New Year 101 Prep Kit:

A system to be intentional with your time so that your days and years don’t just pass you by.

Hi 👋🏼 if we haven’t met yet, my name is Rachel. I am an avid reader, an INJF, a planner, a lover of all things spreadsheets, color-coded, organization. I am also a disciple of Jesus, a wife, dog mom (of some very large, very needy pups), Executive Director of a nonprofit, brand new mom to the cutest little boy…(among a few other things 😉).

Simply put, I am busy. I have a lot of demands on my time and I’m sure you do, too. It is important that we use our time efficiently and wisely. Time is not a renewable resource. We have a certain amount and we have zero control over the amount we have. I believe this means we should spend a good deal of that time thinking about how we should spend it, what gets our attention, and how to craft our days so that we get the most of our years.

I have read the books, done the research, listened to the podcasts, bought the planners and worksheets. I’ve color-coded, time blocked, prioritized, set Big 3’s and little 3’s. Basically, I’ve tried ALL the things around routines, goals, rhythms. Some of those things worked brilliantly. Some failed. But mostly, they all needed a few tweaks to work for me.

Over the years, I’ve found out what works and what doesn’t. Using years of reading and research, I have developed a fun and effective system for setting goals and dreams. I eagerly anticipate this time of year because I’ve developed a process I love. As I began crafting what I want my new year to look like, I kept thinking to myself, “I wish someone would’ve taught me how to do this. It would’ve saved me a lot of time.”

And then I thought, “I wonder if anyone else feels that way?” And, well, that’s how we ended up here.

Of course I’m assuming that’s what brought you here. Your desire to spend your days wisely, to make the most of the short time we have, to bring a little more order to your days, to have some authority over where your time goes, to not look back on the new year with an exasperated, “Where did the time go?”

No matter how or why you ended up here, I’m glad you did. I’m still learning and it’s likely that my process will continue to shift a little each time I need it to - because it’s important that this system works for us, not the other way around.

Below I’ll give a brief overview of my process with a short description for each step. I’ll add in a few of my favorite tips and tricks, too! The important part of this entire process is consistency + determination. This doesn’t work with just good intentions (ask me how I know 😅).

Let’s get started…

I begin thinking about the next year around October/November. If it’s possible, I’d encourage you to plan a few days away to think through the year that’s about to end and the one that’s about to begin. If you can’t get away, a few hours of solitude at your local coffee shop or at your dining room table works, too! This gives you space to think and this system requires a good deal of thinking. Although I’ve been thinking about this process for a while, I don’t typically do anything until late November/early December. The holiday season can be a really busy time for me and I’ve found that if I don’t take time to do this process before Christmas, it doesn’t happen and the new year has already begun. Once you have set aside some time of solitude, I’d recommend having a few “tools”:

Laptop, pen & paper, journal, playlist that sets a calm and reflective atmosphere, and most importantly, your favorite beverage 😉

Step 2: Create a Vision/Mood Board

This might be my favorite step. I usually create my Vision Board on Canva and always have an epic playlist going while I’m looking at Pinterest.

Canva has incredible templates that are easy to use. Spend some time looking through those and choose one that fits what you want. I love Canva because it is so easy to use and it is customizable!

I use a combination of Pinterest, Unsplash, and some of my own photos to create my Vision Board. I always begin by taking time to pray through my “word” for the upcoming year and then I craft my board around that. My word for 2023 was prayer and good grief, did I learn so much about prayer!

I add in really fun bits - quotes that inspire me, simple goals, a color palette that I’m loving, and any photos that catch my eye.

The most important part of this step is to HAVE FUN! This should be something you look forward to, not something you dread.

TIP: I am intentional about making my board digitally. When it’s done, I usually set it as the background of my computer screens and phone for January!

Step 3: Dreams + Goals

Now that you have reflected on the past year AND spent some time dreaming and creating for the year to come, you are ready to begin laying out your goals. I usually set some time away to do this part with my husband - it helps to keep us headed in the same direction and is a great way for us to encourage each other. If you aren’t married, you can adjust this to fit your season!

The best place to start when setting “goals” is to brain dump. I always make a master list of everything I want to do in these areas:

  • God

  • Marriage

  • Home + Family

  • Health + Wellness

  • Work

  • Reading + Writing

  • Family + Community

It is perfectly normal for you to change your areas of focus depending on what fits your current season. My areas change every year based on what I think the big areas of focus are for my life at the time.

Remember: the point of a brain dump is just that - this is a place for you to DUMP your dreams, goals, and desires for each area of your life. This does NOT mean you have to make all of these things happen. Dream BIG here because in the next step, you will likely edit, rearrange, and possibly delete some of what you put on this chart to be more practical.

Step 4: Quarterly Breakdown

This step is absolutely for my detail-oriented people! This is where you begin to plan actionable steps in each quarter of the year that will help you accomplish your overall dreams and goals.

