PROGRAM

The ten steps of UP are split into four design and execution phases and usually spread over 100 days or one year. Then a primarily research phase spread out over 100 years follows. Each phase and activity can be modified based off of your needs and preferences. Don’t worry if it seems overwhelming at first–so does climbing Mount Everest, inventing heavier-than-air flight or building a billion dollar startup.

Phase 1: Life Design

  1. Conduct Orientation: an open conversation around what you want out of UP, UP’s theory and operations, a few starting frameworks, and expectations and norms
  2. Begin Epistemic Housekeeping: a socratic dialectic to help you “know thyself” and examine your core worldview, key beliefs, and system for updating what you “know”
  3. Build Life Self-Model: a qualitative view of who you are, what your purpose is, and how you conceptualize life
  4. Build Life Calculator: a quantitative view of (almost) everything you value, estimates for the resources you would need to allocate to projects dedicated to achieving those values, and the corresponding estimated benefit to cost ratios and return on investment for each project 
  5. Set Life Goals: a first pass at clarifying what you most want to accomplish in your life
  6. Factor Life Goals: a deeper dive into your goals attempting to identify the most optimal ways to achieve the values underlying your goals
  7. Create Life Plan: a tool that succinctly integrates your Life Purpose, Life Strategy, Life Goals, Life Dashboard, Life Taxonomy, Life Self-Model, and Life Calculator into a coherent plan for living your optimal life
  8. Create Life Dashboard: a tool that tracks all the measures for the things you value
  9. Set Annual Goals: a clear, measurable set of ranked goals with milestones and resource allocations drawn from your Life Goals
  10. Set Quarterly Goals: your annual goals broken down by quarter (or month or six-month period, depending on your desired timeframes) 
  11. Create Exocortex: a process to organize or secure all of your cognitive-support tools (computers, online drives, phones, tablets, desks, physical inboxes, whiteboards, etc.) so the extended “you” is optimally ready to be used to achieve your goals
  12. Design UP Team: a process to design and eventually recruit, train, and support the ideal team to help you to achieve your goals
  13. Create UP Team Guidelines: a set of guidelines, frameworks, and norms for your UP Team to operate under
  14. Create Financial Budget: a comprehensive budget forecasting all of your annual financial expenses to help you achieve your goals
  15. Create Time Budget: a comprehensive budget forecasting all of your annual time expenditures to help you achieve your goals
  16. Take Baseline Assessments: a customized set of baseline measures for the things you value
  17. Set Week 1 Goals: a clear set of your plausibly highest expected value goals drawn from your entire space of possible upgrades 
  18. Schedule Week 1 Activities: calendaring in the specific days and times you and/or your UP Team will tackle your first week’s goals

Phase 2: Intense Execution

  1. Initiation: UP formally begins
  2. Begin Goal Planning & Execution: begin to plan and execute your annual goals
  3. Day 1 Team Meeting: recap of day’s progress
  4. Day 2 Team Meeting: recap of day’s progress
  5. Day 3 Team Meeting: recap of day’s progress
  6. Day 4 Team Meeting: recap of day’s progress
  7. Day 5 Team Meeting: recap of day’s progress
  8. Day 6 Team Meeting: recap of day’s progress
  9. Week 1 Team Meeting: recap of first week’s progress
  10. Week 2 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  11. Week 3 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  12. Week 4 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  13. Week 5 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  14. Week 6 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  15. Week 7 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  16. Week 8 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  17. Week 9 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  18. Week 10 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  19. Week 11 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  20. Week 12 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  21. Week 13 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  22. Quarter 1 Team Meeting & Strategic Review: recap of first quarter’s progress and strategic review of annual goals

Phase 3: Sustained Execution

  1. Week 14 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  2. Week 15 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  3. Week 16 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  4. Week 17 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  5. Week 18 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  6. Week 19 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  7. Week 20 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  8. Week 21 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  9. Week 22 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  10. Week 23 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  11. Week 24 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  12. Week 25 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  13. Week 26 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  14. Quarter 2 Team Meeting & Strategic Review: recap of second quarter’s progress and strategic review of annual goals
  15. Week 27 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  16. Week 28 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  17. Week 29 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  18. Week 30 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  19. Week 31 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  20. Week 32 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  21. Week 33 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  22. Week 34 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  23. Week 35 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  24. Week 36 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress 
  25. Week 37 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  26. Week 38 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  27. Week 39 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  28. Quarter 3 Team Meeting & Strategic Review: recap of third quarter’s progress and strategic review of annual goals
  29. Week 40 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  30. Week 41 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  31. Week 42 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  32. Week 43 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  33. Week 44 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  34. Week 45 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  35. Week 46 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  36. Week 47 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  37. Week 48 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  38. Week 49 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress 
  39. Week 50 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress 
  40. Week 51 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  41. Week 52 Team Meeting: recap of week’s progress
  42. Quarter 4 Team Meeting & Strategic Review: recap of fourth quarter’s progress and strategic review of annual goals

Phase 4: Conclusion

  1. Conclusion Assessment: the closing set of measures for the things you most care about, including progress on annual and life goals 
  2. Final Report: a report summarizing all the successes and failures of UP
  3. Set Next Year’s Annual Goals: a clear, measurable set of ranked goals with milestones and resource allocations drawn from your Life Goals (and hard-earned enhanced understanding of how goal attainment does and doesn’t work)

Phase 5: Follow Up

  1. 6 Month Assessment: a follow up on key measures 
  2. 1 Year Assessment: a follow up on key measures 
  3. 2 Year Assessment: a follow up on key measures 
  4. 3 Year Assessment: a follow up on key measures 
  5. 5 Year Assessment: a follow up on key measures 
  6. 10 Year Assessment: a follow up on key measures 
  7. 25 Year Assessment: a follow up on key measures 
  8. 50 Year Assessment: a follow up on key measures
  9. 100 Year Assessment: a follow up on key measures