How to prepare for the New Year
In this post, I’m sharing tips on how you can prepare for the New Year. The New Year is the perfect excuse to start fresh but that doesn’t mean you need to write off the end of 2019. There are only two months left until the New Year and it’s around this time that most people decide to let themselves go and pick up the pieces in January, but now is the perfect time to get yourself prepared so you can hit the ground running in 2020. You can still get your A-Game on even if you’ve found this year to be challenging, and if you’ve had a great year so far, then finish stronger than you ever imagined.
The end of the year is a good time to check in with yourself and look at where you are right now and where you’re heading. What were your intentions at the start of 2019 and what are your intentions for 2020?
Even if you’re not where you want to be right now, that doesn’t mean you need to wait until 1 January to start over, you can start right now and come into the new year better than you planned.
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1. Create a list of your accomplishments
Start by creating a list of all of your accomplishments from the past year, whether they are big or small. Think of this like a reverse bucket list. This exercise will help you to appreciate what you’ve already accomplished and help you to remember how far you’ve come so far. Start from January and work your way through each month, sometimes looking through your photos, social media, journal or planner can help you to remember.
2. Create a list of lessons learned
Another great way to prepare yourself for the new year is to create a list of lessons you’ve learned from the year that’s been. Again, start from January and work your way through each month and take a look through your social media and your planner to refresh your memory.
3. Get yourself a new planner
If you’re a stationery lover, then the new year also means a new planner. I like to use the Positivity Planner every month as the structure and style of the planner help you to set goals, create new habits and reflect at the end of every month. Setting a goal at the start of a new year is great, but keeping on track with those goals every month is where you will see the real difference.
3. Forgive
Are you holding any grudges right now? When you hold a grudge against someone, you are also hurting yourself. Wipe the slate clean and end the year by forgiving others. To forgive others you don’t necessarily need to announce to them or to anyone else that you forgive them, you simply need to let go of your grudge, because holding a grudge does not do well for your well-being.
4. Book appointments
Are there any appointments that you’ve been procrastinating? Now is the time to book those appointments so they don’t hang over you in the new year. It’s such a good feeling to start the New Year with a fresh to-do list. Booking appointments might seem like a small thing, but they can make our minds feel cluttered when left undone.
5. Organise your photos
Firstly I’ll admit that I have thousands of photos on my phone! So as I write this I’m also reminding myself to go through all of my photos, delete the ones which I don’t want and upload the others to my Google Drive. You can also upload to them places such as iCloud, Amazon Cloud and DropBox. You can then delete those photos from your phone to save space and have peace of mind knowing that your memories are in a safe place.
6. Clean your inbox
Clean up your inbox by unsubscribing from those emails which you no longer want to receive, just find the ‘unsubscribe’ button at the bottom of the emails. Create subfolders for regular emails, for example, some of my subfolders include ‘bloggers’ which are emails from bloggers I love, ‘receipts’ for online shopping, and ‘Ocado’ for my online food delivery receipts.
7. De-clutter your closet:
Let’s be honest, you know that you have items in your wardrobe that you’re never going to wear again. I recommend reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying
8. Remember that you’re in control
As you go into the new year, remind yourself that you’re in control. Sometimes it’s easy t feel like we don’t have control of your life and it’s easy to blame others for our circumstances. For example, if you work a full-time job it’s easy to blame work as the reason why you don’t have enough time to relax, exercise or cook healthy meals, but these thoughts are disempowering, as we have control of so much more than we think.
How will you prepare for the New Year? Comment below!
