Level Up Your Year: The Year of Joy Mindmap
The Anti-Resolution: Focusing on What You Want, Not What You "Should" Do
As many of you know, I’m passionate about tech, sports, and building communities. Today, I want to share a simple yet powerful concept I’ve been using for the past two years: the “Year of Joy.”
It’s essentially a mindmap. I take a piece of paper and create branches for each of the 12 months. Then, for each month, I brainstorm one activity I know I’ll genuinely enjoy. It’s not about things I have to do, but things I want to do.
Why a Year of Joy?
I started this exercise two years ago, and the impact has been significant. It gives me something to look forward to each month and helps me distribute activities throughout the year. It’s a great way to avoid ending up with a bunch of plans crammed into just a few months.
To keep a balance between personal time and family time, I use the back of the paper to brainstorm activities I’d enjoy with my family. This could be a vacation, a day trip with the kids, or even just a special evening with my wife. I then transfer some of these family activities to the main mindmap on the front.
Right now, as I plan for 2025, the first half of the year is filling up nicely. I’m starting to add activities to the second half. The beauty of this system is that when new ideas pop up or when people ask me to join them for something, I can quickly check my Year of Joy and see what months work best.
It’s About Wanting, Not Needing
The Year of Joy isn’t a to-do list; it’s a plan for fun. Even the family activities are things we all genuinely enjoy. It’s important to remember that plans can change. Life happens. It’s okay to adjust the mindmap as needed. But I’ve found that by visually mapping out these joyful activities, I’m more likely to actually make them happen.
At the end of the year, I review my Year of Joy and see what I accomplished. Looking back at 2024, I was impressed by how much I did. It’s a great feeling of accomplishment. One thing I’ve learned is to keep the activities realistic. It’s easy to get carried away and plan huge, elaborate things every month, which can lead to feeling overwhelmed.
A Balancing Act
As someone balancing work (and some travel), family, and my passions like cycling, running, calisthenics, snowboarding, and all things tech, having a system like this is essential. It helps me prioritize what matters and make sure I’m making time for the things that bring me joy.
Now, I’d love to hear from you:
What activities bring you the most joy?
Do you have any systems for planning your year?
What’s one thing you’d like to do in 2025 that would bring you joy?
Let me know in the comments!