We’re almost halfway through January, but I’m still neck deep in new year planning. I am a lifelong fan of goal-setting and planning, but I’ve never planned a system for new year planning. I’ve just been starting over every year with whatever program, planner, or notebook that strikes my fancy. There’s nothing wrong with that, but this year, I wanted to come up with a system that would have some longevity. What I really want is a reusable new-year planning tool. Since making lists is a big part of my annual planning process, I decided to create reusable lists to use annually for new year planning. The purpose is to make something I can sit down with each January and update, fill-in-the-blank style.
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Step 1: Brainstorm Monthly Planning Ideas
The first step is to make a list of everything you want to plan for the year. Include everything you can think of: birthdays to remember, home projects, seasonal gardening chores, bucket lists, date nights, crafts with the kids…it’s a big list! Your list might look different than mine, but feel free to use the list below as a starting point.
- birthdays & other dates to remember
- monthly meal planning
- gardening calendar
- national holidays
- home projects
- date nights
- seasonal decor planning & ideas
- bucket lists
- home maintenance chores
- fun holidays
- occasions and events
- exercise planning
- personal projects
- game nights
- crafts for the kids
- goals
- books to read
- movies, shows, or video to watch
- podcasts
- one-on-one time with the kids
- family activities
Step 2: Group Your List into Categories
The main reason I wanted to group my individual items in categories was to eliminate duplication, combine similar ideas, and to create an orderly list that could be understood at a glance. My categories for creating a reusable planning system became:
- calendar items
- personal items
- family items
- seasonal type items (these are things that I felt are more suited to seasonal planning than following a strict monthly timeline)
Step 3: Create Your Reusable Master List
Now we’ve gotten to the easy part. You’ve done all the work of brainstorming and sorting, now you get to make a pretty list! You can make your own list and customize it, or, I’ve made a simple printable that you can download from my free resource library. This monthly planning list will be our guide to create a reusable planning system. The master list will be useful as a reference for creating your reusable planning system right now, and it will be helpful in future years to have a handy at-a-glance starting point when deciding how to plan your new year.
This is the list I’ll be working from to create my reusable planning system. Head over to “Monthly Lists to Plan Your Year” to find more planning printables. The entire system is easily contained in a three-ring binder so it’s easy to switch things out from year to year. I’m using a pretty floral Avery binder, but any 3-ring binder will do.
Planning Printables To Organize Everything
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