#559: Forget New Year’s Resolutions and Conduct a ‘Past Year Review’ Instead

Welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show http://tim.blog/podcast, where it is usually my job to deconstruct world-class performers to tease out the routines, habits, et cetera that you can apply to your own life. This is a special episode, and it is about how I approach New Year’s resolutions. The truth is that I no longer approach them at all, even though I did for decades. Why the change? I have found “past year reviews” (PYR) more informed, valuable, and actionable than half-blindly looking forward with broad resolutions. This episode outlines the step-by-step process. If you try it, let me know how it goes. And if you want to see the instructions in written form, visit tim.blog/pyr http://tim.blog/pyr Good luck and godspeed, everyone. * For show notes and past guests, please visit tim.blog/podcast https://tim.blog/podcast/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=podcast-description. Sign up for Tim’s email newsletter (“5-Bullet Friday”) at tim.blog/friday https://go.tim.blog/5-bullet-friday-1/. For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts http://tim.blog/transcripts. Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books http://tim.blog/books. Follow Tim: Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss https://twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferriss https://instagram.com/timferriss/ Facebook: facebook.com/timferriss https://www.facebook.com/TimFerriss/ YouTube: youtube.com/timferriss https://www.youtube.com/timferriss Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show http://tim.blog/podcast include Jerry Seinfeld https://tim.blog/2020/12/08/jerry-seinfeld/, Hugh Jackman https://tim.blog/2020/06/26/hugh-jackman/, Dr. Jane Goodall https://tim.blog/2020/04/16/jane-goodall/, LeBron James https://tim.blog/2018/11/27/lebron-james-mike-mancias/, Kevin Hart https://tim.blog/2020/05/20/kevin-hart/, Doris Kearns Goodwin https://tim.blog/2018/09/07/doris-kearns-goodwin-leadership/, Jamie Foxx https://tim.blog/2015/12/06/jamie-foxx/, Matthew McConaughey https://tim.blog/2020/10/19/matthew-mcconaughey/, Esther Perel https://tim.blog/2017/05/21/esther-perel/, Elizabeth Gilbert https://tim.blog/2020/05/08/elizabeth-gilbert/, Terry Crews https://tim.blog/2017/12/20/terry-crews-how-to-have-do-and-be-all-you-want/, Sia https://tim.blog/2020/08/12/sia/, Yuval Noah Harari https://tim.blog/2020/10/27/yuval-noah-harari/, Malcolm Gladwell https://tim.blog/2016/06/21/malcolm-gladwell/, Madeleine Albright https://tim.blog/2020/05/27/secretary-madeleine-albright/, Cheryl Strayed https://tim.blog/2017/03/30/cheryl-strayed/, Jim Collins https://tim.blog/2019/02/18/jim-collins/, Mary Karr, https://tim.blog/2020/11/11/mary-karr/ Maria Popova https://tim.blog/2014/10/21/brain-pickings/, Sam Harris https://tim.blog/2020/05/15/sam-harris-2/, Michael Phelps https://tim.blog/2021/01/21/michael-phelps-grant-hackett/, Bob Iger https://tim.blog/2020/01/16/bob-iger/, Edward Norton https://tim.blog/2019/10/31/edward-norton-motherless-brooklyn/, Arnold Schwarzenegger https://tim.blog/2015/02/02/arnold-schwarzenegger/, Neil Strauss https://tim.blog/2014/06/24/neil-strauss/, Ken Burns https://tim.blog/2019/09/12/ken-burns/, Maria Sharapova https://tim.blog/2017/08/26/maria-sharapova/, Marc Andreessen https://tim.blog/2016/05/29/marc-andreessen/, Neil Gaiman https://tim.blog/2019/03/28/neil-gaiman/, Neil de Grasse Tyson https://tim.blog/2019/10/03/neil-degrasse-tyson/, Jocko Willink https://tim.blog/2016/09/21/jocko-willink-on-discipline-leadership-and-overcoming-doubt/, Daniel Ek https://tim.blog/2020/12/03/daniel-ek/, Kelly Slater https://tim.blog/2020/09/08/kelly-slater/, Dr. Peter Attia https://tim.blog/2019/11/27/peter-attia-fasting-metformin-longevity/, Seth Godin https://tim.blog/2016/02/10/seth-godin/, Howard Marks https://tim.blog/2018/09/25/howard-marks/, Dr. Brené Brown https://tim.blog/2020/02/06/brene-brown-striving-self-acceptance-saving-marriages/, Eric Schmidt https://tim.blog/2019/04/09/eric-schmidt/, Michael Lewis https://tim.blog/2020/05/01/michael-lewis/, Joe Gebbia https://tim.blog/2018/03/08/joe-gebbia-co-founder-of-airbnb/, Michael Pollan https://tim.blog/2018/05/06/michael-pollan-how-to-change-your-mind/, Dr. Jordan Peterson https://tim.blog/2021/03/01/jordan-peterson/, Vince Vaughn https://tim.blog/2017/05/31/vince-vaughn/, Brian Koppelman https://tim.blog/2020/04/23/brian-koppelman/, Ramit Sethi https://tim.blog/2019/05/07/ramit-sethi/, Dax Shepard https://tim.blog/2020/11/18/dax-shepard/, Tony Robbins https://tim.blog/2014/10/15/money-master-the-game/, Jim Dethmer https://tim.blog/2020/05/18/jim-dethmer/, Dan Harris https://tim.blog/2020/11/19/dan-harris/, Ray Dalio https://tim.blog/2017/09/13/ray-dalio/, Naval Ravikant https://tim.blog/2015/08/18/the-evolutionary-angel-naval-ravikant/, Vitalik Buterin https://tim.blog/2021/03/08/vitalik-buterin-naval-ravikant/, Elizabeth Lesser https://tim.blog/2021/03/16/elizabeth-lesser/, Amanda Palmer https://tim.blog/2019/04/18/amanda-palmer-2/, Katie Haun https://tim.blog/2021/02/18/katie-haun/, Sir Richard Branson https://tim.blog/2017/10/09/richard-branson/, Chuck Palahniuk https://tim.blog/2020/09/02/chuck-palahniuk/, Arianna Huffington https://tim.blog/2017/10/18/arianna-huffington/, Reid Hoffman https://tim.blog/2015/08/31/the-oracle-of-silicon-valley-reid-hoffman-plus-michael-mccullough/, Bill Burr https://tim.blog/2017/09/17/bill-burr/, Whitney Cummings https://tim.blog/2015/06/26/whitney-cummings/, Rick Rubin https://tim.blog/2015/05/15/rick-rubin/, Dr. Vivek Murthy https://tim.blog/2020/03/26/vivek-murthy/, Darren Aronofsky https://tim.blog/2017/09/09/darren-aronofsky/, and many more. 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Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  At this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking.

