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The Gentle Art of Joyful Productivity
Learn how to make one decision that makes a thousand decisions with this introduction to Values-Based Decision-Making. Enhance your quality of life while accomplish more.
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A Course For The Times We Live In
Over the course of human history, we have never been exposed to so many ideas, opportunities, requests and stimulae as we encounter today. It's no surprise that we feel like we always have too much on our plate, and not enough hours in the day.
Developing and applying a personal filter is necessary to survive and thrive in the modern world.
In this short course you will learn how to tailor a filter specifically for your life situation, so that you can accomplish more than you previously thought possible - and do so with a sense of ease and joy.
Drawing on the larger framework of Values-Based Decision-Making, you will become clearer about what's really important to you, and begin to rewire your decision making so that you can make choices towards the quality of life that you desire.
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If you don't design your life, it will be designed for you.
Would You Like To...
Learn a Practical Tool
From the very first week, you will develop a filtering tool that can be applied daily.
Make Better Decisions
Gain an understanding of what it's like to guide your life by your values.
Build Your Capacity
Learn how to accomplish more - with a greater sense of joy.
Declutter Your Life
Receive guidance on how to reduce what's on your plate and improve quality of life.
Have Clarity of Vision
Know what matters to you, and become more effective in attaining it.
Know Signs of Success
Create tangible indicators so that you can monitor your progress.
If you ever wanted to feel like Merlin the Magician in the game of Life this class is the dress rehearsal! By far one of the best decisions I've ever made to sign up and spend a couple of hours a week with Javan and Tristan. I looked forward to each and every weekly class. Excellent facilitators, great content, amazing results in a gentle, fun, supportive environment. Make the time to be there, and how you choose what you do with your time will be forever changed. Feeling like a Taskmaster day in and day out? Take this class and go from 'ugh' to 'ahh'!
SHANNON MARIS - USA
Feel Like You Wear Too Many Hats?
Learn how to wear one hat at a time, and love every minute of it.
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Four Live Calls
Direct engagement with two skilled facilitators each week.
Recordings
Can't make one of the sessions? Recordings are available.
Weekly Assignments
Exercises to improve your daily life immediately.
Community Learning
Learn from and with your peers.
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This course is a good fit if you:
Always Feel Swamped
Life feels too hectic and overwhelming, leaving little space for enjoyable moments.
Seek Greater Capacity
Wondering how to boost productivity while experiencing more joy in life.
Struggle Stress and Health
The mental and emotional strain is taking a physical toll.
Have Trouble Saying 'No'
Struggling to say no to opportunities and feeling like everything’s a yes?
Want Better Relationships
Having too much on your plate is affecting your ability to relate to those around you.
Suffer From Burnout
Running at full throttle has left you drained and ready to throw in the towel.
WHAT IS VALUES-BASED DECISION-MAKING?
Values-Based Decision Making (VBDM) helps envision an ideal future and use guiding values to shape decisions. Instead of chasing goals, it prioritizes values that enhance long-term quality of life.





Values-Based Decision-Making (VBDM) is a dynamic system for decision-making and visioning that encourages us to imagine the future we desire—whether in life, business, or relationships—and identify the values that will guide us toward that future. By using these clarified values as a filter, VBDM helps us evaluate both large and small decisions based on their potential to create the life we envision. Instead of fixating on goals, VBDM shifts the focus to the values we must embody to become the people we aspire to be. This approach challenges the cultural norm of prioritizing goals above all else, which often leads to sacrificing quality of life. Instead, VBDM emphasizes cultivating values that enhance our quality of life while avoiding the endless pursuit of fleeting goals.
WHERE DID IT COME FROM?
Javan K. Bernakevitch, the creator of VBDM, first encountered Allan Savory’s Holistic Management and Holistic Decision Making in 2010. While inspired by Savory’s ideas, Javan found their application—primarily focused on land-based cattle grazing—too narrow to encompass the broader potential of these concepts. Additionally, some elements of the flow and usability of Savory’s system created friction for practitioners.
Dan Palmer, of Very Edible Gardens and later Making Permaculture Stronger, reinterpreted Savory’s work, calling it Holistic Decision Making as well. Dan’s innovative ideas greatly influenced Javan, and their collaboration was formative until Dan’s passing in 2022. Over the past 15 years, Javan has continued to evolve VBDM, working with over 2,000 clients and students to refine it into a versatile, living system.
