Drowning in To-Do Lists? The 12-Week Hack That Changes Everything

Quick story: Last week I posted my Q2 business and creator goals on LinkedIn. Within 5 days, I landed and signed a paid brand partnership as a creator.

Wild, right? 🤯 But here's the thing - this wasn't just luck.

I've been sitting on something powerful that I need to share with you. It's completely transformed how I approach goals, and I think it could be a gamechanger for you too.

It's called the 12 Week Year, and it's exactly what it sounds like: treating 12 weeks as your entire year. But it's WAYYY more than just another productivity hack...

Today I'm breaking down exactly how I use it to achieve my creator AND business goals (plus sharing my exact execution template with you 👀).

🔍 The Problem with Annual Planning

We've all been there - setting ambitious New Year's resolutions only to forget them by February. The traditional annual planning cycle has three huge flaws (especially for busy professionals who wear multiple hats):

• It's too long to maintain urgency

• It's too distant to feel real

• It's too big to track effectively

💡 The Creator's Guide to The 12 Week Year

The premise is simple but powerful. Compress your annual goals into 12-week sprints. Here's what makes it work:

1. Urgency creates action. When you only have 12 weeks, you can't afford to wait until "next quarter." Every week matters, every single day counts.

2. Measurement drives performance. The system introduces a critical metric: your weekly execution score. Aim for 85% completion of your planned actions.

3. Strategic time blocking. The system introduces three essential time blocks:

   1. Strategic Blocks (3 hours of uninterrupted focus)

   2. Buffer Blocks (30-60 mins for low-priority tasks)

   3. Breakout Blocks (3 hours for just chillin’ - yep, you read that right)

📊 My Implementation Tracker

I've set up a simple but effective tracking system.

• Weekly planning template

• Execution scorecard

• Vision alignment check

🔑 The key thing here isn’t really in the planning process, it's in the measuring. I track my execution score weekly, which keeps me honest about what I'm actually accomplishing vs just planning.

🚀 Results I’ve Already Achieved with This System

Super transparently… since implementing the 12 Week Year, I've:

• 💰 Secured sponsors for Arena’s meetup events in NYC and Atlanta with some of the coolest sports, media & entertainment professionals in the industry.

• 🚀 Increased to 4,500 members on Arena with member working at top companies across leagues, teams, agencies, media orgs, brands, studios, streaming services, and more.

• 🤝 Locked in a new paid brand partnership as a creator on LinkedIn in just this past week alone.

• 🎤 Secured multiple speaking engagements and have been invited to, paid, and flown out to speak to senior level execs, athletes, students, and creators about personal branding, creator monetization, and career development.

  • Marcus Graham Project’s NBA Tour x Brooklyn Nets & Hennessy

• 🤳 Partnered and collabed with 3 conferences and dozens of events to create content covering the experience with 100s of decision-makers + trailblazers at:

  • Sports Innovation Forum in Washington D.C.

  • Sports Pro Media New York

  • Morning Brew’s Sports Marketing Playbook

• 📰 Hit 600K views and got featured in LinkedIn News “Workplace Stories” where I gave a quick tour of my WFH office here.

• 💼 Received DMs from recruiters about incredible job opportunities at Fortune 500 companies, brands, and super high growth startups - even though I haven’t been proactively searching.

📚 So ready to dive deeper? Grab "The 12 Week Year" here. It's literally changed how I approach both my creator journey, business growth, and life in general.

⚡️ How You Can Get Results ASAP

1. Share your Q2 goals on LinkedIn this week (here’s mine)

2. Tag me in your post so me and fellow ambitious professionals in my network can support you!

3. Read the 12 Week Year asap.

4. Download my Notion template here to get started and crush your goals! Candidly, because I really want you to win, if you only use this template without reading The 12 Week Year, you’re missing out on the key insights of understanding how/why/where/when you need to implement your goals to actually achieve them - and you may not see success with the template alone. I promise none of the book is “woo woo stuff.” Reading it in full really does make all the difference, so just a fair warning.

OKAY. That’s it for today. LET’S DO THE DANG THING 🤝

You got this,

Adriene

P.S. Seriously, share those goals and DM me on LinkedIn! Nothing makes them more real than putting them out there (and hey, you might land a new opportunity too 😉)

Note: Some links in this newsletter are affiliate links - if you use them, I may earn a commission (no extra cost to you). I only share tools I actually use and love.