Does it seem like January always kind of sneaks up on you?
Between holiday madness and wrapping things up for the end of the year at work, the last weeks of December tend to go by in a blur. It’s like it’s Thanksgiving, and then you blink and suddenly it’s time to set some new goals and prepare for another year. Maybe you’re someone who always sets New Year’s resolutions about time management, or exercising more, or accomplishing something new at work. When you look up one day and realize it’s already December 31st, there’s not a lot of time to do big-picture thinking about what you really want from the year ahead, and how to create meaningful goals that help you live the kind of life you want.
Losing Time Around The Holidays
Hopefully around the holidays, at least some of that “lost time” is devoted to lounging around at home, traveling to see loved ones or doing whatever it is that fuels you outside of work. I want you to be able to take time off at this time of year and be able to recharge without worrying about your to-do list. I know I’m planning to take the week between Christmas and New Year to unplug from work and just be present with my family.
Because we all know how quickly and strangely time can move at the end of the year—and because of that, I want you to…
- Be able to take that time off without worrying about work
- Start having those big-picture conversations with yourself now
- Feel recharged and have clarity about what you really want from the year ahead
I DON’T want you to have to scramble to set vague goals or choose New Year’s resolutions at random just because it’s suddenly New Year’s Eve. Get some work around goal setting out of the way now so you can be fully present in whatever you do around the holidays.
Ask Yourself These 3 Questions as You Set Goals Around Time Management & Productivity:
1-What are My Most Meaningful Goals?
You need more than just good intentions to set and achieve goals over the coming year—you need a plan.
Too often, people set goals based on what they think they should be accomplishing or what kinds of goals they’ve set in the past. But the right goals, the ones that will help you enjoy your life and your work, aren’t rooted in external factors like what your peers are accomplishing or what might get you the most likes on social media.
Think about what…
- is really meaningful for you?
- do you value the most?
- do you want more of in your life?
- makes you feel fueled and inspired?
Let those answers guide you as you set meaningful goals.
2-What Tools Are Going to Help Me Connect My Moments With My Meaningful Goals?
This is really the “how” piece of achieving your goals. What tools are going to help you work efficiently and schedule your day, your week and beyond so you have the time and space you need to have the life you want? The answer is different for everyone because everyone’s wired differently. The time management tools that work for someone else won’t necessarily work for you, so you need some time to do some deep thinking about your answer.
3-Once I create space for my goals, how am I going to keep it open?
It’s easy to keep a New Year’s resolution for a day or two. Say you resolve to get up early to run every morning. It works well for the first week. But then you have one really late night at work and need the extra sleep the next morning, so you skip one day. And then you have to get up early for a meeting, so you skip the run that day too. Soon your daily habit has evaporated. There’s no long-term plan in place to keep that space open in your schedule for a run.
Creating more time and space in your life is just one half of the challenge. The second half of the challenge is keeping that space open instead of falling back on old habits, even when things get busy or you start to get overwhelmed. You need an additional set of tools to maintain your relationship to your long-term goals as the weeks and months pass.
Need One-on-One Time Management Support to Start the Year Strong? I’m Here to Help.
If you could fix your time management and productivity problems alone, you would have done it already. Learning new habits and a new way of managing your time can be daunting, and you need support to put the pieces in place in a way that works for you life long term. I want to help in whatever way I can.
My Time Mastery program is a solution for people who are serious about creating space for the life they want and are ready to finally live it. In Time Mastery you will learn how to take the day to day actions that will get you the life you crave with top level coaching from me. The first step is a strategy session so we can talk about your specific needs and whether or not Time Mastery would be a good fit.
Click here to request your strategy session.
Gratefully,
Sarah
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