• 0:06Speaker 01

  Can I ask you a personal question?

• 0:08Tim Ferriss?

  Now would be an inappropriate time.

• 0:12Speaker 01

  I'm a cybernetic organism, living tissue over metal endoskeleton.

• 0:24Tim Ferriss?

  Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs. This is Tim Ferriss. Welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show, where it is my job usually to deconstruct world-class performers of all different types, to tease out the routines, habits, etc., that you can apply to your own lives. This, however, is a special and short episode, and it's going to detail how I approach New Year's resolutions. The truth of the matter is that I no longer really approach them at all, even though I did for decades. Why the change? I have found that something I call "past year reviews," or PYR, to be more informed, valuable, and actionable than half-blindly looking forward with broad resolutions for the next year. I did my first PYR after

• 1:06Tim Ferriss?

  a mentor's young daughter died of cancer on December 31st, roughly 10 years ago. I remember the night very, very clearly. I got the news at a party and went to sit down by myself, and I sat with a notepad and by myself did my first past year review. I've done it every year since. Her passing was a very abrupt surprise. It was a somber reminder that our days here are too precious, also not guaranteed, by the way, they are too precious not to fill them with the people and activities that nourish us most. So that's the goal of doing this review. It doesn't take very long. Completing a past year review takes just 30 to 60 minutes,

