Plus, Minus, Next

Week #9

Hello! This Sunday newsletter explores startups, short-term rentals, or whatever random thing has entered my mind this last week. I pick one topic weekly to go deep on and have some disparate quick hits at the end.

---

As we prep for the upcoming new year, I thought I would write about a system for reflecting on the year that’s passed, which my friend

Nate Kadlac

introduced me to: “Plus, Minus, Next.”

Here is how Nate described it (with a shout-out to Anne-Laure Le Cunff):

Nate Kadlac 🎨 @kadlac

1/ I'm the worst at reflecting. I prefer to think about what's next, vs reflecting on what's happened. This year I adopted @anthilemoon Plus-Minus-Next method to review 2020. I highly recommend this if you're struggling to find a system. 👇👇👇

Nate Kadlac 🎨 @kadlac

2/ First, bucket your life using nine categories. Add your own if you like: • Health & Fitness • Work & Business • Friends & Community • Personal Life & Family • Learning & Knowledge • Travel & Culture • Hobbies & Creativity • Emotions & Spirituality • Money & Finance.

Nate Kadlac 🎨 @kadlac

3/ For each category, create three columns and label Plus, Minus, and Next. Plus: What went well for you this year? Minus: What didn't go well? Next: What will you focus on next?

Nate Kadlac 🎨 @kadlac

4/ Spend just one minute filling out each column. Nine categories X 3 columns. You can have this filled out in just 27 minutes. Math! I use @RoamResearch as my preferred tool to do this.

Nate Kadlac 🎨 @kadlac

5/ After filling out each column, review your columns and summarize three high-level questions. • Proudest accomplishment • Biggest challenges • Main goals for next year

Nate Kadlac 🎨 @kadlac

6/ Congrats! Most people don't get this far, and I'm typically one of them. If you want to take this further, summarize this and publish as a fancy blog post, or turn it into a journal entry. Here's a great example of @anthilemoon summarizing 2020:

nesslabs.com2020 year in review: chaos and communityThis year was both the slowest and the fastest of my life. Some parts feel like a blur, others feel like they lasted forever. First, I lost my grandmother. I want to mention it straightaway in the introduction of this annual review, as it has been the most defining event of my year. Losing someone .…

I last went through Nate’s outlined exercise in late December 2020. As I look back at my document from that year, a few things stand out:

• I was pleased with prioritizing family, my relationship with Kate, sleep, and exercise in 2020.

• I was proud of how we managed through a challenging year at HomeSpotter. But it took a toll.

• I really missed travel.

• For my various “Next” s and “Main Goals for 2021,” I had many items with meaningful progress and some with hardly any.

• One of my “Next” s for work was: “Commit by the end of Q2 2021 to either leaning in for another 3-5 years at HomeSpotter or outline a path for my exit (sell or bring in another CEO).” (As luck would have it, we closed on selling in May, which I would never have predicted in December.)

• I ate much better and lost a solid amount of weight in 2021.

Last year, I allowed myself to get too busy and didn’t make a Plus, Minus, Next list going into 2022. I feel like I missed out.

This afternoon, I did this exercise again for 2022, looking ahead to 2023. Nate suggests you can get through the bulk of this in 27 minutes (9 x 3 x 1 minute each). It took me 60-90 minutes because I was a bit reflective, but the time was well spent. And you can get it done faster than I did if you’re on a time crunch.

While I’d prefer to not share my whole list, I can share that my 2022 Summary had 10 Proudest Accomplishments, 9 Biggest Challenges, and 14 Main Goals for 2023. Of those 14 goals, 7 centered around family, 5 were personal, and 2 were focused on work. I hope that means I’ve got my priorities in the right spot going into next year.

Some highlights for my main goals for 2023 include:

• Regular family game night

• Scheduled date nights

• Spend an extended amount of time in Europe with my family

• Commit to doing some things just for fun

I find this exercise much more helpful than setting new year’s resolutions. This is a system that drives intentionality. And it’s got me thankful for the year that passed and excited for the year to come. I encourage you to try it. Trust me, it’s worth it.

---

This Week’s Quick Hits

• Like Nate’s write-up on Plus, Minus, Next above? He’s amongst my biggest inspirations for starting this Substack. Check out his Plan Your Next newsletter and consider subscribing.

• I’m half Swedish. Following my Grandma’s recipe, I hope to make Swedish rye bread this Christmas. I swear she used a special kind of Swedish rye flour, but now I’m not sure that exists. Does anyone know?

• This last year I got nominally involved in local politics. I took a pro-development (“YIMBY”) stance in my city. I backed and voted for mayoral and city council candidates that I knew would push forward efforts to build more houses that have otherwise been stalled. Several weeks ago, Jerusalem Demsas of The Atlantic had a great article entitled “Housing Breaks People’s Brains.” It echoes a point I’m pretty passionate about. While there are undoubtedly multiple contributing factors to the current Housing Crisis, there’s a relatively simple fact that we need more houses. Opposition to development that gets in the way of more housing from either side of the aisle frustrates me greatly.

Photo by Isaac Smith on Unsplash