It’s the new year and if you haven’t already locked in your resolutions and resolution-related plans, have I got a post for you: a 26-minute breakdown of 20 tactics to make for a better 2026 from Daniel Pink.
I first read Pink’s work with Free Agent Nation and then later Drive, which sent me down the scientifically-structured rabbit hole of “flow” back in the day. So when the almighty YouTube algorithm served up Pink’s videos of late, I found his succinct way to summarize what scientists have figured out about motivation and behavior very useful. The result is a style of coaching on focus and productivity that is human as opposed to the “optimize your grind” variety that some online influencers seem to favor.
The following video is no exception in the thoughtful category. It is longer though, but at 26 minutes, it’s thematic. And yes, we’re already into the new year, but for a lot of you, I bet the new year doesn’t really “start” until you go back to school or work on Monday, January 5th, so you have time to plan!
If you’re like me, two things occurred to you while watching the video:
- Wow, he’s packing a lot of little nuggets of wisdom in here.
- Dang, it’s so packed, I almost feel like I need to watch it again.
So, if you want to re-watch the video, here’s a breakdown of all the tactics he goes over with rough timestamps for you to jump to if that helps. And by “you,” I mean me. I’m definitely using this. That’s why you’ll see links and other personal musing for each tactic. Truth in blog advertising, folks.
By the way, his free workbook that he mentions in the video (for which I have sacrificed my email in tribute to get) is a companion piece, not a regurgitation, so depending on how gung ho you are, you may want to get that as well.
ACT 1: Establish the Foundation
1) Conduct a Regret Review (01:04)
I love the physical act of writing down the regret and throwing it away after coming up with a plan. And yes, the coming up with a “short plan to deal with it in January” is initially daunting, but then there’s tactic #4 which allows for adjustments, so let’s go!
2) Hold a Premortem (02:40)
I love premortems since I first encountered them in project management… and I almost certainly learned about them via the work of Gary Klein whom Pink cites in this section.
I love this exercise because it’s a mental way to “explode the anxiety bomb in a controlled environment” and come up with some good ways to make sure that failure, even if still an option, is less of a likelihood.
Yes, on the one hand, this is just a form of risk management, but everyone likes that, right?
3) Choose a one word theme (04:15)
Here’s another concept I’ve known about for a while, this time first encountered from film production. You see, as the ultimate arbiter of a film’s vision on set, the director is accosted with hundreds of questions daily. One director, I believe it was Sydney Pollack, would figure out the one word theme for his movie. When a question came up about costuming, blocking, line reads, camera angles, and so on, Pollack could roll back the decision to how it supports his theme. And yes, many of those creative decisions are decided well before production, but you’d be surprised how many follow-up questions and devilish details crop up when the cameras need to be rolling.
So I totally get the idea of backing up or zooming out to a one word theme. I’m also going to research more of the psychology term “self-cue” (here’s the article he references in the video).
4) Divide the year into three month seasons (05:38)
Yeah, if you’re like me, you first think “wow, that makes a lot of sense,” but then you might think of quarterly goals that are the result of annual planning from some corporate job where the Powers That Be refuse to re-assess what events outside of your control might necessitate an adjustment to said goals.
Not so here, part of this quarterly goal-setting is a quarterly reset. I can deal with that. (Oh, and the article he cites, “Feedback loops and the longer-term: towards feedback spirals” by David Carless, is here).
ACT 2: Build the Structure
5) Protect your first hour (06:48)
Really pretty straightforward. Make sure you’re moving closer to your goals an hour at a time before shenanigans can occur (Oh, and the chap he cites, Travis Bradberry, also has some stuff about emotional intelligence).
One caveat: 365 hours? You mean, every day including holidays? Depending on your priorities, you might take a day off. I know I’m going to sleep in sometimes. You hear that optimization influencers? I’m gonna be inefficient on occasion.
6) Use David Allen’s Two-minute rule (08:18)
This was one of the big takeaways I took from David Allen’s Getting Things Done waaaay long ago.
I love it. I do think one needs to figure out how relativistic their two-minutes is. For example, the cited example of unloading the dishwasher is not a two-minute task for me. It’s usually at least five. And then, I want to load the dishwasher, which might mean pre-treating some dishes. You see where I’m going. If I have too many “two-minute” tasks like that, the day runs away from me.
That leads to another thought I believe Pink implies, but doesn’t dwell on in this video: don’t mix your “deep work” with taking care of a lot of little things. I’ve done that and it does cross a bunch of things off the to-do list, but in lieu of any deep work, I’m too often left with a feeling of persisting rather than having accomplished something.
But two minutes to do more than just throw incoming mail on a pile, but actually process it? Two minutes to clean up that countertop? That I can and should do. Because that mental clutter he’s talking about is real.
7) Create a weekly shut down ritual (09:18)
This is a new concept for me, but I love it. I do schedule time to plan the next day and the week ahead, but this feels like a great way to explore optimization and give one’s mind a break (I think a lot of the tactics basically revolve around “your brain is an important organ that’s being exercised, let it rest on occasion.”).
