My Quarterly Planning For Q4’25: Surrender Welcomes Opportunities

It’s quarter packed with life-changing lessons! Before unpacking it, feel free to read my past entries here since April 2023. Here’s the quarterly planning template I use; you may adapt it however suits your season of life:

1. Review your top 3 aspirations for the past 3 months. Did you achieve them? If not, why?
2. What were the top 3 big wins of the past 3 months and why?
3. What were the 3 biggest challenges, and what did you learn from them?
4. What are the top 3 aspirations for the coming 3 months? And what’s the biggest risk they might not happen? And what are you going to do to mitigate that risk?

You don’t always have to list three things; you can change the number yourself as your life experiences differ.

To help achieve my goals, I used a 13-week year Google Sheets template (based on the 12-week year method) to set up my goals, track progress, and reflect. (I created the template, and you can purchase it here) So far, it has improved my focus and results drastically. Here’s my snapshot for this quarter.

Q2 2025 Reflections

1. My 1-year surrender experiment till Sept 2025 (contd).  (✅10/10) Finally it has ended! I always forgot to document the journey, but in overall I do feel that I wasn’t as uptight and easily annoyed as before. For example, the fear as an introvert lost its power and I said yes to more gatherings compared to pre-experiment period.
   This experiment ended with an amazing event which is vipassana. I didn’t even check the itinerary and decided to surrender and went it. It turned out to be the best investment I had made for myself. Through the course, I learned the ancient Buddha meditation practice that helped me a lot with emotion management.
2. Wrote 8 articles. (✅10/10) Thanks to the n8n workflow I set up, it improved my article writing and I published 9 including this one in the quarter.
3. Workout 5x a week, must have leg day/running each week. (✅7/10) My goal is to reach 50kg, and my current weight fluctuates between 50.5 and 52.5kg. I did complete a 20km by the end of September at a pace of 9.3 instead of my goal 8.50. Although I did not work out 5x a week due to trips and sickness, I’m happy that I’m more active than in the previous quarter.
4. Create 3 AI projects. (❌0/10) I only improved the existing AI workflows. I realized that not everything requires automation or workflow. No use case, no new projects. Haha.
5. [Extra] Control my screen time to 5 hours/day. (❌1/10) I only managed to reach the goal in the first two weeks, then it’s thrown out of the window.
6. [Extra] Reduce cholesterol from 6.11 to 5.0. (✅8/10) I successfully reduced it to 5.3. I think the main contributors are my home-cooked low calorie dinners at home from Monday to Thursday every week and more consistent workout.

Top Wins in Last Quarter and Why

1. Wondefull traffic reached the highest monthly traffic. Finally! I had been writing articles on and off but once I’m able to generate quality content more consistently, I see the growth in traffic.
2. Big step forward in emotional resilience through vipassana . I did not expect the 10-day meditation course would transform my life profoundly.
   Now I practice 20 mins vipassana every morning to help me get ready and navigate the day with wisdom and compassion. Honestly, I think my productivity is boosted and my relationships have improved.
   Read more: Silent But Powerful: My Vipassana Meditation Experience in 10 Days
3. US investment reached all-time high. After experiencing the market crash early this year, my portfolio had recovered. I learned from two key mistakes: Don’t panic sell and avoid shorting. By recaliberating it to value investing, I developed patience and calmness to generate decent return in the market. Of course, it’s a bull market now anyway~

Top Biggest Challenges & Lessons Learned

1. Managing emotions at the end of my last job. Toward the end of my tenure, some people at work became increasingly toxic. I felt even more upset knowing I couldn’t call out their inappropriate behavior.s Looking back, I’m proud I chose to go for a Vipassana course as a detox before stepping into my new role.
2. Discipline in marathon training. I’m running my first full marathon this October, but my training hasn’t been enough. I only did 18 runs between April and September. Honestly, it was not fun; long-distance runs leave my body sore and painful.
   Still, I hope to finish the marathon and achieve my goal of completing a full marathon before turning 30. I definitely wouldn’t want to put myself through this training again!
3. Side income is hard work. I spent the many hours on working Wondefull new products yet the sales plummeted. I’ve learned that no solution works forever, you have to keep experimenting different methods and evolving.

My Aspirations for Q3 2025

1. Vipassana every day. 20 mins on weekdays and 30 mins on weekends.
2. Complete my first marathon. The marathon takes place on 5th October. I hope I can reach this goal, so that I don’t have to train for it again next year!
3. Wrote 8 articles. The same goal as the previous quarter.
4. Create 6 social media posts. Trying to revive the Instagram for Wondefull to attract blog traffic and sales.
5. Workout 3x a week in the gym, with 1x cardio each week. I want to reduce my weight to 48kg.
6. [Extra] Enjoy my Japan trip in November.

My Favorite Tool for Quarterly Planning

Inspired by 12 Week Year book, I made a 12-week goal planner Google Sheets template to help with my own time management, reflection, and motivation—and it’s been a game changer! It even comes with a 13-week version for extra flexibility. If you’re into planning and staying organized, you can check it out here or on Etsy! 😊

💌 Your Turn: Quarterly Planning

If you’re craving clarity, give this quarterly planning method a try!

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