the best thing to do at the start of every year.
The start of each new year is always a great time to re-organize your schedule, change up your routine and generally just take some time to decide what you want out of the next 365 days.
But choosing what to focus on can be surprisingly difficult, we think we know what we want, but we’re often pretty bad at knowing what will actually be worth the effort.
There’s a useful exercise I do at the start of every year to get clarity on what I actually want to work toward. It takes about 10-15 minutes, but it’ll save you a lot of wasted time throughout the course of a year as it stops you from spending time on things that you don’t actually care about or that isn’t worth your energy.
It’s called the Odyssey Plan.
The idea is simple: You take a sheet of paper and draw three columns.
In the first column, you write what your life will look like in 5 years if you stay on your current trajectory. Same priorities. Same habits. Same pace. No judgement, just honesty about where this road actually leads.
In the second column, you write what your life would look like in 5 years if you deliberately changed course. Maybe you pursue something more creative, take a professional risk, move cities, or restructure how you work and live. This isn’t about what’s “safe” or “sensible.” It’s about what feels meaningful.
And in the third column, you what your life would look like in 5 years if money and other people’s opinions of you did not matter - the most unconstrained path you could take. The five-year future you’d probably never say out loud. The one that feels unrealistic, slightly embarrassing, or indulgent, but quite exciting.
Once you’re done, don’t try and choose one. Instead, look for patterns.
What shows up in more than one version? What keeps resurfacing, even when the circumstances change? That’s usually where the truth is.
I like this exercise because it removes the pressure to have everything figured out. You’re not committing to a plan, you’re just gathering information about what you actually care about before you start filling your calendar with goals, habits, and obligations.
So before you redesign your routine or set resolutions for the year, take 10–15 minutes and write out a few different answers to the same question:
What will my life look like in 5 years if x?
You don’t always need certainty.
Sometimes you just need an extra bit of direction.
Cheers,
Arteri