New Year Planning Guide - How To Create a Successful New Year Plan

New Year Planning Guide - For a Successful New Year

Did you know that 22% of New Year’s resolutions fail after the very first week of the new year? It’s true that resolutions are now seen as more of a tradition and less of something to actually stick to. However, it’s great to set goals for your year in order to set yourself up for the best and most rewarding year possible!

How to Plan Your New Year

If you know your priorities and your goals, you can take the time to lay out a successful plan for the new year. This plan will be streamlined in order to achieve these goals, but it can still be flexible and change throughout the year. After all, a year is a long time, and your priorities or goals could change in that time as well! 

Priorities

First, think introspectively. What are your priorities? What do you want to continue in the new year, and what do you want to change? You may also want to list these out and rank them by importance to you.

This will help determine where your focus should lie in the coming year. Once you have these priorities cemented, you can set goals that will help you to realize and achieve your priorities.

For example, you may be prioritizing a better work-life balance, and therefore decide that one of your new year’s goals is to find a job in a new industry. 

Schedule

Take a look at your schedule for the upcoming year. What sort of commitments do you have already? Fill in all of the commitments you will have-- such as work, school, or holidays and birthdays.

Then, you have an overview of how much time you have to devote to your goals. If you already have a jam-packed year, it is best to choose some smaller goals that you will be able to achieve, rather than picking goals that are so large they will be unachievable.

While it is great to reach for the stars, you do still want to be sure that you are being realistic!

We Can Help

Scheduling can be difficult without a system or a tool.  Wrinkle and Crease recommends our 2022 daily planner.  These amazing planners not only look great, they are also designed to help you achieve your scheduling and planning goals for the year.  

Break It Down

Now that you’ve chosen your 2022 goals and written them out, make an action plan of how you will accomplish each goal. You can do this by breaking each goal down into smaller goals, or even smaller tasks.

Turn these goals into SMART goals-- this is a tactic used by many business owners. It stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. This requires you to make your goals more specific. For example, rather than saying that you want to start a new job in the new year, you could specify that you want to start a new job by April 1st.

You could then break this down further into smaller goals by outlining that you want to send out applications by January 30th and then be interviewing for positions by February 28th.

Set Good Habits

Setting healthy habits is a surefire path to achieving your goals for the new year. It helps to build self-discipline, which can also be translated into discipline to achieve these goals. Depending on your individual goals, it may help to set specific habits that coincide with these goals.

For example, if you are looking to begin going to sleep earlier so that you are more productive during the day, you could begin implementing a bedtime routine. Instead of sitting up in bed and turning on the tv at bedtime, read a book or do a mind-stimulating puzzle such as Sudoko.

This will help you to relax at bedtime and unwind, making you more susceptible to sleep!

We Can Help

Wrinkle and Crease has a number of helpful habit tracking products that can help you with the process.  Here is our habit tracker...

Create a Schedule 

Time management and a planned out schedule are, of course, essential to achieving your goals. This is also true for your goals in the new year.

Especially if you have a very busy year coming up, it can be helpful to take a look at your calendar and block out time that is solely dedicated to working towards achieving your goals. Another tactic when planning a schedule is to have certain days dedicated to certain chores or to-dos.

This helps you to get into a flow where you can become more productive instead of switching your brain back and forth between different types of tasks.

Be Flexible

Last, but not least, give yourself grace when working towards your goals! Be kind to yourself if you do not achieve all that you plan to accomplish-- any progress at all is still a move in the right direction, towards your goals.

Of course your year will not go perfectly according to plan. There are lots of things that you are not aware of yet that will come up throughout those 365 days. However, having your 2022 plan will help you to pick up where you left off or evaluate if need be after any unexpected hiccups. 

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I write a New Years Plan?

Before making any plans or setting any goals, you should reflect on the past year, what you have accomplished, and what you want to improve on. Then, write down your big visions for your life, and set your goals according to all of this information.

You should also set up some systems to implement these goals in the new year.

How do you plan for New Years 2022?

You should be sure to set goals and make resolutions that are reasonable and that you can actually accomplish. Look at the big changes you want to make in your life and then break these changes down into smaller steps that you can work towards as your goals for 2022. 

How do you plan your goals for the new year?

You should identify barriers or anything that may stop you from achieving your goals in the new year. Once you are aware of these, plan for how to avoid them, and adjust your goals accordingly.

You can also break your goals into smaller, more manageable chunks to take one at a time towards your larger, overarching goals.