If the review of the first half of my year showed me anything it's that it can take multiple attempts to make a change. I have to learn something many times, or fail many times, before I adjust for it permanently. All of the failings came down to one central pattern.
Protect the rhythm
The clearest instruction that came out of the review to make the second half of the year better than the first is 'protect the rhythm'. Anything that slows or stops momentum must be designed for or decided against. Too many ideas without execution leading to indecision and stalling is one example.
Containment
The main idea to protect the rhythm which accounts for everything I identified is 'containment.' Containment of energy, firstly. Prioritising sleep, and not leaking energy into low-value activities.
Containment of work means having no unframed work. To frame work you can use this template:
I am producing [output] within [time/scope]. I start by [first move]. This is done when [finish line].
Reduce latency
I realised as part of the review tasks or projects would take a while to start. There were sometimes big gaps between having the idea and starting, or starting and finishing. Procrastination was because the work wasn't framed. As part of the framing of the work you can define the first action to take, so the start can be immediate.
Close loops
The last part of protecting the rhythm that came out from sifting through all of the weekly reviews was that mental bandwidth was being taken up by ongoing tasks or projects that were floating. The way to design against that is to resolve everything into a clear state. Nothing vague, everything explicit. The highest categorisation I had for this was 'done', 'delete', or 'contained' (if something has to be scheduled for later or paused for some reason).
Key questions to ask
Will this protect or break the rhythm?
What is the container?
What is the fastest clean move that creates contact with reality?
What needs to become done, deleted, or contained?
A summary of the code
Sleep first
Plan below capacity
Pre-contain everything
Start before feeling ready
Ship smaller and sooner
Close loops aggressively
Question inputs before consumption (does it have a direct purpose?)
Get verdicts from reality
Protect rhythm at all costs
This is based on 6 months of work and experience and it's what I'm using to make the second half of the year more effective than the first. I hope there's something you'll find useful for your own projects.