Since April 1, 2023, I have started doing quarterly reviews and planning my life. You shall be familiar with this format for those who have done quarterly planning at work. Following is the template I use, feel free to tweak it to your preference:
- Review your top 3 aspirations for the past 3 months, did you achieve them? If not, why?
- What were the top 3 big wins of the past 3 months and why?
- What were the 3 biggest challenges, and what did you learn from them?
- 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?
Note that it doesn’t always have to be three things; you can change the number yourself as your life experiences differ.
Update from my Q3 2024 aspiration
- Plan out my 5-year PM career plan (✅10/10). I have made my decision on MBA and finalised my next step in PM career.
- Learned how to code web using Flutter (❌1/10). Again, I overestimated myself as I did not have time to learn web development. I downloaded the tool and started on the first page only.
- Create 2 new digital products for Wondefull (✅7/10). I created 526 Journal Prompts Daily Journal, and I’m now at 50% progress for my second product, hand-drawn digital stickers.
- Write 6 blog articles in the next quarter (✅10/10). I’m happy to keep this on track.
- Complete weekly workout goal to earn AIA cashback program (✅7/10). This is an ongoing goal, as the program runs for two years, from January 2024 to January 2026. I’ve decided to cut myself some slack because the cardio intensity required to meet this goal is quite demanding. Instead, I prefer doing low-impact workouts like yoga to prioritize my mental well-being.
Top Wins in Last Quarter and Why
- Found a new job. I managed to find a new product manager job that offers the role I want, along with a satisfactory salary increase. Although it isn’t the overseas job I was looking for, I believe it can provide me with the experience and skills I need for my next employment search.
- Growth in my financial investment. I managed to reach 20% return YTD (including unrealised return) in stock investment. In next quarter, I want to put in more time in learning investment.
- Gave myself a one-month career break. I’m so glad I insisted on postponing the start date of my new job to allow for proper rest. During this time, I did quite a few things, like a trip to China with my girlfriends, a Bali trip with my partner, read five books, published three blog articles, completed my first artistic photoshoot, and picked up yoga as a regular habit again. It was a wonderful period where I also experienced breakthroughs in my personal and spiritual development.
- Fix my skin condition. Somehow my face got irritated easily and it appeared bumpy. I suspected it was due to the facial treatments and also my changing facial routine. Luckily, I went to a skin doctor and my skin immediately improved by just prescribed creams.
Top Biggest Challenges and What I Learned from Them
- Emotional outburst due to the things outside my control. Ngl I worried too much about things I cannot control and all the mental work ended up working against myself. It affected my mood and my relationship with others. I’ve been aware of this pattern since I was young and have worked consistently to manage it. Still, a major outburst happened again in October. Thankfully, yoga, chakra healing, and books helped me regain balance and overcome it.
Top Aspirations for the Next 3 Months
- My surrender experiment. Inspired by Michael A. Singer‘s The Surrender Experiment, I promise to follow the flow of life to improve my well-being and quality of life. I will remove my preferences when I’m responding to external situation. And I will keep track of my progress.
- Practice yoga 1x weekly. I’m looking forward to the body, mind, and soul connection through yoga and meditation that follows.
- Achieved goals set for my new job.
- foster good relationships with people, know their personality and motivation
- understand the product and processes
- come up with initiatives and improvements and deliver them effectively
- Finished Piranha Profit course. I bought quite a number of courses and I’m aiming to complete the value investing course and learned how to calculate company intrinsic value.
- Create 2 new Wondefull producst. Probably a weekly journal and digital sticker set.
- Write 9 blog articles. It is a stretched goal, but finishing 20 manifestation-related articles by 2024 will help me assess whether blogging is something I want to focus on in 2025. If the results are not great, I am thinking of switching my focus to social media.
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