• 1:49Tim Ferriss?

  and it looks something like this. Step number one: Grab a notepad and create two columns on a piece of paper, positive and negative, just a line right down the middle, positive on one side, negative on the other. Go through your calendar from the last year, looking at every week. I do this in iCal or Google Calendar. It's pretty easy to do. So go through every week, starting in January, from the last year. For each week, jot down on the notepad on that piece of paper... Any people or activities or commitments that triggered peak positive or negative emotions for that month, let's just say, I mean, it could be for the week, but broadly speaking, the month, this is not an exact science here. Put those things in their respective columns.

• 2:31Tim Ferriss?

  So something that really, really bothered you, say sort of nine out of 10 bothered you or eight out of 10 bothered you, put that in the negative. Eight out of 10 positive, nine out of 10 or 10 out of 10 positive, put that in the positive. Number four, step number four, once you've gone through the past year, look at your notepad list and ask, what 20% of each column produced the most reliable or powerful peaks? So you're doing an 80/20 analysis then of each of these columns that you'll have, positive and negative, to try to identify what is really producing disproportionately the most benefits and the most stress or negativity or, well, let's just call it challenging emotions, perhaps, if you want to put it that way.

• 3:15Tim Ferriss?

  Then step five, based on the answers, again, the question that we just answered is what 20% of each column produced the most reliable or powerful peaks? And step five, based on the answers, take your positive leaders and schedule more of them in the new year. You got to get them on the calendar now. That's my experience. Book things with friends, prepay for activities, events, commitments that you know work for you, exercise, whether it's rock climbing, who knows? Get more of it in the calendar, committed to. It's not real, in my experience, until it's scheduled. That's step number one. Step number two is to take your negative leaders and create a not to do list. At the top, right, so circle those things, put them somewhere that you can see them

• 3:56Tim Ferriss?

  each morning for the first few weeks of 2022, in this case, although it certainly can be used for any year. These are the people and things you know make you miserable or unhappy or stressed out, so don't put them on your calendar out of obligation, guilt, FOMO, or other nonsense. These are the things to avoid. And that's it. That is it. If you try it, please let me know how it goes. And just a reminder, it's not enough to simply remove the negative. That creates a void and the void will be filled by. All sorts of noise and other people will decide your schedule for you. So get the positive things on the calendar ASAP lest they get crowded out by all the BS,

• 4:36Tim Ferriss?

  all of the other kind of cool but not amazing things that will crop up and otherwise fill your days. So you've got to decide your schedule in advance, be proactive, or it will be decided for you. And if you want to see the instructions in written form for the past year review, just go to tim.blog/pyr. That's tim.blog/pyr. Good luck and Godspeed, everybody. Hey, guys. This is Tim again. Just one more thing before you take off, and that is Five Bullet Friday. Would you enjoy getting a short email from me every Friday that provides a little fun before the weekend? Between one and a half and two million people subscribe to my free newsletter, my super short newsletter called Five Bullet Friday. Easy to sign up, easy to cancel.

• 5:21Tim Ferriss?

  It is basically a half-page that I send out every Friday to share the coolest things I've found or discovered or have started exploring over that week. It's kind of like my diary of cool things. It often includes articles I'm reading, books I'm reading, albums perhaps, gadgets, gizmos, all sorts of tech tricks and so on that get sent to me by my friends, including a lot of podcast guests. And these strange esoteric things end up in my field, and then I test them, and then I share them with you. So if that sounds fun, again, it's very short, a little tiny bite of goodness before you head off for the weekend, something to think about. If you'd like to try it out, just go to tim.blog/friday. Type that into your browser, tim.blog/friday.

• 6:06Tim Ferriss?

  Drop in your email and you'll get the very next one. Thanks for listening.