Three Simple Things You Can Do to Kick Off the New Year
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1)A Planner
A physical planner, in my opinion, is essential to the start of a successful new year. Organizing your life can be a great way to inspire you to be productive and make the most out of your time in order to achieve your goals. Planners for some reason has been stereotyped to be a “girl thing” but quite frankly no one is going to care if you’re a guy with a planner, it’s a good thing to have! Especially if you’re trying to plan around girls’ or guys’ night!
I myself have a few recommendations as to what kind of planners can be especially helpful. The first kind I would suggest is the Day DesignerⓇ. Day DesignerⓇ was created in 2010 by Whitney English and although men can use it if they like, it is primarily targeted towards women. For each day it provides you with a time based blank schedule where you can write in your minute to minute schedule for the day as well as space for a “to-do” list, a “top three to-dos” for the day, a “goals” column, and a little space to write what your grateful for. Each page also includes a little inspirational quote and the planner also provides you with a monthly calendar.
My second planner recommendation is by a notebook company called DenikⓇ. Their planner’s sleek designs allow it to be fashionable for both men and women. Each planner comes with a monthly calendar, a weekly calendar space to write in a day to day tasks and assignments along with additional space for notes for each week. This company also donates its proceeds into building schools in impoverished communities abroad in places such as Mali, Ghana, Laos, and Guatemala, so not only are you helping yourself with this purchase, you are helping others as well.
2) A Playlist
Another excellent way to excite yourself for the new year is to create a new playlist. The songs on the playlist should emulate the kind of attitude you want to dive into 2019 with, so I would recommend songs that make you feel inspired and happy to combat times when you feel like your in a rut or in a depressed state of mind.I would obviously stay away from songs that pertain to depression, breaking up, broken friendship, or death.
This playlist can appeal to whatever you want it to appeal to, as long as it makes you feel good. You can appeal to nostalgia by adding in old Disney songs or 2000s music. You can also appeal to empowerment and add in music that emboldens you and makes you feel stronger. A good example can be Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger” (which also touches upon our early 2010s nostalgia which is a plus. Or you can also just simply add in music that pertains strongly to your taste. If you’re into rap, dedicate a whole playlist specifically for rap or if you are into Musical Theatre, by all means, dedicate a playlist to Broadway Show tunes.
3) Create a Vision Board or a Goal List for 2019
This may not be for everyone but for those who are big journalers, this is an awesome thing you can spend a Sunday afternoon on. To make a vision board, go through some old magazines, Instagram accounts that inspire you, Pinterest or Tumblr and proceed to either print and cut out some picture
s that you find from those sources. Then proceed to take a piece of construction paper or poster paper and past those pictures into a collage. What this does is it helps to remind you of the goals and aspirations that are important and special to you so that when you do have a moment throughout the year where you do feel uninspired, you can always go back to look at your vision board to remind yourself of what your vision of personal success looks like to you. Be careful not to add in any pictures that pertain to unrealistic expectations of body image or lifestyle. It is better to envision your success on a realistic scale. Another thing you can do is to just create a list of your goals. Again, these goals should be realistic to who you are, this is supposed to build self-confidence not tear it down. I have found some free printable templates you can use to create a goal list.
https://daydesigner.com/collections/printable-library