The Five Ls: A Better Way to Plan Your Year

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2025 is officially coming to a close.

While most people are dusting off their tired list of New Year’s resolutions (lose weight, save money, read more books), I want to share something far more powerful with you.

It’s called The Five Ls

I first learned about this framework from Dominic Price, a work futurist at Atlassian, through leadership expert Andrea Clarke. After running it myself, I can confidently say this beats traditional goal-setting by a mile.

Most planning exercises focus on what you want to add to your life. The Five Ls forces you to look at the full picture—what energizes you, what drains you, what you need to release, and what you’re ready to amplify.

Think of it as a discovery tour of yourself: your habits, behaviors, and ecosystem.

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Why The Five Ls Works

Traditional resolutions fail because they’re often misaligned with who we actually are and what we actually need.

The Five Ls is different. It’s built on reflection first, action second.

If you do not regularly assess what is driving you forward or quietly holding you back, you end up optimizing systems that no longer serve where you are going.

The Five Ls help you identify what to double down on, what to dial back, and what to let go of entirely.

You’re not just picking arbitrary goals. You’re examining what worked, what didn’t, and what you learned and then using those insights to shape your next moves.

The framework creates clear direction while helping you think differently about growth. It’s simple, structured, and deeply meaningful.

How To Run The Five Ls

The entire exercise takes less than an hour. Here’s the process:

Step 1: Set Up Your Workspace

Create seven columns labeled: - Milestones - LOVED - LOATHED
- LONGED FOR - LEARNED - LAUGH AT - Actions

You can do this on a whiteboard, large sheet of paper with sticky notes, or a digital collaboration tool (Trello, Notion, Google Doc—whatever works for you).

Decide on your time period. I recommend starting with the past 12 months, then committing to run this every 90 days going forward.

Step 2: Set The Stage

You’re here to explore how to improve, not to dwell on negatives or recycle imposter syndrome. Stay positive and focused.

Step 3: Capture Your Milestones

What were the key events that happened over your time period? Goals you met? Highlights worth noting? How did you feel about them?

Write these down in the Milestones column.

Step 4: Reflect Using The Five Ls

Now work through each L, noting your responses in the relevant columns:

LOVED: What did you love about your work and life during this period? What do you want to keep doing or do more of? What can you double-down on?

LONGED FOR: What do you wish you’d had? This could be more time with family, more creative projects, more rest, more adventure.

LOATHED: What made life harder? What was deeply irritating? What do you hope never happens again?

LEARNED: What have you learned from both your successes and your mistakes?

LAUGH AT: What made you belly laugh? What brought you genuine joy and fun? If we’re not having fun, what’s the point?

Step 5: Define Your Actions

This is where reflection becomes execution. Commit to:

• One action you’ll take to remove something from your LOATHED list
• One action you’ll take to amplify something from your LOVED list
• Use your LONGED FOR, LEARNED, and LAUGH AT lists to shape additional actions

Keep it simple. Two to three concrete actions is sufficient.

Step 6: Close Out and Schedule Your Next Session

Schedule your next Five Ls session for 90 days out. Put it in your calendar now.

My Experience With The Five Ls

What I love most about this framework is that it’s not just about setting goals, it’s about understanding yourself at a deeper level.

It helps you think about what you need to let go of in order to energize yourself for what’s next. What you need to dial down and dial up. What you need to release.

This is high-fidelity self-awareness: letting go of old beliefs, ideas, and rituals that are no longer fit for purpose so you can free up headspace for more modern ways of living and working.

For Andrea Clarke, running the Five Ls was the catalyst for reconnecting with her love of creative writing which led her to start a newsletter and write a new book.

For me, it helped me highlight my love for sharing knowledge and optimize my life to do more of it.

For you, it might unlock something completely different.

Making 2026 Your Best Year

As you head into 2026, I encourage you to try the Five Ls instead of (or in addition to) traditional goal-setting.

Download this Five Ls tempate here to guide you.

It will give you the self-awareness and clarity you need to set goals that actually align with who you are and where you’re headed.

This isn’t about adding more to your plate. It’s about understanding what belongs on your plate in the first place.

Here’s to a year of intentional growth, meaningful progress, and a lot more belly laughs.