Get Organised for the New Year

Warning: This is not your Usual ‘Get Organised for the New Year’ post!

Hi, I’m Cara from thehootingpirate.com. Thank you sooo much Melissa, for letting me guest post here today. Give your sweet baby kisses from me!

If you are looking for a typical easy-fix get organised post, the internet is full of them, but this one is not one of them. This one is different.

Ah the new year! Always so full of potential and hope. Everyone vowing that this year will be different. This year is the year ‘IT’ will happen. They decide to lose weight, get rich, find love or get organised or some other big, ambitious goal.

Some time between Christmas and New Year’s you felt the imminent approach of the new year and all its potential, or maybe you heard someone mention writing their resolution. So you curled up in a squashy chair by the fire with a glass of eggnog and leftover Christmas cake and a floral notebook to neatly and carefully write out your goals for the year. You reached high and dreamed big. This year is your year!

Everyone writes resolutions, they start a diet, buy pretty bins and baskets to organise their things but how long does this early January motivation last? The end of January? Jan 10? Or maybe only a few days… think back to your resolutions from last January? How long was it before you forgot about your resolutions? Did you even open that pretty floral notebook again once you wrote your big plan?

Yah, that motivation peters out really fast doesn’t it?

Why is that?

And how can you use that motivation and energy of the new year to make it work for you and really make 2016 YOUR year?

You need more than just motivation and goals or resolutions. You need to take ACTION, because these resolutions won’t get done by themselves! You need action and for that you need a PLAN.

The best way to track your plan is with a planner of course 🙂 But not just any planner, you need a planner that will work with you and for you. A planner has to work for you the way you need it to. It needs to be your minion 😉

Most online articles, talking about how to get organised, share someone else’s solution. A solution that has worked for them but probably won’t work for you because you are unique and your plans, ideals, habits, etc are unique to you. And that is amazing!

But that also makes things hard.

You need to do the work yourself to figure out what works for you.

You need a plan and a planner that works for you. But all the planning in the world won’t make an ounce of difference if you don’t take action!!

However, we often don’t take the actions needed to succeed, even though we know that’s what will get us closer to our goals and dreams.

So how come we don’t take these action?

It seems like it should be simple, but even if we plan it all out right down to the individual action steps (which is a very important step!), why don’t we take these actions if they will help us see our goals and dreams realised?

We need to see those action steps in plain sight, right in front of us everyday! And that is the importance of a planner. A place to lay out your action steps, have them in sight before you to remind you everyday. Reminding you not only of those steps but of the goals, plans and dreams that you dreamed up back on Jan 1.

You need this reminder and you need a planner to hold your dreams and each and every one of those action step.

Here are 5 very important questions to help you find a planner that works for you.

1. What things are you planning, keeping track of and trying to organise?
2. What are you writing on the backs of envelopes and scraps of paper?
3. Where do papers (forms, post-its, mail, appointment cards, and those backs of envelopes) naturally gather/land?
4. What categories do you need for the items that you will have in your planner? What categories are forming naturally in the paper and plans that you already have?
5. How far into the future do you need to plan? A whole year in advance? 6 months? Or is just next week fine?

Your answers to these questions will give you a start at finding your planner. It’s not an easy task, but I can help. I have a whole class, blog posts and a video series dedicated to helping you find your perfect planner. Find out more at thehootingpirate.com. Or sign up to receive a free class to get started right away. I’m offering my planner class again this spring, but if you can’t wait to find planner peace why not work with me one on one? Drop me an email at cara@thehootingpirate.com.

What are your dreams? Have you planned them out?

Cara works with planner girls who are struggling to find a planner that works for them. She helps them find planner peace in 6 weeks. She is also a scrapbooker, teacher, nerd, and hockey mama of 6 geeklings. Find more about Cara on instagram and persicope.