How Students Can Benefit from a ’12 Week Year’

It’s the second month of my reading challenge, and so far so good! If you’re an instructor and would like to borrow the following insights for your students, feel free to copy and paste the following as a class announcement. Enjoy!

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This month’s book is the 12 Week Year (if you’ve ever read Atomic Habits, I feel like this book paved the way about 5 years earlier!). 

If you do plan to read this book, a word of warning: read it with a specific goal in mind. I’ve read this book without a goal in mind and found it repetitive and a little boring. Then a few months later I revisited it with a goal to workout more regularly and I couldn’t put it down, and then skimmed it again with a goal to create new organization and systems in my home and was completely engaged, yet again. The moral being- if you’re interested in this book and decide to get a copy (I got mine for $5 on Ebay), keep it around as a resource to skim through yearly, or whenever you have a new big project you need to tackle. That’s when it works it magic.

Moving on, recently I skimmed through it in terms of education, thinking about how my students could apply it, and asked the question:

If you only had 12 weeks to becoming the student you want to be, what would you focus on? How would you optimize each week as a college student?

Here we are, nearing the end of the term, and this is the point when some students can feel behind and/or tired.

As I’ve been revisiting The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington, one idea keeps standing out to me:

Most people lose focus, get behind, or feel tired simply because the timeline is too long. The authors say that instead of thinking in terms of a full year, you should treat 12 weeks as a complete “year.” Compress the timeline to increase urgency, and as a result you’ll meet your goal/s more efficiently. And if you think about it, every college term or semester is more or less a 12-week year.

So here are 3 important points to consider:

1. It’s not about starting over or perfection, it’s about resetting and creating a timeline

You don’t need a new semester to change your trajectory, you need a reset. Ask yourself, if the next few weeks were your entire year, how would you show up? This short timeline creates clarity and action.

2. Start focusing on the weekly behaviors.

One of the biggest ideas in The 12 Week Year is this: focus on consistent weekly actions or habits, rather than the goal (the book Atomic Habits talks about this as well). For students, that means creating a weekly plan/actions that over time will produce the end result you’re looking for.

Some of these new weekly actions might include (write these down- these are huge game changers and have incredible positive impact on your grade!):

• I will study 30–45 focused minutes per weekday

• I will submit assignments 24 hours early

• I will check the course site daily

• I will ask one question of the instructor when I’m confused instead of staying silent (communication with your instructor, especially online, can change your entire experience as a student!)

3. Score your week

This is the most practical takeaway from the book. At the end of each week, ask: Did I do what I said I would do?

Did you follow the plan and take the weekly actions you needed to? It would be incredible to be 100% consistent with your actions, but that’s not necessarily realistic (remember the saying “done is better than perfect”?).

If you planned five key actions and completed four, that’s 80%, and that changes everything over 12 weeks. This helps build confidence and you’ll start to see real progress.

If I’m being honest, there are many areas of my life where I can only consistently hit 80% in some seasons because there is simply too much going on. And that’s okay. It’s also okay for students. You didn’t hear this from me, but if you’re spread too thin with work, family, life, school, it is fantastic to be scoring an 80% in each area (even your classes!). When life is easier, you can raise your standards, but if you have a lot going on, just make a plan and stick to it consistently as much as is possible. That’s it.

If you’re already an A+ student (or have made progress that you’re happy with) and feel that this might not apply to you, what are some areas in your life where the principles in The 12 Week Year would really benefit you? What about a savings goal, applying for jobs, or focusing on your health? Just a thought!

Here’s a challenge 

Apply this to your college courses or some other area of your life:

1. Choose 2–3 behaviors that would most improve your performance

2. Commit to them weekly

3. Track them

4. Score yourself honestly

Instead of trying to do things perfectly or not at all, work on consistency. This is where the growth happens (speaking from experience)!

Happy learning and growing!