Short Summary
We will go over why you need a 12-week year template, how to choose one, and, of course, which ones are the best, both in digital and physical formats. There is a video tutorial/review for (almost) and a link to each template, which is why I recommend reading till the end. A well-designed template doesn’t just organize your tasks; it becomes a supporting partner in your success in reaching your full potential. Let’s dive in.
Introduction
Hi, my name is Dan Mintz, and I’m the creator of the 12-Week Breakthrough program. In addition to helping dozens of individuals reach their full potential using the 12-Week Year system, I have used, created, and tested many 12-Week Year templates. I will list what are the best templates, and what are the best criteria to use when deciding on one. I am not going to delve here into what is the 12-Week Year system. You can check our blog for an in-depth analysis of what it is, how to use it, and how to achieve your most ambitious goals with this system.
Why Use a Template with the 12-Week Year System?
In my experience, there are three main reasons to use a template:
- Structured Guidance: This system is not simple and has multiple parts that need to work together as a holistic whole. A good structured 12-week year template will increase the odds that you will go through all the necessary parts and steps. For example, the performance measurement part requires careful scorekeeping and having a well-structured template helps guide you through the process.
- Reduced Decision Fatigue: There are numerous decisions you need to take when you are executing your 12-week year system: short and long-term goals, which actions to take when and how progress tracking metrics and more. A structured template supports this process and reduces the amount of time you will need to make all these decisions.
- Consistent Execution: One of the core principles of the 12-Week Year system is consistent execution. Using a structured template that clearly lists all your planned actions, when to execute them, and how to measure your performance is essential.
What Should We Look for in a Template and Why?
A solid 12-Week Year template should have the following components that best support your ability to execute your plan effectively. These components align closely with the core elements of the 12-Week Year system: vision, planning, process control, measurement, time use, accountability, commitment, and execution. Here’s what to look for and why each element matters:
1. Alignment with Vision and Goals
A strong template begins with sections that help you define and clarify your long-term vision, mid-term goals, and specific 12-week objectives. This ensures that your daily and weekly actions are directly tied to your broader purpose.
Why It Matters:
- Clarity of Purpose: A well-defined vision provides motivation and direction, keeping you engaged even during challenging moments.
- Goal-Driven Actions: By aligning tasks with overarching goals, you ensure every effort contributes to meaningful outcomes.
2. Weekly and Daily Planning Frameworks
A good template includes dedicated sections for breaking down your 12-week goals into weekly and daily actions. These should help you prioritize high-impact tasks and eliminate distractions.
Why It Matters:
- Focused Execution: You want your planned weekly actions to be clearly aligned with your goals and that their execution gets you closer to achieving them.
3. Tools for Tracking Your Performance
Your template should have built-in trackers for both lead indicators (actions you take) and lag indicators (results of those actions). For example:
- Lead indicators: Number of sales calls made, hours spent working out, or pages written.
- Lag indicators: Revenue generated, weight lost, or books completed.
Why It Matters:
- Action-Based Feedback: Tracking lead indicators keeps you focused on actions within your control.
- Outcome-Based Insights: Lag indicators help you measure the effectiveness of your efforts and adjust as needed.
4. Space for Accountability and Reflection
Look for templates with sections for accountability check-ins and self-reflection. This could include:
- A scorecard for weekly execution.
- Sections where you can write & reflect about what worked, what didn’t, and adjustments you need to make.
Why It Matters:
- Improved Self-Awareness: Your self-reflection helps identify weaknesses in your execution, strengths, and areas for improvement.
- Momentum Building: Accountability fosters commitment and keeps you on track.
5. Time Blocking and Scheduling
Time management is crucial in the 12-Week Year system, so templates should offer tools for time blocking. This includes sections for scheduling key tasks, buffer blocks, and strategic work periods.
Why It Matters:
- Efficient Time Use: Structured time blocks reduce distractions and help you focus on what matters most.
- Reduced Stress: Planning your ideal week creates a sense of control over your time.
