I hope you are having a wonderful start to 2023. One month down, eleven more to go!
This past weekend I sat down to plan February in a live session with the Charmed Life Master Mind.
My monthly planning routine is an essential part of my overall functional planning process and it was great to take some time and walk my master mind sisters through it and answers their questions on how I plan both my life and business in the monthly spreads of the Charmed Life Master Planner.
Here is a recap of the Monthly Functional Planning Routine:
Step One: Perform a monthly review to analyze how the prior month progressed
Step Two:Perform a brain dump to get your thoughts, plans and ideas out of your head and onto paper.
Step Three:Populate your monthly calendar spread with important dates to remember.
Step Four:Keep on track with your goals and projects by filling in your Monthly Tracker with your monthly objectives, weekly actions and daily action items.
Step Five: List all other additional tasks due this month onto the Master Monthly Task List.
Step Six: Assign tasks from your objectives to the weeks of the month you plan to work on them to ensure you have the time set aside to complete all expected work.
So, I definitely want to encourage you to carve out about 30 minutes for yourself, sometime in the next few days, so that you too can map out your monthly plan for February.
If you aren’t in the habit of monthly planning yet, I know it might feel like there is a massive learning curve, but the more times you go through this process month over month, the better you will get at it and the more clarity, confidence and motivation you will feel moving into the fresh month.
Important Dates to Include on Your Monthly Calendar
For a bit of reference, here are some important dates you may want to be aware of for February 2023:
Thursday, February 2nd | Groundhog Day
Saturday, February 4th | JournalingMasterclass inside the Charmed Life Master Mind @ 2pm ET/ 11am PT
Sunday, February 5th | Full Moon in Leo
Tuesday, February 14th | Valentine’s Day
Monday, February 20th | President’s Day, New Moon in Pisces, and Galentine’s Party inside the Charmed Life Master Mind @ 7pm ET/ 4pm PT
Tuesday, February 21st | Mardi Gras
Wednesday, February 22nd | Ash Wednesday
Saturday, February 25th | CEO Power Hour inside the Charmed Life Master Mind @ 11am ET/ 8am PT (This is the monthly planning session!)
I hope you found this information to be a helpful reminder to get you started creating your February Plan!
And, if you’d like to get into my inner circle Charmed Life Master Mind and plan with me on a monthly basis plus get access to dozens of classes, resources and tools to help you create the Master Plan for your balanced and successful life…
✔︎ You have reviewed your progress from 2022, celebrated your wins, made peace with your shortcomings and let go of anything you don’t need to take with you into 2023.
✔︎ You know what your goals are for 2023 for both your personal life and business.
✔︎ You have a plan laid for what you need to do to make your goals happen and have set aside the time to complete the work.
✔︎ You feel like your life is together. Like the successful, productive and organized person you know you are.
2023 IS YOUR YEAR!
→ You can walk into 2023 with a well organized plan to get things done OR no plan and not enough time for you to finish your to do list.
→ You can have a balanced daily routine with room for all the areas of your life OR feel rushed and overwhelmed day to day pushing aside your personal goals yet again in favor of other priorities.
→ You can live life at an intentional and productive pace OR deprive yourself of sleep, space and self care to cram in every single task for the day.
Which situation would you prefer?
MAKING 2023 YOUR BEST YEAR YET IS YOUR CHOICE!
I know which choice I would prefer, which is why for the past decade I have intentionally dedicated time at the turn of the New Year to set my goals, map my plans and get my life and vision organized!
And guess what?
Because I spend a little time planning my vision for the year, I achieve more with less time and less stress.
I want you to embrace this process as well because I know first hand through my own experiences, as well as working with hundreds of women from my community, that this works!
And I believe you intuitively know this works as well, but you just haven’t found a system and a process that yields consistent results for you.
That’s why it’s time you choose THIS IS YOUR YEAR!
THIS IS YOUR YEAR is my step by step process for outlining your vision, setting the right goals and breaking those goals out into actionable steps you can take throughout the year to achieve those goals and experience your best year!
THIS IS YOUR YEAR is a series of four goal setting workshops, replays of live classes I taught exclusively to my inner circle master mind, that will help you organize and prepare your life and business for a productive year ahead.
The bundle includes the video modules, slides, workbooks, my 2023 You Got Goals Planner, and bonus guided meditations.
I’VE ALSO JUST ADDED A NEW BONUS MODULE TO THE BUNDLE
The 2023 VISION BOARD PARTY Workshop | Learn how to create and use a Vision Board to manifest your goals this year. This video module teaches you the neuroscience of how Vision Boards work, provides the step by step for how to create your own, and explains what to put on your Vision Board based on your unique personality. The video module also includes a Vision Board Builder PDF that you can print and use to add style and intention to your Vision Board!
