How to Plan Your Entire Year
Hey everyone! Welcome back and Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great holiday season and a wonderful New Year. Now that the new year is here, I figured I would break down how to plan your entire year in advance. This may seem like a lot, but trust me, it isn’t. In fact, if you do this, you will thank yourself.
Some of the benefits of planning for things ahead of time is that you will be more intentional throughout the year with things that you do, you will accomplish more things, and you will not be thrown for a loop when something comes up because most likely, you would have planned for it.
I am going to take you through a series of steps to help you plan out your year in advance.
1. Set Aside Time
The first thing you want to do is to set aside a chunk of time where you can concentrate on planning. If you are married or in a relationship, you will want to make sure that you and your significant other can do this together. So talk it over with each other and determine the best time.
2. Gather Information
Make sure that you show up prepared. When you get together to plan your year, you need to make sure you know what you are planning for! Some of the information you will need is: birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, school functions, date nights, doctor appointments, goals, and budgets. I will go through these in detail shortly. I have also put together a check list that you can follow in order to gather everything to plan year after year.
3. Get a Planner
I don’t know what it is, but for some reason, I just can’t get used to planning things with a digital calendar. I am more of a pen and paper type of person. I’m not saying anything against digital planners, I just can’t get used to them. I do think that digital planners are probably easier to use, especially if you are planning with another person, that way the calendar is shared. I know if you use Google Calendar, you can color code things according to person or however you wanted to do that and that way both adults have access to the calendar and planning. But if you are old fashioned like me, there is nothing wrong with using a paper planner and calendar. I even color code my paper calendar with different colored pens. Make sure you use whatever works best for you and that will help you stick to your plans.
4. Plan the Easy Things First
Once you start to plan, I like to start with the easy things first. I’m talking about the things that come around the same time every year. These are no surprise. Start with planning everyone’s birthdays. Mark the day of the birthday. Go a step further: for those people with birthdays where you actually buy them a gift, you will want to either set yourself a reminder a few weeks before, or mark another day in your calendar ahead of time to give yourself time to plan for a gift.
The next thing you will do is plan for your anniversary. That is another thing that comes the same day every year and you will do the same thing with this one. Set another reminder for some time before it so you can plan things ahead of time (financially and socially).
Next easy thing, holidays. These come around the same time every year as well. You will want to plan the holidays and set early reminders for these as well. If you need to buy and send gifts, you will need to plan ahead of time for these.
5. School Events and Functions
The schools are usually pretty good about giving a calendar in the beginning of the school year with days off, half days, conference weeks, etc. I would start with marking these first in the calendar. Then if you know any other dates related to school I would do those next: school dances, sporting events, school concerts, field trips, PTA meetings, or any other school related functions you may have.
6. Health and Wellness
You should schedule any appointments that you know you, or your children have. If you don’t have anything planned, or don’t remember, call the office and get the date so you can mark it. If it’s past business hours, schedule a date in your calendar to call the doctor to make the appointment.
Here is where you will want to determine your fitness goals and plan for them. For some reason, when you schedule fitness and working out into your life, you are more inclined to stick to your goals. It holds you accountable and it also makes it so you schedule it into your life and make it more of a routine for yourself. Schedule in a walk, or even a fitness class if you want to take one. Anything to get you up and moving.
7. Financial Goals
Let’s talk finances. Here is where you are going to plan out any vacations or get aways that you are going to take as a family. For these vacations, you will need to know how much money you will need to spend to plan it. Set goals for yourself so you know where you are in saving. If you need $2,000 by May, determine how much you are going to have to save each week/month before that comes up. This will keep you motivated and on track to reach that goal.
The same goes for Christmas. Determine your Christmas budget and then figure out how much money you will need to save each month and STICK TO IT!
8. Date Nights
Scheduling date nights are so important for couples, married or not. Please make sure that you set a day each week, every other week, or whatever works in your schedule and budget. Spice up the date night too. Don’t just do the same things over and over again. Also, take turns planning the date nights. Switch each time on who plans the date night. That way the pressure isn’t all on one person. It may be fun to see what each other plans!
Remember: when planning, make sure to use a calendar type that works for you! Plan as much as you can in advance for the year, that way you won’t be caught off guard when something unplanned comes up.
You can also get my FREE Planning Checklist by clicking the link below!
Happy Planning!