HOW DOES VBDM DIFFER FROM OTHER HOLISTIC DECISION MAKING MODELS?
Javan’s adaptation of VBDM includes several key innovations:
Ongoing Integration of Values: Instead of treating the clarification of values (referred to in Holistic Management as a "Holistic Context") as a one-time or annual task, VBDM promotes the active and consistent use of values on a daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal, and yearly basis. This practice ensures values are deeply embodied and lived.
Refined Visioning Process: VBDM employs visioning exercises designed to distill and challenge values until they truly resonate—what Javan describes as values that "sing" for clients.
Focus on Weak Links: Through the Daily Statement of Reality, VBDM emphasizes identifying and addressing weak links that may hinder progress toward one’s values.
Streamlined Decision-Making Practices: VBDM incorporates both short- and long-form decision-making processes to minimize decision-making friction while maintaining alignment with values.
Collaborative and Evolving Framework: VBDM remains open to innovations and contributions from students and clients, making it a flexible, organic system that evolves with each practitioner’s experience.
By centering on values rather than traditional goals, VBDM offers a grounded yet transformative framework for decision-making and personal growth, fostering a life aligned with what truly matters.
An Introduction to
Values-Based
Decision-Making
Javan was recently hosted by Zach Weiss of Water Stories to explain what VBDM is all about. Check out the introduction below.
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"An excellent foundation for learning one of the most effective, truly personalized and context-driven systems for decision-making that is out there. Through nearly a decade of systems thinking, analytical work and strategic planning, I've yet to come across a more thorough but also practical and straightforward approach to making decisions. I'm not sure there's someone out there who COULDN'T find value from this course. Highly recommend!"
SUSAN COUSINEAU
Course contents
Course Logistics
WHAT
Four live calls spread over the course of a month, each lasting 120 minutes via Zoom
One private call at any point in the course to work on your Daily Statement of Reality, lasting 30 minutes. This will be with the teaching assistant, Tristan Holme.
One private call at any point in the course to work on your Daily Statement of Reality, lasting 30 minutes. This will be with the teaching assistant, Tristan Holme.
WHEN
Calls will take place on the following days:
Class 1 - February 22 2025
Class 2 - March 1 2025
Class 3 - March 8 2025
Class 4 - March 15 2025
1.5 Hour Presentation
30 Q and A
TIME ZONE
Calls will start on:
Saturdays at
9am PST,
10am MST,
11am CST,
12pm EST
Saturdays at
9am PST,
10am MST,
11am CST,
12pm EST
COST
REGULAR PRICE $189 USD
EARLY BIRD
$169 USD
$169 USD
How it started
It was 2012, and I was running a regenerative land design business using tools like permaculture, dryland farming, and mycological restoration to design and install urban homesteads.
I had 37 projects running simultaneously and was beyond overwhelmed.
A friend asked if I knew the work of Allan Savory, specifically his Holistic Management for grazing.
I didn't.
Due to my work's urban and suburban gardening focus, I felt that Holistic Management was unnecessary.
He asked if I knew about Savory's approach to decision-making, "Holistic Decision Making"?
Again, I didn't.
He said it could radically change my life and my time management skills, or lack thereof.
I spent the next four months digesting the dense and weighty Holistic Management, second edition. Allan's language was difficult for me to understand at the time.
Slowly, I understood his approach to grazing, which at the time was lost on the work I was doing, and his approach to decision-making, which lit a fire in me to clarify the values for a project FIRST and then use those values to EVALUATE any action or decision that would lead me to the future I desired.
I added, subtracted, and curated to supplement his decision-making structure for grazing projects so that it would be universally applicable to all people and projects.
Values-Based Decision-Making was born.
With an understanding of the future I wanted and the values that would describe that future, I was able to chart a course and make tangible steps that made me feel like my desired future was becoming a reality.
The 37 projects were quickly whittled down to the essential 12, which were then quickly crossed off the list.
I started to invent daily tools to help keep me on track.