Why It Matters:
- Enhanced Motivation: Seeing visual proof of progress reinforces your commitment and keeps you motivated.
- Quick Adjustments: Visual tools make it easy to identify areas where you’re falling behind.
6. Customizability
The best templates are flexible and allow you to tailor sections to your unique goals, preferences, and workflow. For instance:
- Adding sections for specific projects.
- Removing features that don’t align with your needs.
Why It Matters:
- Adaptability: Customization ensures the template fits seamlessly into your personal or professional life.
- User Engagement: A personalized template feels more relevant and encourages consistent use.
Why These Components Work Together
Each of these elements directly supports the principles of the 12-Week Year system:
- Vision ensures that your goals are meaningful and inspiring.
- Planning provides a clear roadmap for execution.
- Process control keeps your actions aligned with your plan.
- Measurement allows for timely course corrections.
- Accountability fosters discipline and ownership of your commitments.
The Top Five 12-Week Year Templates
I do not want to blow my own horn here, but if you are serious about achieving your full potential, you should check out our program here: https://12week-breakthrough.com/.
The following aren’t necessarily ranked in order of excellence, but they’re the best I used and tested. I evaluated each template by the criteria listed in the above section, “What Should We Look for in a Template and Why?”.
Platform: Notion (app or web-based) for Mac or Windows
Creator: Tony David
Price: Free (donation an option)
Quick Verdict: The best Notion template.
- Alignment with Vision and Goals: There’s a clear space to write down your goals and visions, and it is visual and pleasing. Quite organized and helpful.
- Weekly and Daily Planning Frameworks: This is the best part about this template. There is a detailed table in which you can list all your weekly tasks, due dates, frequency, to what goal each task relates, and track the level of progress. You can see it in Calendar and Kanban board views – really nice.
- Tools for Tracking Your Performance: There is a table column that calculates your performance on any given weekly task, but the formula is complicated and hard to customize. There’s no dashboard that provides a visual presentation of your progress.
- Space for Accountability and Reflection: Lot’s of space for this, and there are also links to the relevant course section of the 12-Week Breakthrough program.
- Time Blocking and Scheduling: Notion has a built-in calendar functionality, hence it is easy to do your necessary time blocking & scheduling.
- Customizability: The template is based on Notion, so customization is fairly easy. I must say that there are things that are more advanced, such as formulas used for scoring, that are quite complex to customize.
Summary:
If you use Notion, this is a great template to use. Notion is a great tool because it is like a digital canvas/notebook, which gives you a lot of flexibility in terms of creating almost any kind of digital document/notebook you desire. This aligns well with creating templates for a productivity system such as 12-Week Year. Many people we know and coach use Notion to execute and track their 12-Week Year efforts. However, you should seriously consider comparing it with a spreadsheet based template like a Google Sheets template because calculations are more easy in and more customizable in spreadsheets.
A Quick Video About the Notion Template
Platform: Web-based Application
Creator: 12 Week Year
Price: $297 annual subscription
Quick Verdict: Achieve! is the official software of the 12 Week Year. It’s very good, but very expensive for the value received.
- Alignment with Vision and Goals: Very good. A clear space to reflect and write about your vision and goals.
- Weekly and Daily Planning Frameworks: Very well aligned with the system, and gives very good frameworks to plan your actions for the weeks and days.
- Tools for Tracking Your Performance: Excellent. The creators really invested in creating a good performance tracking system that helps you gauge your progress.
- Space for Accountability and Reflection: Really good. There’s a template at the end of every week to reflect on how you performed, what were key achievements, and how to improve for the next week or cycle. Again, there’s good guidance.
- Time Blocking and Scheduling: You can use it here with good results, but I think nothing replaces a real digital calendar
- Customizability: Very limited. You are confined to the framework of the software and the embedded fields that come with it.
Summary:
This is the best template, but it is really a web-based software solution for task management that is based on the 12-week year framework. Therefore, it is very, very expensive for such a service, and you can achieve similar functionalities with inexpensive tools such as a good Google Sheet template.