I’ve also read a little bit about the cited author, Cal Newport, and his focus on “attention management” and will probably read one of his books this year.
8) Perform a Weekly reset (10:36)
I also have done versions of this over the years, but this is also something I plan to make more repeatable (and the article cited, “The Impact of Commitment, Accountability, and Written Goals on Goal Achievement” by Gail Matthews is here).
9) Act like a chef with ‘Mise en place’ (11:38)
Something else that isn’t foreign, but using it feels like a great tool to have at the ready in the toolbox. I especially like his quote:
Order isn’t sterile. Order is strategic.
Hey, this whole video and post is about framing, right? Something about that quote frames “mise en place” in a new way for me.
(Oh, and the cited article “Implementation Intentions and Goal Achievement: A Meta‐analysis of Effects and Processes” by Peter M. Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran is here).
10) Re-energize your productivity with a 15-minute walk break (12:34)
This tactic also seems so obvious, you wonder why you haven’t done it, except for the many times you may have been in a knowledge workplace that doesn’t seem to get the quote about breaks not being a deviation from performance, they are part of our performance.
And hey, don’t take my word or Pink’s for it. Read “Give Your Ideas Some Legs: The Positive Effect of Walking on Creative Thinking” by Marily Oppezzo and Daniel L. Schwartz.
Maybe there should be an audio version to listen to on a walk break…
ACT 3: Shape Your Environment to Keep Going
11) Follow the 85% Rule (13:51)
I’ll admit, I haven’t fully wrapped my head around this one, probably because I’m having trouble figuring out what constitutes “85%” for any of the things I’m trying to improve. But I’m going to read “The Eighty Five Percent Rule for optimal learning” by Robert C. Wilson, Amitai Shenhav, Mark Straccia & Jonathan D. Cohen and see if I can puzzle it out.
12) Redefine discomfort as learning (15:02)
Definitely something in the “obvious, but do I hafta?” category. By the way, the full article “Motivating Personal Growth by Seeking Discomfort” by Kaitlin Woolley and Ayelet Fishbach does not appear to be available for free online, but the link does include some open source information and you may be able to find supplemental materials.
13) Design friction wisely (16:17)
I like this because “environment beats intention every time” feels like a truism too many people resist acknowledging.
I also like the way that you can both engineer increased fiction and decreased friction. It’s like incentives influence outcomes or something.
14) Make Public (but not too public) promises (17:23)
I like the nuance of this… and it appears to relate to tactics 16 and 17 below.
The article “Does Monitoring Goal Progress Promote Goal Attainment? A Meta-Analysis of the Experimental Evidence” by Benjamin Harkin, Thomas L. Webb, and Betty P. I. Chang (University of Sheffield) and Andrew Prestwich, Mark Conner, and Ian Kellar (University of Leeds) and Yael Benn (University of Sheffield) and Paschal Sheeran (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) has enough pages of references to satisfy any deep dive.
15) Track small wins daily (18:33)
I love this and it feels like it echoes other advice I’ve seen. You can check if The Progress Principle is available at your local library.
ACT 4: Strengthen your Support System
16) Challenge network (20:03)
Remember discomfort from #12? I like the “one” thing to improve. The Adam Grant article, “Why You Need a ‘Challenge Network’ ” is available here.
17) Curate your support circle (21:13)
I really like this advice of having a “Cheerleader,” a “Coach,” and a “Challenger” — because it calls out the fact that you need different types of support and you really shouldn’t look for that all in one person. I’m going to have to contemplate this.
18) Write a To Don’t List (22:27)
Hey, like the article says, I definitely overlook this thing. And I like the idea of picking one thing to subtract to start with for that 90-day period.
And said article “People systematically overlook subtractive changes” by Gabrielle S. Adams, Benjamin A. Converse, Andrew H. Hales & Leidy E. Klotz is here.
19) Give yourself a Micro sabbath (23:27)
From everything I’ve read, doing purposely nothing for 15 minutes sounds like it might be a special challenge because so many of us have trained ourselves to be on the go.
For reference, the cited article “Spreading New Light on Attention Restoration Theory: An Environmental Posner Paradigm” by Alessandro Piedimonte, Gianluca Lanzo, Francesco Campaci, and Valeria Volpino is here.
20) Send thank you notes (24:30)
Specifically, Pink says to send out twenty-six thank you notes or one every two weeks. Not only that, he’s saying to do this old school, like pen and paper. Dang. Using treeware like that is not even a Gen X regularity let alone a Gen Z one. Maintaining and strengthening relationships as well as expressing gratitude, however? That feels at the core of this and if I can do that in letter/note form, I can’t see how that wouldn’t be good all around.
By the way, if you search for “Martin Seligman” and thank you notes online, you’ll get all sorts of hits, like this one from The Marginalian, a site I’ve linked to before.
So there you have it. Some things to have rattle around in your brain… and then potentially take a 15-minute break and think some more. The year definitely starts on Monday though, so here we go.