Hello my Charmed Ones!
Today, I wanted to share with you 5 Key Dates to Schedule into Your Planner Right Now for a more Productive and Organized Year Ahead!
Since we are halfway thru January already, I recommend making sure you have these dates clearly marked off in your planner as soon as possible to avoid any overwhelm or complications later in the year.
1. Birthdays + Anniversaries
First, and this is an easy one, go ahead and make sure you have the birthdays and anniversaries for people you celebrate in your planner as soon as possible. I know this is a simple one, however, with covid I’m sure many of us will be mailing cards or gifts again this year as opposed to celebrating face to face and that requires some extra lead time that you might not normally take into account for celebrations. This is such a simple thing, but I’m sure for the loved ones you are celebrating it will be that much more meaningful that you sent your cards or gifts to arrive in time for their special day, so take this as just a gentle reminder of an easy thing to do to spread happiness during a difficult time.
2. Doctor’s Appointments
Second are doctors appointments, specifically annual checkups or well visits. Covid has put a strain on many doctors offices, so scheduling out those annual visits now is going to be crucial to ensure you fit in those important health appointments and that you get seen in a timely manner. I know last year I didn’t do this and when I went to schedule my annual exams I ended up having to wait several weeks to get in to see my doctors, so avoid that hassle this year, call and schedule those appointments as soon as possible and get the dates locked into your planner.
3. Vacation Time
Third is your vacation time, another great thing to have scheduled out now in January to avoid issues later this year. Some of you, I’m sure, need to get your vacation time approved by a manager, so getting those requests in now avoids any scheduling conflicts that might happen later in the year. I’m always surprised to see the statistics on how many Americans do not use all of their paid vacation time during the year, and I want to make sure you take the time you are owed because you work hard and you definitely need the break. If you are like me and work for yourself, take some time and map out the days you want to take off. I’m going to try to take some vacation time on a quarterly basis as opposed to what do now, which is not schedule any vacation and then just take a bunch of time off when I burn out at some point during the year. I think scheduling time off might work better for me productively and I hope it does for you as well.
4. Scheduled Maintenance
Fourth, think about scheduled maintenance you might need to have done on your home, vehicles or appliances and get those dates in your planner and any necessary appointments scheduled. Again, don’t just wait until you’re closer to the approximate maintenance date to get those things scheduled because with covid we have no clue how backed up maintenance workers are going to be. Better to have the foresight now and get it scheduled in your planner.
5. Due Dates for Projects
Fifth and finally, make sure to schedule the due dates for projects- this could be work and personal projects, whatever pertains to you, but that is something I am making sure I have clearly scheduled into my planner. I’ll take the due dates from my project plans, especially ones that pertain to my annual goals, and make sure they are clearly tracked in my planner. I’m going to even take those a step further and schedule reminder dates like 1 week and 1 month until a project is due based on it’s size. Whatever you can do to keep those projects on the top of your mind the better. Time moves so fast, especially in quarantine so its easy to loose sense of time and urgency and this is a way we can combat that for ourselves and be a little more organized and productive this year!
Also, if you are interested in learning more about planning your year and improving your productivity, I welcome you to join my Productivity + Planning Master Mind. February’s master class is on the topic of functional planning and it will be filled with tips for managing your tasks and time.
I hope this information helps you plan a more productive and organized year. I would love to hear from you in the comments and know what other tasks for the year you like to plan out ahead of time?
xoxo,