A Quick Video About The Achieve! App
Platform: Google Sheets
Creator: MindfulMarks.com
Price: $27
Quick Verdict: An effective yet simple Google Sheet template that is very well aligned with the 12-Week Year system.
- Alignment with Vision and Goals: There is a separate tab for listing your vision. A bit too simple for my taste, but works ok. There is a separate vision+goals Google Doc included, which provides much more space and inspiration. It is unclear why it was separated, as it could have been easily integrated into the template. Go figure. Score: B-
- Weekly and Daily Planning Frameworks: There’s only a weekly planning framework and no daily one. Not great. The week one is nice and elegant and does the job. Score: C+
- Tools for Tracking Your Performance: The progress tracking is simple but good. You can measure your performance on any weekly task, and then see your aggregate performance of the entire 12 week cycle. The weekly progress tracker is lacking, which is disappointing. Score: B-
- Space for Accountability and Reflection: Really good. There’s a template at the end of every week to reflect on how you fared, what were the key achievements, and how to improve for the next week or cycle. Score: B+
- Time Blocking and Scheduling: None. Score: D
- Customizability: Given it is based on Google Sheets, you can customize it quite easily. However, the author did built-in any customizable functionality. Score: B+
Summary:
Total Score: B-
Maybe the most simple Google Sheets based template. Overall nice and elegant and simple to use. Lacks more advanced functionality, but might be sufficient for users who are just starting out with the 12-Week Year system.
A Quick Video about the Mindful Marks Template
Platform: Google Sheets
Creator: 12 Week Breakthrough
Price: Program subscription of $4.3 per month
Quick Verdict: We designed it from the ground up to make sure everything is included to achieve your full potential.
- Alignment with Vision and Goals: There is a separate tab for long term vision and goals, and it all ties together neatly. Score: A
- Weekly and Daily Planning Frameworks: You have detailed daily and weekly planning frameworks so to make sure you correctly execute based on the system. Score: A
- Tools for Tracking Your Performance: There’s a dashboard to see all the key metrics, and all the needed scorekeeping is embedded in the weekly and daily plans. Score: A
- Space for Accountability and Reflection: Really good. There’s a template at the end of every week to reflect on how you fared, what were the key achievements, and how to improve for the next week or cycle. Score: B+
- Time Blocking and Scheduling: None. We believe it should not be part of the template per se. Your digital calendar does a better job for this than a template. Score: D
- Customizability: Given it is based on Google Sheets, you can customize it quite easily. However, the author did not built in any customizable functionality. Score: B+
Summary:
Total Score: A-
The most comprehensive and most aligned with the 12-week year system template. It is part of a complete program that includes an online course, digital downloads like this template, and access to live coaching and a community.
FAQs About Using Templates
Which one is better : digital or paper based template?
I highly recommend a digital one, although there’s something satisfying about using old-fashioned pen and paper. Look, implementing the 12-Week Year is not trivial – there are numerous components you need to write down, track, execute, measure, reflect upon, and repeat for the next cycles. It is just more effective & efficient using a digital template for this.
Why should I be using a template?
As explained in the above point, the 12-Week Year has numerous components that need to work together, so using a pre-built template that is well aligned with the system makes a lot of sense. Also, a key point: execution is a core concept, and you want to make sure you are focused on executing your plan and a well-built template helps you achieve that.
What is the best platform for a template (web-based, spreadsheets, Notion, paper, etc.)?
From my experience, spreadsheets like Google Sheets have the best functionality to support the execution of the 12-Week Year system. Why is that? In many ways, the 12-Week Year is similar to a project management process where you track your tasks, measure your performance and so on. And Google Sheet is like clay in this regard. You can customize it almost any way you want. Now, there are project management tools such as Asana and Monday.com that could have been great for this, but they are hard-wired to work in a certain way they do not fit well with the 12-Week Year system. What about Notion you might ask? Notion is an amazing platform, but using tables for all the goals, tasks, and score keeping/measurement stuff is much easier done in a spreadsheet.
