Supercharge Your New Year: 10 Powerful Tips to Plan For Your Best Year Yet

Happy New Year! Well, almost New Year's. But now is the perfect time to get started making your plan for the new year.

Some people like to wait until the start of the year and that's great. I like to do it at the end of the year. Get all my ducks in a row so when the new year hits we start quarter one already running.

Over the years I have created and modified a plan that works well for me and that I love. One that sets me up for the most success.

For me, getting specific and really diving in is important. But before I put pen to paper and make anything etched in stone, I spend some time in my head and reflecting. I think the combination of the metaphysical and the physical works really well for truly getting set up for the new year in the best way.

I subscribe to Michael Hyatt's Full Focus Planner and use that for a lot of my planning. I think he provides the best structure I've ever seen when it comes to yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily planning, in one book. 

As a person with ADHD, it can be hard to stay organized and stick to doing something like this but this planner makes it incredibly easy to do.

Here are 10 Powerful Tips for planning your best year yet:

1. Take time to reflect

Before I put pen to paper or get started creating next year's plan, I reflect on the year I had. I do this first through ritual or you could do it simply through meditation or quiet time. Start with your wins. What did you accomplish this year? What made you excited? What worked well in your business (or other profession)?

Then reflect on what you think could have gone better this year. What were things that happened that you didn't really like? What were parts of your business that you'd like to change?  How can you change them?

Light yourself a candle, turn down the lights, sit on something comfy, put on some meditation music and go inward.

2. Record your wins from the year

I like doing this at the beginning. After spending time reflecting I like to write down all my biggest wins. Putting these on a separate paper from the other parts of your planning can be a great way to give yourself a reminder of what you accomplished this year.

We often have a negativity bias that takes over and we don't acknowledge all of the great things that have happened. When we ignore our wins, we typically have less and less, or that's our experience anyway. Don't ignore them. Celebrate them. Show the universe (or your higher power) that you're grateful and you're calling in more.

3. Free write about the person you want to be

Habit change is heavily dependent on your identity and the identity that you would like to embody. It all starts with who you want to be. Take out a clean sheet of paper, set a timer if you like and just free-write.  Write down as many details about the person you want to be as possible.

Once you have this, everything you write down going forward to plan for the new year should be based on this identity. When you make a new goal, first ask "Is this goal something my ideal self would have?"

4. Record your areas for improvements

I think anything can be improved upon if we want it. If you don't want something to continue into the new year, write that down and make a plan for an alternative course of action. Anything you do want to keep but you want to get better, do the same thing.

How can you make that happen next year? What do you need to get, buy or hire to make this happen? Never stop working on improving yourself and your business.

5. Start writing down your annual goals

As a business owner, setting goals or intentions is an important motivator. Even if you're not, setting them is important and can help inspire your year. Make sure you make them as specific as you can. Make them actionable, make them based on your ideal self and make sure they're things you want and not just think you have to have.

I write down the quarter I'd like to complete them in as well so I can evenly space them out and not have to accomplish everything at once or at the end of the year. I'd suggest writing down a lot and keeping the mindset that, you don't have to accomplish everything. Things change through the course of the year and that includes your goals. You can come back at any time and change them.

6. Go into detail now

Start analyzing your goals and making a plan to ensure you're working towards them. What type of goal is it? (intellectual, spiritual, vocational, physical, etc.). Write down your top 3 motivators. Why do you want to work towards this goal? Write your first 3-5 action steps for reaching this goal. How will you reward yourself when/if you reach this goal?

Do this for all of your goals so you get excited to start working toward them!

7. Create timelines for projects

It's really time to dive into the planning. For everything that is a project, especially if it's a business/work project, it's time to create timelines and dates. Find a way to get the whole year. You can buy yourself a wall calendar or find a way to do this digitally. Mark off the quarters and start adding the dates of things. When are you launching? When will something be ready for publishing? What due dates do you have?

From there you can work backwards to create your plan. Add each stage of your plan until you reach the date when you will need to start planning and prepping. I like working backward instead of picking an arbitrary date and then having to squeeze all of the phases in.

8. Create new rituals/Record your current ones

Make a record of your rituals or what you'd like to strive toward. Morning, evening, afternoon, work start up, work finish, etc. Having your routines written out can help keep you accountable and having routines you strive to can help motivate you.

This can also help your time management. A lot of people feel that they're not able to do a morning or evening ritual as they just don't have time. But when you write them out and record how much time each item should take and then write the time for how long the ritual in total will take, it often seems much more manageable. 

9. Record your ideal week

Since you have your ideal self mapped out and our goals, projects and rituals we can map out our ideal week. If you need a template check out Michael Hyatt's Ideal Week template. 

Grab a daily/weekly calendar that is marked with times. Go through each of the days in the week and write down what an ideal day/week looks like for you. If you were already your ideal self and had your ideal life, what would your days look like? Do not make this your current reality. We do not need to call in what you already have. We are calling in what you want. 

10. Now celebrate

The most important piece! You've just done a lot of work. Doing all of that is not easy and it does take time. This is not a quick and dirty year prep. You have 365 days every year and if you want to map out how you'll use these next 365 days, it will take you some time.

Since you've made it through, you deserve to celebrate that win! It can either be a year end win or. a win to start the year. Whatever you need! You can go and create that fun, pretty vision board based on this now if you like (hands up visual people!) or you can choose any other way you like to celebrate. Enjoy your end of the year.

Is starting a new year feeling scary instead of exciting? No worries! That's a completely normal feeling if you've just had a rough year. But you deserve to feel excited and like you're getting a fresh start.

If this is you, go check out my New Year's blog I wrote last year to change scary to exciting as you ring in this new year.