New Year New You Plan

New Year means new you, right?  Well, I feel like there have been PLENTY of years where I say that I am going to make all of these changes.  I always have high hopes for my resolutions.  Year after year I say that I will work out more, read more, eat out less, save more. I’m sure many of you say the same things.  This year, I am really trying to focus on making a plan.  I think a plan can help all of us stay true to our New Year goals.  Today, I am sharing with you how to create a new year new you plan that you can stick to.

You have probably noticed that I have been MIA on the blog for the last two weeks.  I wanted to take time to myself to figure out where I want to take Classically Clad in the new year and how I am going to stick to my goals.  I have put in a lot of time reflecting.

I’m finally satisfied with the resolutions that I have come up with.  I feel that if I am going to blog about these goals, I can’t just throw something down on paper. Also, I wanted the goals to be attainable and actionable so I can report back to all of you on my progress.  If I can do this, that makes me a better resource to all of you.  I apologize for the few weeks off, but I believe they helped me be a better resource to all of you.

Here are the steps I took to try and make 2019 my best year yet.

New Year New You Plan

Write Down All Of Your Goals

Find a journal, or a new notebook, and write down on the first page all of your goals for 2019.  I recommend writing it in pen.  This way, once it is written, it is there.  You can’t decide half way through the year to erase a goal because you haven’t worked on it.

You will see below when I tell you my goals, I broke mine up into digestible categories.  This will help your goals be less overwhelming and easier to achieve.

Set Small Goals Within Each Goal

Once I created my broad categories, I made small goals that will lead up to my main category.  This shows the steps that you need to take to achieve your goal.  If you don’t make a plan for how to achieve your goals, you will never reach them.  Before you know it, 2019 will be over and you will be stuck in the same spot.

Identify The Actions Needed To Reach Your Goals

Once you have small categories, what do you need to do to accomplish each thing?  Maybe you need to set some more time aside in your day, or you need to plan your schedule better.  Identify the actions, that accomplish multiple small goals, so you can reach your large goal category by the end of the year.  Make a plan of action that will lead to success!

Create Realistic Daily, Weekly, & Monthly To-Do’s

When you are identifying the actions, set time for each action.  I struggle with staying organized to a schedule.  I was great at school with this, but I need to be better about my schedule now that I am home.

Find a planner that you love or utilize your calendar on your phone or laptop, and schedule things out.  I will be using the calendar on my laptop and phone since they sync to one another.

Once you put items on the calendar, set a reminder in each event so you receive a notification reminding you to complete the task.

Does this all make sense?

All of these steps are things that I have been doing and reflecting on the few two weeks to create my goals.  You can now take those steps and perfect your goals that you have planned for 2019.

Review & Reflect On Your Progress Each Month

This is something that I am hoping to include in my Coffee Talk posts.  I will give you a status update on how my New Year resolutions have played out.  I am counting on all of you to be my accountability partners!

Try to take time on the 1st of each month to look back at the previous month and tailor your plan for the next month.  This will help you stay on track with your New Year resolutions, instead of them falling to the way side.

My Plan for 2019

Now, I will show you how I broke my goals up and have them planned out to be actionable.

Organization

Some of you may be surprised to see this as one of my biggest goals.  If you know me personally from college, you thought that I was this super organized person.  Many people called me Martha, or Martha Stewart because I always had everything together and loved to cook.  Well, since graduating, I have no been organized.  I haven’t been myself and it has been a hard few months.  I’m trying to turn things around for 2019.

1. My Room

• Clean my room on Fridays.  I was pretty good about this in college and I want to get back into this schedule.
• Putting laundry away right away.  Since moving, I only have a closet so everything has to be hung up.  It takes much more time to get my clothes put away so clean laundry ends up piling up, instead of being hung up.  I want to be better about hanging my laundry right away.

2. My Schedule

• Plan each day the night before in my Apple calendar.  This will help me balance work, the blog, time with family and friends, and any other errands I need to get done.  I have learned that balancing my personal life with the blog and work is very difficult for me.  I have hoping that planning my days in a calendar will be helpful.

3. The Blog

• Work on a content calendar.  This will help with my accountability to get posts published.  I want to try and be consistent and set myself up for success.
• Create a Chicago category.  Being in the city is one of my favorite things!  I want to become a resource for all of you for the best places and things to do in the city.  I am hoping to have this Chicago category established by the end of 2019.

Health

Many of us shoot to make better health decisions in the new year.  Your health decisions don’t always have to be about weight loss.  If you want to lose weight, my advice would be to get medical advice from a doctor.  For me, my body weight isn’t the main priority this year.

1. More Water

• Get a cute water bottle that has a straw.  If I love my water bottle, I am more likely to carry it every where.  I notice that I drink a lot more water through a straw so this is important to me.  Drinking the recommended amount of water can help reduce snacking, can reduce headaches, and has many other health benefits.  I am not an expert on medical advice, but these are improvements I have noticed when I meet my daily water intake goals.

2. Meal Plan

• Every Sunday, get to the grocery store.  This is going to set me up for success and eating out less. There are so many benefits to meal plan your week.  I need to get into the grove.  On Sundays, I am going to try and map out what I will have for the 5 days of the week.

3. Try New Workouts

• Try 3 new workouts concepts or classes.  This is a low goal, but something that would be fun.  I guess this is more of a bucket list type goal for 2019.

Me

1. Take Time to Journal

• Journal 2x a week.  I have gone through stages of journaling in life and I always find it to be refreshing.  I am a person that totally over-thinks everything.  Getting things down on paper helps clear my mind so I am excited to be successful with this.

2. Give Myself More Sleep

• End my screen time at 10 P.M.  I have a horrible habit of getting in bed, but then scrolling through Instagram and YouTube for hours.  The next thing I know it is 1 A.M.  If I can put my phone down early, I will fall asleep earlier and get better sleep.

3. Build Confidence 

• Focus on me and stop to always compare.  I get wrapped up in the comparison game on Instagram and it is horrible.  I’m thinking about writing a deeper post about this at a later date.  I have always been a more confident and outgoing person, but lately, I have not been feeling this way.  I do think some fo the Instagram world has to do with that.  Everyone’s world always looks more glamorous, more fun, more pretty.  I want to focus on me and remember how fortunate I am to be where I am in this world.

Well, that was a long winded post!  I hope you all stayed with me.  If you did, I would love to hear what some of your goals are and if you want to join me in any of these.  I truly think if you follow the steps to create goals like I listed above, you will set yourself up for success.  Having a plan of action is always the best way to be successful.

I can’t wait to reach these goals and I hope you all reach your goals in 2019.

Talk soon!