My 2016 Resolutions & How I Plan to Stick To Them (and How You Can, too!)
Yes, it’s the New Year and you’ve probably read a ton of these articles. But today I thought I would share with you my own personal and professional resolutions as well as some methods you can use to stay on track with your own goals! Let’s see how 2016 fares for me – maybe I’ll give a December update 🙂
Goal 1: Be a little more selfish with my time (Personal)
Goal 2: Work more efficiently (Professional)
Goal 3: Figure out what’s really important (Personal & Professional)
Here’s my breakdown:
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1. Be A Little More Selfish With My Time
I’m at that age when just about the age every friend and family member is getting married. 2015 was one of the best years ever because I got to not only celebrate 6 (yes, six!) weddings, I got to be a part of 2 of them. It was a year full of wedding talk, dress shopping, throwing bridal showers, traveling, and (best of all) partying! It was seriously fantastic, but also VERY busy!
2016 has a few weddings already added to our schedule (which I cannot wait for), but not nearly as many! So this will be a year of focusing on my own priorities and passions. Like binge watching more Netflix crime documentaries (I finished Making A Murderer way too quickly!). And going on actual vacations. And anything else I want to do! Viva la 2016!
2. Work more efficiently.
I’m sure many of you can relate, but it is difficult to work in a systematic, efficient matter – especially with a creative mind that’s constantly hopping from one place to the next! This year I’d like to lessen my distractions (like my love/hate relationship with Facebook!) and focus on the task at hand, whatever it may be.
3. Figure out what’s truly important.
This applies to all areas of my life, personal and professional. At work, this means digging deeper into my client projects and figuring out their priorities before any of the actual design work. I’ve always worked this way, but there is always room for improvement and new strategies to try.
In my personal life, this means setting priorities and sticking to them. It ties back with my first goal of being more selfish with my time – saying yes to everything means I’m saying no to other (possibly more important and meaningful) things. That’s not good! I want to spend my time and energy wisely. This means more family time, more hobby time, more R&R, and less unnecessary commitments.
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Now, how do I actually carry out these resolutions? And maybe you’re wondering how to stick with your own? I’ve found that the most important part of any goal is to break it down into realistic, actionable bits and pieces. For example, if your goal is to eat healthier, that’s great! However, “eat healthier” is way to vague to actually be helpful to you. Instead, here’s how you could break it down:
- Get rid of current junk food in your house.
- Subscribe to a healthy eating blog and try one of their recipes every week.
- Pack your own lunch every day.
These are clear-cut, actionable items that you can employ whenever you decide to dive in. Much less vague than “eat healthier”!
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For me to break down my goal of “Figure out what’s truly important”, here’s what I plan to do:
- If somebody asks me to do something, I will reply with “let me think about it and get back to you.” I am a people-pleaser at heart, so I tend to agree to whatever is asked of me. Like I said above, this means that I am saying “no” to other things that are more important and meaningful to myself.
- Make a prioritized list of what I’d like to focus on this year.
- Make a daily / weekly / monthly task schedule to keep me on-track with that list. For example, call my dad once a week, meditate for 5 minutes every day, etc.
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The last important item – don’t overcomplicate it! I find that I personally like to try to figure everything out and hard-core strategize before even getting started on a task. And then I never actually get started because I’m super overwhelmed! If you can break up your resolution into actionable items, you’re in a much better starting place.
Here are a couple of resources I’ve personally found really helpful in my goal-keeping:
- Productive iPhone App: I used this last year to develop a few new habits and it worked REALLY well! I highly recommend this app!
- Lara Casey’s PowerSheets: These sheets are really helpful to put together a year-long plan for yourself, professionally or personally.
- Good old notebook and pen: Tried and true, making my own lists never fails to kick my butt into gear! These are my favorites 🙂
Good luck, and best wishes to everyone for an awesome 2016!
