I use this exercise twice a year to set myself up for success

Issa Rae has a tried-and-true method to setting herself up for success, she says.

The 41-year-old writer, actor, producer and entrepreneur categorically organizes her goals and ideas in a notebook at the beginning of the year, and revisits them six months later to check her progress, she tells CNBC Make It.

Rae is often a busy woman. She co-created, co-wrote and starred in the HBO series “Insecure,” which premiered in 2016 and ended in 2021. She’s acted in several movies, produced other films and TV shows, and launched several businesses, including production company Hoorae Media, Viarae Prosecco, haircare brand Sienna Naturals and Hilltop Coffee and Kitchen, a California-based coffee shop chain.

New Year’s Day is “my superpower day,” says Rae, who’s set to additionally appear in a commercial for TurboTax during Super Bowl 60 on Sunday. “That’s when everything feels possible. Everything will get done. I look at the [old] notebooks, compile the ideas that I wrote down and decide what’s attainable and what’s achievable, and I will set those goals.”

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Rae jots down her personal and career goals separately, she says, and then writes out her resolutions. “The resolutions I keep to three or four, and they’re really general, like, ‘read more,’ ‘be better.’ But the career and personal ones are actually very specific.” (Rae declined to share examples of those specific goals.)

If Rae gets an idea for a goal or resolution during other times of the year, she makes a point of writing it down before she forgets, she says. “The best ideas show up when I’m just chilling,” she says. “I always have a notebook near me.”

Rae refers to herself as “not a good long-term thinker,” and says that “having a routine and being really, really intentional about what my goals are” helps her stay disciplined.

Business luminaries ranging from FUBU founder and CEO Daymond John, a longtime investor judge on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” to billionaire Richard Branson have spoken about writing down their goals, too. The simple exercise can make achieving them easier, neuroscientists and psychologists say, helping you set a clear plan and better track your progress.

You can even try replacing your bullet-point list of goals with writing a letter to yourself, neuroscientist and author Erin Clabough told CNBC Make It on Jan. 27. The exercise can help you instill a sense of motivation and self-belief that you might otherwise lack, she said.

Writing yourself a letter is typically most effective when you set open-ended, big-picture goals, said Clabough. A statement like, “I will embrace new, exciting experiences this year,” might allow for more flexibility and satisfaction than something rigid and unadaptable like, “I will travel to three countries this year.”

Then, once you’ve given yourself a directive, “do the best that you can towards that intention, every day,” Clabough said. “You’re going to make progress towards that, but sometimes it won’t be in the way that you thought you were going to do it.”

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