Life Shaper: Year Wheel

How many of these situations ring true?

You are getting by day to day, with no bigger sense of time.
You say to your self, "If I can just get through [next deadline date], I'll be okay." And then...
That day arrives and a new deadline takes its place.
You find that at certain times of year projects, birthdays, and other commitments pile up. You wish you could better anticipate them and plan ahead.
As soon as you put something on the calendar, it becomes an obligation, not an opportunity.
Taking a break, going on vacation, or doing that activity you've always wanted to do becomes "next week."
..."next month."
..."next year."
..."someday."
You find that things that happen every stinkin' year sneak up on you out of nowhere?

If many resonate, close your calendar and draw out your Year Wheel.

Easy-to-follow video
Simple materials
Repeatable process
Zero drawing skills required!

What is a Year Wheel?

A Year Wheel is a drawing designed to help you better understand your schedule, traditions, commitments and how your time flows over the year.

Brandy Agerbeck designed this "life shaper" to guide you step-by-step through mapping out all the events that fill your time.

With simple words, lines, arrows and circles, you will gain a deeper understanding of the ebbs and flows in your schedule.

(If you never get to the ebbs, let's make some more time to rest!)

You'll finish with a clearer picture of your time to prioritize what matters most to you and give yourself a better balance of crunch times and breathers.

Shape your life one drawing at a time.

Hello! I'm Brandy and I designed the Year Wheel to help you get a better grasp of your time so it doesn't slip through your fingers.

I call these guided drawing exercises "life shapers." Each one is crafted to tackle a specific life challenge.

A specific challenge I have is timeblindness.

I am terrible at gauging how how something will take and if you ask my when something happened in my life, heck if I know.

And when I was buried under a ton of work to do or a big deadline, I would say to myself, "If I can get to next Thursday, things will be okay."

Friday? A day after? A new Stress Clock would start.

One day, I drew a big circle on a piece of paper and divided it into 12 equal-ish slices. I mapped out what I had on my calendar.

Twelve pages of boxes got moved onto one big time pie chart.

Instantly, I saw that I had impossible times of year. They were just going to busy butt-biters.

BUT that gave me a chance to build in buffer time before and after. I better understood what was coming and knew I had to fuel up before hand, and have time to crash and rest afterwards.

Because making this drawing helped me so much, I recorded a video showing you how you can make your own year wheel.

Hundreds of people (non-artists and artists alike) have made these drawings, making more meaning for themselves.

Like them, I hope you'll join me and see how useful, easy, illuminating and fun shaping your life can be.

Left: Getting blue and inky teaching a masterclass with the bikablo akademie trainers team in Köln, Germany.

Right: Drawing my own Year Wheel helped me finally like summer! While most folks live for summer, I dreaded it.

I saw that I had zero transition in or out of the season. It would just get hotter and I would get crankier. I decided to bookend summer with my college reunion, and end it with the Minnesota State Fair. Gamechanger!

Every Life Shaper experience:

Carves time out and creates a safe and welcoming self-care space to reflect and explore possibilities. Set a drawing date with yourself.

Makes space to be playful and messy. Put your Inner Critic in time out. Be free to be your squishy, fuzzy, imperfect self!

Engages your brain and heart and hands and your whole self. This process lets all of you show up: messy and tidy, thinky and feeling, uncertain and steadfast.

Puts the power of your thinking into your own hands. Get unstuck with a temporary sketch, or get down a long-term plan of action in ink.

Invites you to take a critical and kind look at your own Big Picture. What are the piece and how do they connect? Notice what pieces are and aren't working.

Opens you up to discovery and magic. Your new insights and clarity will shine light on where to go next!

"Thanks to Brandy's guidance, I created my New Year calendar wheel to show me exactly what needs to happen so that I can pop the cork for a champagne toast on December 31 and put a great year to rest. These videos are full of so many great tips for gaining clarity as you define your next right steps for your life and your business."

Ann Leach
coach/writer/speaker
AnnLeach.com

Brandy's note: I freaking ❤️ that Ann raided her kitchen cabinet to use a pre-cut cardboard cake circle to make her Year Wheel. And the 2018 specs are so snazzy! Kudos, Ann, on your resourcefulness and creativity!

Using the Year Wheel you will:

Better grasp where your time goes.
Get clear on what events and traditions matter most to you, giving them the planning and time they deserve.
See where the time crunches fall, identifying how to make them less hectic, or setting yourself up to go into hyperdrive when needed.
If all your time is crunchy, start deciding what stays on your calendar and what goes.
Feel more in control of time, versus time controlling you.