2019 Game Plan
I really love January 1sts. I mean, really, really love. There’s something wonderful about a Monday, or the first day of a new month. But the first day of a year? Even better. (Give me a January 1st that lands on a Monday and I might faint)
I just love a new start to anything. When January 1 rolls around, you know I always have a huge list of resolutions. If I try to sit down and make a list of New Year’s resolutions, I could probably list 100 before I stopped. I definitely go way overboard with my resolution making, and then I only stick to a handful (at best).
For this new year, I decided to scale back my resolutions a bit, and really just focus on a few “systems” that I want to try and follow for at least the first month. At the end of January, I’ll re-evaluate, and see where I need to go next. I have chosen 5 systems to focus on 5 areas for now. These areas and the corresponding systems are:
Health and Wellness
What kind of New Year’s goals/resolutions list would it be without a health goal thrown in? To kick off my 2019, I’m planning to start the workout program that worked me into the best shape of my life. 80 Day Obsession by BeachBody and Autumn Calabrese. It’s a workout program where I work out six days a week and it has a very healthy meal plan included. I’ve completed it twice, and it’s one of my favorites. I will start this on January 1 and it will take me through the first 3 months of the year.
House Keeping
I’ve been all over the board with my house cleaning schedules the past few years. As a working mom, I cannot let myself be random about when and what I clean. I need to make sure I’m getting to everything, every day/week/month as needed, and that nothing gets neglected. I have used the FlyLady system for years, but receiving email reminders during the work day about all the home cleaning tasks I should be doing has just been frustrating. So, I’m going to try a new system called Clean Mama. I plan to try this for a month, and at the end of the month, either continue with it or tweak it or add some items from FlyLady back in.
Personal Development
For the past year or more, I have been following The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. If you haven’t read his book, you need to read it. Now. Right now. It inspired me to get up earlier and to add meditation, affirmations, visualization, reading of personal development books, and writing/journaling to my morning routine before I get my workout in. This has helped me feel more centered and focused in the morning, and I highly recommend it. I was never a morning person until I found this program! For 2019, I want to put more emphasis on meditation and affirmations, and I want to get up earlier and spend even more time on this as I have been rushing through it the past few months.
Declutter 365
We have moved six times in the past four years. During these moves, we mostly lived in furnished rentals, so our stuff has stayed boxed up and in many locations for quite some time. Now that we are finally in our forever home, we had to merge a bunch of crap together. And it’s been overwhelming. I’ve always followed the Declutter 365 plan from Organized Home Solutions but it’s been difficult when our stuff has been packed up or when we weren’t in a home we could update. This system has daily 15-minute tasks for a full year that help you to declutter and set up systems for your home. I love a good plan, especially when I don’t have to develop it!
12 Week Year
Last, but definitely not least, the system that is going to help me pull everything together. The 12 Week Year is a book by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington. Their website also has a ton of useful information. Instead of focusing on what you want to accomplish in a year, you focus on 12 weeks. You decide what you want to accomplish, and then you break it into actionable tasks that you track during those 12 weeks. The tracking piece is my favorite. I use an Excel spreadsheet and track the daily tasks I want to do, and I use formulas to calculate the percentages so I can see how I’m tracking on getting my goals accomplished.
There it is. My “resolutions” for 2019. I will be tracking how I’m doing with these five systems in a notebook. This way, when I fall off the wagon (which hopefully I won’t), I can start to see where I went wrong and what tasks were maybe getting overwhelming.
Are you making New Year’s resolutions? I’d love to hear them!
