Notion Office Hours: Planning for Next Year đź“…
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Start with a yearly review that connects values, commitments, goals, milestones, projects, and daily journal entries so reflection can roll forward into planning.
Briefing
Planning for next year starts with a structured yearly review—then turns reflection into actionable projects through connected databases, rollups, and recurring review rituals. The core message is that outcomes matter less than the process: using Notion to look back honestly (including what didn’t happen) creates better forecasting for what to attempt next, especially when uncertainty makes full-year plans unreliable.
A central part of the workflow is a “review dashboard” that pulls together multiple databases into one place: a North Star/values area for visible anchors, commitments for recurring intentions, and a goals database filtered to the year being reviewed. From there, the system zooms in and out across time—year → quarter → month → week → daily journal—because each layer is connected. Goals are tracked with completion and progress (often target vs. current), while milestones sit under goals via relations. Projects act as the operational layer: they’re the buckets of work that carry tasks and milestones toward a goal, making it easier to see what was actually done, what stalled, and why.
The review isn’t treated as a judgment exercise. Instead, it becomes a diagnostic tool. When a goal like “launch a coaching program” doesn’t complete, the dashboard helps identify missing inputs such as unclear dates, insufficient milestone breakdown, or missing “why this matters” and obstacle planning. The result is a practical lesson: goals get postponed when intention and decomposition aren’t explicit enough.
The session also emphasizes repurposing data into planning. Content produced during the year is filtered and counted (including social posts and YouTube/blog output), then used to inform future priorities. A “word of the year” and reflection prompts—sourced from Susannah Conway’s “Unravel Your Year”—are embedded into the yearly database so the same questions can be answered consistently each cycle. Daily journal entries roll up into weekly and monthly views, letting highs, lows, wins, gratitude, and challenges inform next-quarter decisions.
For forward planning, the approach favors quarters and a 12-week rhythm over a rigid full-year plan. The system uses templates and pre-filtered “new quarter/new month” pages so planning begins with the right context and automatically surfaces relevant projects. Projects are managed through an “energy” lens (inspired by Scott Belski’s “Making Ideas Happen”), distinguishing the attention a project demands from the brain effort required for deep work. Weekly review becomes the operational heartbeat: priorities are reevaluated every week, tasks are sorted by project energy, and clutter is reduced by filtering out idle items.
Finally, the workflow is presented as iterative and personal—messy in places, improved over time, and designed to match how one’s brain works. The takeaway is not to copy a perfect setup, but to treat planning itself as a learnable system: reflect deeply, break work into milestones and projects, review on a cadence, and anchor decisions to values and commitments when uncertainty shifts the plan.
Cornell Notes
The planning system centers on a yearly review that feeds directly into next-year execution. Reflection is organized through connected Notion databases—values/anchors, commitments, goals, milestones, projects, and a daily journal—so the user can zoom from year to quarter to week while keeping context. The review uses prompts (notably from Susannah Conway’s “Unravel Your Year”) to identify what went well, what surprised, what challenged, and what to forecast for the next cycle. Goals are treated as high-level intentions, while projects and milestones provide the operational “rubber meets the road” breakdown. Planning is then run on a 12-week/quarter cadence with weekly reviews that re-rank priorities using an “energy” and “brain effort” framework.
How does the yearly review turn into better planning instead of just producing a retrospective?
What’s the practical difference between goals, milestones, and projects in this system?
Why does the system prefer quarters/12-week planning over a full-year plan?
How does “energy” change weekly execution?
What role do embedded reflection prompts and templates play?
How does the system reduce overwhelm when there are many active items?
Review Questions
- When a goal didn’t complete, what specific missing elements does the system treat as likely causes (and how would you correct them next cycle)?
- How do energy and brain effort differ, and how does that distinction affect what gets scheduled in a week?
- What connected layers (year → quarter → month → week → daily journal) must be in place for rollups and forecasting to work?
Key Points
- 1
Start with a yearly review that connects values, commitments, goals, milestones, projects, and daily journal entries so reflection can roll forward into planning.
- 2
Treat goals as high-level intentions, while milestones and projects provide the operational breakdown needed to actually execute work.
- 3
Use time-based zooming (year/quarter/month/week) through relations and rollups so the same data can be viewed at different planning horizons.
- 4
Plan in 12-week/quarter cycles rather than rigid full-year plans to stay realistic under uncertainty.
- 5
Run weekly reviews as the priority-recalibration step, filtering tasks by project energy to reduce clutter and focus on the “win the day.”
- 6
Embed consistent reflection prompts (e.g., from Susannah Conway’s “Unravel Your Year”) into the yearly workflow to make forecasting repeatable.
- 7
Design the system to match personal brain preferences—templates, dashboards, and even “messy” iterations are part of building a workable planning muscle.