Ep 722 | Designing the Year With Intention: My 2026 Start List

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. I want to talk today about how you go about designing your, your year with intention. January 1st, which, which just passed, is, is a pretty powerful moment in time. Why is that? It's not because anything magically changes overnight, but it's simply because of what that date, what that day represents. It creates this clean psychological line, a line between maybe who you've been and, and who you're trying to become. Psychologists call this the fresh start effect. The fresh start effect. Certain dates like, like New Year's Day, sometimes birthdays, maybe it's the first day of a new job. They create a mental reset of sorts. They give people a window, a brief window where motivation feels maybe easier. And change might feel a bit more possible. I think that I feel this way every year after January 1st. Now, I've learned that if you don't intentionally use that moment, it will fade pretty fast for you. You start to drift right back into, you know, the old habits or the old decisions, the old patterns, the things that you were trying to maybe move on from. And that's why I, a few years ago, stopped doing the traditional New Year's resolutions. And I started doing something a little bit different. Most resolutions are pretty outcome-based. For example, I want to lose weight, or I want to make more money. I want to be less stressed. They all sound good, but they actually don't change behavior. Over time, I've realized that most people don't fail because they, they lack motivation or they lack ambition. They fail because they never design the environment that's required to, to support that ambition. So instead of resolutions, I use something that I found to be a little bit more practical, and I call that my start and stop list. My start and stop list. And I just, I just recently talked about this in the newsletter that I publish every single month. We'll put it in the show notes here. If you're not subscribed to my Relentless Forward Progress newsletter, comes out at the end of every month, I'd love for you to get signed up and start getting that. So check out the show notes. I talk about in the most recent edition of that newsletter, the start and stop list, and I published my stop list from last year. Why use this start and stop list? It's two simple lists that I actually just keep on my phone all year long. One list captures what I'm intentionally starting, and the, and the other captures what I'm intentionally stopping. And as I mentioned, I published my stop list from last year, and, uh, I've since created a new start and stop list going into '26. Now, the intention isn't to necessarily be perfect. It's, it's not to overhaul everything overnight. It's just to help me create some direction. Progress doesn't, at least for me, doesn't usually come from doing more. It comes from focusing and protecting on, or protecting what matters. So the start and the stop list work because they force clarity. The start list for me is more about creation. The stop list is more about protection. I think most people dramatically underestimate how much energy is spent or can leak, if you will, if you don't have clear focus on your start and your stop. Last year, my stop list included things like saying yes too quickly or consuming information without intention or letting urgency masquerade as importance. That list alone, for me, created more space than any productivity system that I ever deployed could have. This year, I want to focus on the other side of the equation for sake of this conversation. So I talked about stop lists last year, and again, I want start and stop lists for everybody. Last year, I published my stop list. This year though, I'm going to talk to you about my start list just to give you an idea. I want to walk you through how I'm designing my 2026, and, and I'm going to share that start list. Maybe it serves as a guide for you. It's certainly not because I have it figured out, uh, I think it's just because I think clarity for me compounds, and I think that the accountability it creates when I start sharing this only increases the, the likelihood of, of me honoring it. So as I updated my list for 2026, I noticed something pretty important. My list truly is not about doing more, it's about doing better. No surprise, we're here at the No Days Off Podcast where the whole intention is get better at something every single day. My list is about getting better, about better strategy, better thinking, better energy, better leadership, certainly better follow-through. So here's my start list again, not that this should be yours, but to get you thinking on what you ought to start Or you could start in 2026. And remember, the other side of this is what you should stop. So number 1 on my list is to start protecting my work mornings. Protecting my work mornings. What does that mean for me? It means fewer meetings and, and more white space, particularly in the morning. Doing that deep work before the noise of the day sets in. I've noticed as I, as 2025 was closing out for me, I didn't really have a very solid morning block, even though I know I should, uh, I let the chaos take over my calendar and I need a reset. So I'm going to start protecting my work mornings a bit better than I have. Number 2, I'm going to start using my Sunday nights to plan my week. It's something I've historically done. I got away from it and I need to get back to it. I want my Monday mornings to be calmer, and not reactive. And I think the Sunday night planning, when I go through my planning process leading into a week, will serve me well. Number 3, I'm going to start going to sleep before 10 PM. Now some of you, you may be an hour and a half asleep already by 10 PM. For me, uh, I have not committed fully Even though I know sleep is so darn important and we've talked about it so much here at No Days Off, I still struggle going to bed, literally going to bed. I'm not talking about falling asleep. I mean physically going and laying down at 10 PM. I'm going to start before 10 PM moving forward. Number 4, I'm going to start asking the question more frequently, who can I delegate this to? Who can I delegate this to? Before I ask, can I do this, I'm going to ask, who can I delegate this to, or who may be better suited to handle this? I've recognized that I have taken on too much, many things that I'm not even the greatest at, and I need this— I need to start asking, who should be handling this other than me? Number 5, I'm going to start finishing what I've started. Before beginning something new. I look at my desk, I look at my calendar, look at my emails, and I see a lot of half-finished work, and, and it's created this mental drag for me. So I'm going to start finishing things before I start something new. I think that when I complete things, it'll create more momentum. Number 6 on my start list I am going to build on what's already working instead of obsessing over what's broken. I'm going to start building on what's already working instead of obsessing over what's broken. Um, this is an interesting one for me. I— my default behavior is to find an issue, find a problem, find an obstacle, and go to solve that. And my intention as we head into '26 is to start building on what's already working, doubling down on those things instead of obsessing over what's broken. Number 7— I've got 2 more, 7 and 8. Number 7, I'm going to start documenting my decision filters, the filters that I'm using to make decisions, versus re-deciding the same things over and over again. In other words, I need to create clearer standards so I'm faster and cleaner and, and more efficient with my decisions. I have decision filters, but I don't, I don't go to something and say, okay, of the, the decision filters I use, which one would be— make the most sense for this particular decision? I'm kind of just trying to recall in the moment, and I'm recognizing that I'm probably not operating to my full capacity as a result. And number 8, This is an interesting one. I'm going to start to default to more asynchronous collaboration instead of meetings. What does that mean? If you haven't heard of the term asynchronous or async, it means fewer meetings and, and more collaboration on Google Documents and things like that. In other words, instead of calling a meeting to discuss something for 20 or 30 minutes, I'm going to call everyone's attention to a document where we could all interact, comment, and save time— save time away from a Zoom meeting. And I think that the meetings should end up being the last resort, not the default. So that's my list of 8. I think every item on this list points back to the same sort of themes: clarity, energy, leverage, and focus. I don't think any of these make me more impressive. I think they make me more effective. I don't think my list is about hustle and grinding. I think it's just more about— for me, at least, it's more about alignment. Most people start the year asking, what do I want to accomplish? And I think the better question actually is, what kind of life am I designing? The start list and the stop list, I think they, they put you on that path. So if you're listening to this, here's my challenge to you. Scrap the New Year's resolutions. Instead, write your own start list. Maybe keep it short. I gave you 8, maybe it's 5 to 10 items. Focus on behaviors that if you, if you practice them consistently, they would change how your, how your days feel and how your weeks unfold. So create your, your start list and consider creating a stop list. Remember, these are the things I'm going to start. Here's here are the things I'm going to stop. Create those two lists and make sure you keep these lists visible. Revisit them often. Maybe it's weekly, maybe it's monthly. And let these lists guide decisions when things start to get noisy for you, as I'm sure they will. Your year won't be defined by what you intend. It will be defined by what it is you actually put into practice. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.