I know what you're thinking. Not this ridiculous thing again! Wait, hear me out, please.
I have had the same 5 resolutions on my agenda every year since I was 15 years old, I am an adult now and I guess the new year will not bring with it a new me. Do you know what will though? Habits and Systems.
I am someone who loves to plan. Come December and almost on instinct I am browsing the various range of planners available for the next year. Needless to say, I spend an obscene amount of money on planners and supplies every year, more so in the past 2 years when I actually started earning. I can't say I am perfect when it comes to planning and achieving everything on my list but I have gotten significantly better. So I thought I'd share a few of my tips about creating good habits and keeping up with systems that have benefitted me a lot over the years.
1. Review 2020
Before we plan for 2021, we need to see what worked in 2020, what did not, what habits could you sort of keep up with, what habits have you been trying to cut and failing. This is the time to take stock of what you usually do and what do you want to do and in the next step we will talk about how to bridge the gap between the two steps. Have you heard the saying 'What gets measured, gets managed'? Well, this is why we have to do this step because we need to manage our goals so first, it is essential to monitor what has happened over the past year.
2. Plan out 2021
I don't mean obsessively narrowing it down to hourly schedules of every day. No. I just mean that now that you know what works and what doesn't, you need to create goals for the new year. and I said goals and not resolutions because your resolve or willpower is a depletable resource. I usually create a mindmap of different categories of my life and list out a maximum of 3 big goals under each category. For each goal, I list out a maximum of 4 big action steps for each quarter and 3 to-dos under each action step for each month. I know it sounds elaborate but what it basically comes down to is 3 items to get done every month for each part of your life and these should be really small basic steps. That is the key.
Let me just give an example.
Category: Personal Development
Goal: Adopt a healthy lifestyle
Step 1: Lose 5 kgs by June
To-Do:
Pick a workout routine to do 5x a week
Never miss 2 days in a row
Always workout on Mondays
Step 2: Eat healthily To-Do:
Learn to cook your favorite meals
Minimize takeout to 1x a week
Always have salads at meals first
Step 3: Be more active To-Do:
Meet friends for walks
Take a 10-minute walk outdoors every day
Stretch as soon as you wake up
Hope that makes it easier for you to set up very simple action items to get done every month and every week so you can finally start achieving your goals.
3. The 2-day rule
On the subject of starting and keeping habits, I found this on the Youtube channel of Matt Davella and he follows something called the 2-day rule - it's super simple. Whenever you start a habit just don't skip it for 2 days in a row, this makes you do stuff on alternate days at least, and when you do something 4 times a week that is still enough to show some results. At first, it sounds very simple and sort of a derived version of Jerry Seinfeld's system of maintaining a streak but whenever you really need to make sustainable life changes, going from zero to 100 in a very short amount of time although possible will often lead to burnout. So consistent small steps are what will keep you accountable and this rule allows just that. It
enforces a habit while allowing for life's interruptions.
4. Create a morning and night routine
Getting your day off to a good start is just as important as taking time every day to slow down and get ready for bed. Ideally, that should include an hour of screen-free time after you wake up and before you go to bed, maybe a hot shower, some skincare, reading a few pages, or journaling. You need to figure out your ideal morning and night routine for yourself. How I go about it is, look at the amount of time I have in the morning from when I wake up to when I need to start work and list out realistically 3-5 things I want to get done within that time and allot certain blocks of time to it. Same for the night, I keep the items lesser because I don’t really have too much energy later in the day. I like having these routines as a sort of bookends to my workday and they force me to create some me-time every day to take care of my physical and mental health.
5. Build a self-care kit
2020 has really been a tough year. And this has shown us more than ever how little time we dedicate to taking care of ourselves mentally. So instead of splurging on a big spa day once a month (which is a great idea too, btw) let us try to take care of ourselves in small ways every day. This is why my suggestion is to build a self-care kit. It should be a list of all items that make you feel good and help you relax and slow down. It could be a lofi Spotify playlist, a DIY spa day kit, a box of paints and your favorite sketchbook, maybe some doodling pens, a great hot chocolate recipe, and a good book. You decide what that looks like for you but have a self-care emergency kit ready for any day you don’t feel a 100% instead of waiting until you reach full burnout.
6. Weekly reset
I love new years and new beginnings as much as the next planner girl. But what if I told you, you don’t need to wait till the new year to start a new life? Wild, right? Actually, this method had helped me stay on track with so many goals over the years. Doing a weekly reset is the ultimate way of re-evaluating your steps every week and make sure they align with your big yearly goals. I read this quote somewhere that we always overestimate what we can do in a day and underestimate what we can do in a year. So this year take 52 chances for 52 fresh starts, reflect, realign and make sure that those 2021 goals are absolutely crushed.
Let us all create smart goals and achieve everything we want this year! Happy new year everyone and happy planning!
Really liked SMART goals