4 Sprint Exercises to Conduct a Mid-Year Check-In
Focus to Get Back in the Arena
Mid-year is a good time to step back and determine how you want to approach the remainder of the year. We’re not advocating that during the summer pause you get extra busy and productive in the moment. On the contrary, it’s utilizing this time of pause to get clear on how you want to align your effort to your priorities. How you can prune to focus on what’s important.
What will motivate you to get back in the arena after your summer pause? What’s a goal you want to set for yourself? Where do you want to have impact? During this downtime, what intention do you want to set for yourself?
Here we offer 4 sprint exercises to conduct a Mid-Year Check-In.
Reflection and planning don’t have to take a ton of time. You’ll be amazed at the insights you can draw in a just 10 minutes, and, frankly, quick rounds of ideation help you not overthink conclusions and tap into your informed gut instincts.
To start, get yourself into the right frame of mind before each session (find the Set-Up instructions below at the bottom of the article). Then follow the outlined questions or statements below for each exercise. Try to keep yourself to a 10-minute time limit, not getting stuck and not over-thinking any of the questions.
#1 - Reflect
According to this Smarter Living article from The New York Times, one of the key factors of successful people is that they reflect on their performance. Take just 10 minutes to answer these questions to take in what’s taken shape so far this year, what you’ve accomplished, where you can improve, and what you’ve learned.
What’s happened so far this year? What are 1-3 key takeaways from the first two quarters? Answer where you’ve gone “From” and “To”?
What was supposed to happen that did happen? What was supposed to happen that didn’t happen? Why?
What are your top 3 accomplishments up to this point in the year? What are you most proud of?
What are 3 areas or projects that didn’t go so well so far this year? Where do you wish you did better?
Looking back at this mid-point, what did you learn? What surprised you? Where did you build a skillset or capability?
#2 - Envision
Now set your sights on the back half of 2020. Envision what you want to manifest in the remainder of the year, set your goals, and then immediately get into action. Ask yourself:
What 3 professional goals / objectives and associated key results do you want to realize in the remainder of the year? (As inspired by John Doerr and his thoughts on OKR’s.)
What 3 personal goals / objectives and associated key results do you want to realize by the end of the year?
Go back and note: Why is each of these goals important?
What is one immediate action you will take against each of these goals?
What is one action you will take within the next month?
When you have more time, create action plans against each goal.
#3 - Prune
Most people who are ambitious end up with too long of a to do list, professionally and personally, that lacks prioritization. Working harder and longer isn’t the answer. Rather, you need to take projects off the stage that don’t need to be there, re-focusing on what’s most important.
To prune, bring your current project list and answer:
What is on your list that you haven’t gotten to in over 3 months? Is it still important or can you knock it off the list completely?
If you had to prioritize 3 projects for each quarter for the back half of the year, would any of the projects on your list remain? Which ones? If not, consider cutting them, delegating them, or putting them on a “further evaluation” list.
Borrowing from the Farnam Street and the decision matrix featured here, look back at your list again and ask if any projects are inconsequential? What therefore should be cut? What can be delegated?
Close by determining your next action steps for getting non-priority projects off your list—kill it, delegate it, or delay it.
#4 - Optimize your time
The last session is focused on helping you identify ways to be more efficient with your time. You’ll determine ways that you can optimize your daily activities so you’re using your precious minutes on the most high impact and valuable activities that will help you reach your goals for the remainder of the year.
Consider:
What are regular activities that you could turn into a routine so that you don’t have to think about them daily? Instead, you just execute your routine quickly and efficiently. This could include your morning regimen, an exercise program, a way to get out of the office, how you handle coming home, and so on. Not wasting deliberating routines can save you time and mental energy.
What are parts of your day that you find irritating or have become time sucks? What could you shift to lessen, eliminate, or shift the irritation, even if it’s a reframing of the situation? What can you change about the time suck to get your time back?
Tony Robbins does a cold plunge each morning. It’s a way that he trains his brain to understand there’s no negotiation when he says to himself he’ll do something. If there’s intent, he follows through and doesn’t waste any time deliberating. What could be your cold plunge?
Content switching in your work can erode efficiency. How can you structure your work week to have more consistency in topics to use your time most efficiently?
Look at the ideas you’ve generated. What are the 3 most impactful ideas you have to drive efficiencies? Determine when you will start to implement them.
Close
Even if you don’t have time for all of these exercises, determine which ones would be most helpful for you to focus your energy for the remainder of the year and align your efforts to have the impact you want both professionally and personally.
Set-Up Instructions
Carve out time in the morning for a “strategy break.”
Plan to do your rapid strategy session in the morning when your mind is fresh. Research has shown that conscious, critical thinking takes a lot of energy. Our mental energy is finite, getting depleted throughout the day, so it’s best to do critical thinking when you are fresh.
Put yourself into an environment that will avoid distractions. We all think we can multi-task, but our brains really can’t juggle multiple thought processes at once. So, turn off your computer and phone, and put aside whatever will get in the way of you focusing your attention. Be sure to avoid getting sucked into energy draining and attention distracting activities like reading emails.
Quiet and clear your mind.
Start by writing down everything that is filling your brain at the moment like to do’s or random ideas and thoughts that are popping into your conscious. Capture them quickly on a piece of paper to get them off your mind.
Then, close your eyes. Get into your body. Put your hands in your lap and take 5 deep breaths focusing on each breath. Turn off your internal dialogue by focusing on the sounds around you. Take another 5 deep breaths and listen.
Start with the questions noted in the sessions above.
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