Today, I'm managing more than I did at the time, in more considerable diversity, including:
- 90 permaculture design students in 2 courses;
- 35 students in a current regenerativeliving.online course;
- developing five new courses with collaborating instructors for regenerativeliving.online;
- Five regenerative business design clients;
- Four life design clients;
- Two land design clients;
- influx of 8 potential clients for both life and land design;
As well as the day-to-day chores we all have to address, plus some personal interests, including:
- continuing my guitar practice;
- working out 3-5 times a week;
- participating in an online men's group once a week;
- learning cello;
- meditating 2-3 times a week;
- not to mention, the laundry, food sourcing and preparation, and connection with my husband and dog and everything else that comes with being alive today.
I attribute my productivity to the simple application of Values-Based Decision-Making, specifically the Daily Statement of Reality, which I've often used to focus on what I'm doing and the time I have to do it.
This course will give you an introduction to Values-Based Decision-Making by applying a Daily Statement of Reality, focusing on time management and productivity. It will be an opportunity for you to use the theory and practice of this approach to gauge whether it's a fit for you and your life.
You'll be walked step by step through envisioning the future you want for your time management and how to make that future a reality.
If you follow along with the process over our four sessions, you'll create a Daily Statement of Reality that focuses on time management and fine-tune the statement and the actions you take to make it a reality.
You'll have the opportunity for feedback if you so choose and interaction with your classmates.
It's easy to become overwhelmed by everything we are asked to address in our world. Much of what calls our attention is out of our control, but how we respond to these calls for our attention is in our control.
This course will provide you with a tool to take more responsibility for the actions that are within your control and step toward the future you desire.
I hope to see you in class!
Javan "Getting More Done" Bernakevitch
Write your awesome label here.
Write your awesome label here.
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Write your awesome label here.
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Write your awesome label here.
"This course enhanced the quality of my life. It has helped me to take the time to slow down and contemplate my days and my desires and put attention on what is important to me. By taking the time and focusing the attention on my values and how to live them out I am more able to make decisions about what to do in a day and to accomplish more as I had hoped I would. It gives me much material and experience to continue the journey to live in the present and to slow things down and enjoy my days and feel good about what I'm doing."
MICHELLE HILDEBRAND - USA
Meet the instructorS
Javan Bernakevitch
Javan K. Bernakevitch is passionate about helping people create more abundant, diverse and profitable landscapes and lives that get better year after year. An educator, designer and guide for clients he works to fundamentally shift consciousness to create change.
He leads All Points Land Design, providing expert consultancy for regenerative farms, homesteads, landscapes, and developments, from vast 6500-hectare projects to efficient urban spaces, helping clients achieve thriving, sustainable systems.
He leads All Points Land Design, providing expert consultancy for regenerative farms, homesteads, landscapes, and developments, from vast 6500-hectare projects to efficient urban spaces, helping clients achieve thriving, sustainable systems.
Grounded in the belief that "if you don't design your life, it'll be designed for you," Javan empowers clients to align their decisions with their values, rethink entrenched beliefs, and create or pivot regenerative businesses that embody their essence.
As the founder of Regenerative Living, Javan collaborates with world-class practitioners and educators to teach transformative skills "to live on the planet as if we intend to stay."
Since 2015, he has worked with Oregon State University as an instructor for the Permaculture Design Course PRO, contributing innovative curriculum and content development.
A multifaceted professional—speaker, educator, author, filmmaker, course designer, and publisher—Javan champions harmony with nature in every aspect of his work.
Patrick Jones - Course author
Patrick Jones - Course author
Meet the instructorS
Tristan Holme
Tristan is a social designer, group facilitator and intentional community co-founder living in South Africa.
Having experienced consistent success employing Values-Based Decision-Making with individuals, forming groups and established communities, he now teaches collaborative groups how to identify their core values and make holistic decisions towards the future they desire.
Having experienced consistent success employing Values-Based Decision-Making with individuals, forming groups and established communities, he now teaches collaborative groups how to identify their core values and make holistic decisions towards the future they desire.
Patrick Jones - Course author
“The approach of values based decision making provides a game changing tool when it comes to time management and productivity. Thanks to the introspection process and self awareness, the obstacles that blind your vision become evident and easier to remove.”
JUAN DAVID MERY FERNANDEZ
Frequently asked questions
How long will I have access to the course material?
You'll have access to the course material for one year from the start date of the course.
Is the course refundable?
The course is non-refundable.
Can my partner or friend look over my shoulder while I take the course?
Yes! Your registration allows for one "over the shoulder" viewing of the course. We ask you not to share your login information with anyone else.