Getting Ready for a New Year!

There's an Old Dutch South African saying, "A Farmer Makes a Plan".  It basically means there are lots of unexpected things in life, but having a plan helps...

2019 starts tomorrow, and I’m sorting out my plans for the year. Having a plan can make a big difference to my life; mostly because it helps me be more proactive and less reactive. The better prepared I am (the more proactive), the easier my life gets. Life is always throwing curve balls, but if I’ve got the basics sorted it seems not to put me off my stride as much. I’ve tried lots of different methods over the years. Here’s what I do now.

My planning system has four parts:

1. A written plan
2. A review
3. A diary
4. A calendar

1. Written Plan
I think the best way is to have some prompts that make me think in a well rounded way about my life and where I want to be at the end of it. I envisage who I want to be in these areas:

• Me - Health & Fitness, Spiritual, Intellectual, Emotional, Character, Environment
• Relationships - Parenting, Love, Friends
• Business/Work - Financial, Career

I write a document in a format that works best for me for the year, eg handwritten, an artwork, or an e-document with images. Then I take that plan and break it down into daily habits and then link my plan to my diary so I action it. Two helpful resources here are:

• https://www.16personalities.com/ - take a free Myer-Briggs test that’s stood the test of time, presented in a friendly usable form to get to know yourself better.
• https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits – James Clear has the very best tips for building good habits into your life bit by tiny bit in a way that overcomes our natural tendency as humans to opt for the bad habits.

2. Review
This is where I review my year and my plan. I think about what went well, what did not, what I learned and would like more of or less of. I write it down so it’s more thoughtful and honest. I update my plan accordingly and diarise quarterly reviews for the year.

3. Diary
I use a 6 ring, 96mm x 172mm page, week to a glance dayrunner/ daytimer/ filofax loose leaf diary with an Oroton binder.   Pictured above.

In November/December I buy the refill for the following year. Last week in December I replace the refill. I have a page at the back of this years diary headed 2019 (or next year). On this I have all the regular stuff I know I have to do each year and when (eg BAS, honey levies, super, lease renewal, tax) as well as anything that came up late in the year for the following year (eg order new 3kg labels, school camp payment deadlines, Jan orthodontist appointment).

So to the new diary I add:

• all the regular jobs from the 2018 list
• school holidays - I use a highlighter to mark holidays on both calendar and diary
• a new list for the next year headed 2019 with all the regular jobs on it
• birthdays for Jan-June (I have these on a page that fits the diary which I store in June or Dec) marked as person’s name and ‘i’ as a code for birthday candle
• I then put in the jobs from my plan that I must get done – no more than 2-3 per day & new habit trackers
• quarterly reviews for the year – I allocate a day for these. This helps me get to the end of the year with my plan being actioned
• I put in full moon each month as a round dot in yellow highlighter – I like the reminder to pay attention to what’s around me and I do try to plant seeds each full moon

4. Calendar
I get a free 12 page calendar from the hardware store or pharmacy. The main thing about it is that it’s got a month to a page with a white box for each day with space to write stuff in. I highlight the school holidays when I’m doing the same to my diary.

This gets hung inside the pantry and it’s the calendar the family use for organising ourselves and not over committing. The things put on the calendar are off farm appointments, kids jobs that have to be done on a certain day and rainfall. If the box gets too full then that’s a clear sign life is getting too busy and we need to pull back.