And, trust me, this step is possibly the most important in terms of actually getting stuff done! Breaking your annual dreams and goals down into quarterly “targets” is a GAME CHANGER!

This gives us space for our life to change (which it so often does). A goal I set for January may not be reasonable in July or November. Having quarterly targets allows flexibility to realign and redirect your goals as needed.

Once you have your Dreams + Goals Braindump from the previous step finished, you will build these quarterly targets off of that. A few really important notes about this part:

  • Your quarterly targets should be actionable as much as possible.

    • Here’s an example: if my BIG dream/goal is to have a bi-weekly date with my husband, then my January Q1 target should be to have 2 dates with Adam. If my BIG dream/goal is to read 100+ books in the year, then that would be a breakdown of around 8 books per month. You can divide the exact amounts up per target around what you have going on!

  • Your quarterly targets should reflect your big dreams and goals.

    • Pull from your brain dump! You aren’t recreating the wheel here, guys. You have already done the work to set the direction for your year, this part is simply making it attainable.

  • Finally, use your eraser (or DELETE button).

    • We dreamt BIG in Step 3. Now, we need to be realistic about what dreams/goals we can actually accomplish or even want to accomplish. Maybe a big dream is for next year or maybe you need to set a workout target that is a little more manageable in your busy season. Use your eraser here! These quarterly targets should work for you.

Step 5: Ideal Week + Rhythms

I am hesitant to say this is your final step because it is likely that you will revisit these steps and make changes throughout your year. That is GOOD! It means you are committed to making this process work for you. Also, once you have a full plan, now it’s time to get to WORK and that is where the ✨magic✨ happens!

This next step breaks your quarterly target down one more time so that you can craft your days/weeks intentionally to help achieve your BIG dreams and goals. This step involves 2 parts:

  • Crafting your Morning + Evening Rhythms

    • I use rhythms instead of routines because it makes me feel less anxious about being flexible with them when needed, but call them whatever you’d like! I linked a Google Doc with prompts to help you think through your Morning + Evening Rhythms. This is something you can revisit each quarter to make sure they are, you guessed it, working for you!

  • Crafting your Ideal Week

    • This should be relatively easy since you’ve done all of the work ahead of time. It is basically a “fill in the blank” activity and you already have the right answers!

    • 2 questions I ask myself to help setup my ideal week:

      1. What do you NEED to do? I need to plan time to eat throughout my day, time for meetings, and time for working out.

      2. What do you WANT to do? I want to read, write, and keep my house in order.

Asking yourself these two questions will help you maintain a balance throughout your days between need and want. Oftentimes, we just get sucked into the need because it feels more urgent but if we actually schedule time for our wants, then we will sustain healthier rhythms throughout our days!

Once you’ve mapped out your ideal morning + evening rhythms, you can begin to fill in your ideal week. Notice, it’s called “ideal” for a reason! This is certainly NOT how every week will look.

TIP: when you need to adjust your week for an evening event or a trip, you can reflect on your ideal week to see where you lost time in what area so that you can plan to make it up or adjust your goals if needed. Example: if I have an early morning meeting on Monday, I will likely miss my “chore” time and will need to either eliminate that from my week or move it to another time!

What You Need:

Journal, prompts, creative tools for reflecting

What You Need:

Canva, Pinterest or a place to feel inspired, your word for the year (if you have one), and a solid gold playlist

What You Need:

Google Doc Template (click the image below to access the templates), fun playlist

What You Need:

Google Doc Template (click the image below to access the templates), fun playlist, & completed Dreams + Goal Brain Dump

What You Need:

Google Sheet Template (click the image below to access the templates), fun playlist, & completed Quarterly Breakdown

Step 6: Practice!

I recommend practicing your ideal week for 2-3 months. You need to see how it works in different “seasons” where the demands on your time look different. I also recommend revisiting your ideal week at the beginning of each quarter to reflect, redirect, and plan. Our lives change so rapidly that having a rhythm and routine that is flexible helps us make the best use of our time.

My hope is that this is a fun and productive way for you to be intentional with your new year!

Step 1: Reflect

I cannot stress how important making reflection your first step in this process. How in the world will you know where you want to go unless you truly see where you’ve been? The prompts I use for this step are:

  1. How do you feel about this year? (Was it hard? Joyful? Are you ready for it to be over and to never look back? Are you sad that it’s ending?) Be completely honest here.

  2. If you set goals for this year, what were they? Did you accomplish those goals? If you didn’t accomplish your goals, why?

  3. What did you learn about yourself this year? Try to be objective about this question. If you learned something you didn’t want to learn, don’t waste time beating yourself up about it.

  4. Empty out anything you need to say about this year. There are a few creative ways to do this: drawing, painting, writing a poem, journaling, typing a short story, graphic design, etc. I usually pull up my vision board for the year and pull from that.