enjoyed the silence, the view, and good wine. Sauna in the afternoon.

Doesn’t sound like hard work, right? At first I just relaxed and enjoyed myself. It didn’t take long for my mind to get calm and bored. And silence and a bored mind are the best tools for thinking. I tried calm music on Friday but got irritated and turned it off — I enjoyed the silence more.

I let my mind wander across the topics I had set in the morning. This sounds almost too simple, but it’s the part that matters most. Things that felt unclear suddenly made sense. A lot of really cool ideas came to me during this time — things I’m keen on trying out during the year. Interesting connections, realizations about my life, possible directions, and more. And I took notes.

A lot of notes.

In the evening, I sat down again and wrote more concrete things. Not detailed goals, but themes and priorities. A few specific projects I wanted to tackle. Systems I wanted to put in place.

Sunday morning was for wrapping up. I reviewed what I wrote on Saturday, what I wanted to focus on this year, and created specific goals from that.

One of the biggest changes in my approach was shifting from specific goals to systems and processes.

A few years ago, I would set goals like “Write 8 blog posts this year.” Sounds concrete and measurable (and it is). But goals like this often don’t work. At least they don’t for me. By March, I’d be behind schedule and feeling guilty about it.

Now I think about it differently. Instead of “Write 8 blog posts”, I commit to a process: two hours a week dedicated to writing. The output takes care of itself. Some weeks I make great progress, some weeks I don’t. But the system keeps me moving forward. I focus on how to make progress, not just what to achieve.

Setting goals is the easy part. The hard part is figuring out how to actually make progress (I do admit that years of experience as a scout leader and leadership instructor help).

Most people (and companies) get stuck there. They write down what they want to achieve, attach unrealistic deadlines, and call it a yearly plan.

That’s where systems come in. It’s not enough to say “I will write more.” You need to figure out how to make it happen. And that’s where I focus most of my energy during the planning weekend.

What does a system look like in practice?

• A fixed schedule for writing (two hours every Saturday morning, or in my case 30 minutes in the morning before kids wake up)
• Arranging time with my wife so I can focus on side projects
• Rules I commit to follow (no computers or phones after 21:30)
• A process for tracking interesting conferences and submitting talks to each one

This shift made planning feel lighter. I’m not setting myself up for failure with arbitrary targets. I’m building habits that compound over time.

Over the years, I’ve tried many tools. Here’s what works (or has worked) well for me:

• My yearly review Notion template – This is what I use these days (last 2 years). Year Compass is a great tool, but too verbose for me. So I have created my own condensed version. Just the essential and relevant questions. It fits on a few pages, which makes it easy to review throughout the year. I also added a few questions from other sources.
• Year Compass – I used this for the first few years. It’s a free booklet with reflection questions and planning prompts. Well-designed, but I found it too long and verbose. And some questions weren’t that relevant to me.
• Set of questions from Daniel Gamrot – These are great questions when thinking about your life and where to steer it. It’s in Czech, but translating it with AI shouldn’t be a problem these days.
• Yearly review from Dickie Bush and Nicolas Cole – You have to add your email to get access, but it’s worth it. I took a bunch of questions from there for my review as well.
• Questions from FS.blog – Another source of great questions if you want to dive deep. Same as above, you will need to provide your email for this one (but you should read the FS.blog newsletter anyway).
• Bullet Journal – For tracking daily and weekly progress. Nothing fancy — just a simple notebook where I capture events, tasks, and notes. At the end of each month, I review and synthesize the key stories. This is the foundation for my yearly reflection.
• Pen and paper – For the weekend itself, I prefer writing by hand. It’s slower, which is good. It forces me to think before I write.

Equally important is what I stopped doing:

• Questions that weren’t relevant
• Too many goals – we have a tendency to overestimate our free time and underestimate how long something takes. This is another common mistake when planning. I used to have many goals. Now I usually stick to 1-3 big yearly goals.
• Detailed quarterly goals – Too rigid. Life changes too fast.
• Elaborate tracking systems – I spent more time maintaining them than benefiting from them. I now only track what really brings me value.
• Multiple planning frameworks – Combining different methodologies just created confusion.

The pattern is clear: anything that required ongoing maintenance got cut. The best system is one you actually use.

I’m not saying my approach is the right one for everyone. But if you’ve struggled with yearly planning — if you’ve set goals in January that felt irrelevant by March — maybe the answer isn’t a better framework. Maybe it’s simplification.

Find a way to give yourself uninterrupted time to think. Remove the inputs. Let your mind wander. See what surfaces.

You might be surprised how much clarity comes from doing less.