2015 is one for the history books at this point. The next two weeks will be a blur of last-minute sales, many of your employees taking extra time off to burn through their vacation time and all kinds of holiday cheer.

For many business leaders, those last couple of weeks of the year are this mystical time when they hope that the world slows down so they can map out the coming year. As you know, something almost always comes up to get in the way, but it’s a lovely dream.

Would you like this year to be the year it actually comes true? I’m going to walk you through a simple planning exercise that, if you follow it, will help you filter through all of the things that you could do so we can identify the few you actually should do.

Let’s start by looking back over 2015. Carve out 60 minutes to work through these questions. 

But first there is some pre-work. Block the 60 minutes on your calendar and make it sacred.  About three to five days before your scheduled planning time, read through these questions.  Don’t try to answer them; just plant them into your subconscious mind. Every day, read through the questions, but again, don’t work on them. Just let them simmer in the back of your mind.

On your planning day, get out of the office. Go to a place where you can focus and think uninterrupted. Once you’re settled in, start with the first question and don’t move onto the next one until you’ve completely answered the question you’re on at that point.

The looking-back questions:

1) What was the single most important goal you had in 2015? Why was it more important than all the others? How did you communicate this goal and its importance to your internal team or anyone else who was instrumental in chasing this goal?

2) Flip through your 2015 calendar. What percentage of your work time did you allot to your most important goal? What patterns or habits can you identify concerning this goal? What about your team?   

3) Review your 2015 budget. What percentage of your budget did you spend on trying to accomplish your No. 1 goal?

4) Give yourself a letter grade, in terms of accomplishing this goal. Did you complete it? Was it done on time and at the level of excellence you needed it to be? If you gave your first goal an absolute A, then go back to question No. 1 and identify your second most important goal and start again.

5) Calculate the financial win/loss of your efforts. To the extent that you can, put a dollar figure on either the increased sales or the increased efficiency of your efforts. Even if this is a ballpark figure, try to attach dollar figures to your efforts.

6) If you gave yourself anything less than an A, ask yourself what got in the way of accomplishing your most important goal. Be very specific and clear on anything that distracted, detoured or derailed your efforts. 

6) Identify the individuals on your team (internal and external) and give each of them a letter grade in terms of helping you accomplish your No. 1 goal. Make a note of how they specifically helped or hurt the effort.

7) Knowing what you know now, if you had to pursue that goal all over again, what would you do differently and what would you do exactly the way you did it in 2015? Note why you’d make the changes you’re suggesting.

Next week, we’ll use these insights as we craft a plan for how you’re going to knock it out of the park in 2016.