THIS IS YOUR YEAR IS EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO SET YOURSELF UP FOR SUCCESS IN 2023!
And I want to remind you that there is nothing wrong with you and your life right now!
You are not lacking.
You are not behind.
You don’t need to change your life based on external expectations or comparisons.
You are completely whole and worthy right now exactly as you are.
If you are like me, I truly crave the feeling of ease and comfort of knowing that I have a plan for the year that allows me time for work and space to play.
I love my life, I experience deep gratitude for it, and at the same time, I want to experience more of what life has to offer me.
There is nothing wrong with being grateful for what you have and at the same time desiring more or even different experiences.
I set personal goals because I want to better myself and create a better life for myself and those around me.
I set business goals because I want to reach and help more women like you identify and experience their potential in life as well.
But those experiences don’t happen by accident.
You need a vision, a direction and a plan to fit them into your life.
7 Ways to Use Your Planner to Manifest Your Best Year!
Today I am sharing 7 ways to use your planner to manifest your best year ever!
If you think your planner is simply a tool for time or task management, you are missing a tremendous opportunity to use your planner to help you manifest and realize the life of your dreams. For years I have been using my planner a little different than the average person might, because a significant portion of my planner is more than just calendars and agenda inserts. I customize my planner to include spiritual elements that truly help me stay in alignment with what I want for the year. So, here are my best tips for how you can set up your planner to help you manifest success this year.
Strategy #1: Make it a mindset shift
My first tip here is that you need to make the mindset shift for yourself that your planner and planning isn’t just about keeping track of what to do and where to be, instead its about setting the intention that your planner is going to be an energetic placeholder for your goals and that whatever you write inside it is like placing an order with god/spirit/or the universe. So that is step one- deciding and setting the intention and shifting your mindset- that your planner is more than mere paper and metal and leather or whatever material it’s made out of- this is now a mystical energy generator that’s holding the power and potential for you to take action on building your dream life.
Strategy #2: Choose your word for the year
The second strategy or activity I want you to do with your planner is to create a word for the year and write it somewhere inside your planner. Your word for the year is meant to be a theme for what you want to manifest this year, and along with the word, think about and list out inside your planner what that word means to you and how you intend for that word to manifest for yourself. If you want, I have a template over on my Instagram account that I was sharing for creating your word of the year- you can totally screen shot that and print it for your planner if you’d like. My word for this year is brilliance and my intention for that word is that i want to manifest more creativity and wonderful ideas for my life and business this year. I also want to manifest brilliance in the form of light and beauty. I want to bring more light to my community and uplift them, and I also want to work on my physical body to make myself look and feel more beautiful and brilliant that way. For example, I literally bought Crest White Strips for the first time in years because I want my teeth to be whiter and more brilliant. So thats an example of how my word of the year is aligned with my intentions and ultimately my actions!
Strategy #3: Set your goals
Strategy three is that you need to set your goals and keep them listed out in your planner. Many people goal plan but they keep their goals elsewhere to reference, but that makes no sense to me. I want my goals front and center in my planner- and in fact my goals are one of the first pages of my planner, because these are things I actually want to happen, not just things it would be nice to get if and when I have the time.
For me, the vast majority of my plans and objectives for the year revolve around these goals and making them happen. And if you’ve been a member of my community for a while, you have likely seen that I am someone who gets a lot accomplished and makes her life happen, and I attribute this to the fact that my goals are the keystone to the way I live and work and move through life. So, set your goals for the year- if you want to set your goals the way I do, you can purchase my THIS IS YOUR YEAR bundle with my You got goals workbook and workshop as well as the CEO Retreat classes where I walk you through my goal setting process for both my life and my business.
Strategy #4: Create a vision board for your planner
Next, strategy number four is to create a vision board for inside your planner. I have a whole video on how to create a vision board for your planner that I’ll leave linked for your reference, but you essentially want to take those goals you set and turn them into images that evoke the feeling of achieving that goal. To do this, I search images online, most come from pinterest but anytime I see an image that evokes a strong emotional reaction for a goal I generally save them to my phone or computer. So, I will assemble all these images and print them out and create a collage with them. This year I ended up created the collage on photoshop and then printing it out on sticker paper and then stuck it to the dedicated vision board spread in my Master Planner. But however you want to do it- as long as you have goals turned into images, and those images make you feel good about the goals- and you put them in a central location in your planner to review daily- you are set. And that reviewing of the vision board daily is an essential part of this strategy as well. We aren’t just going to make the vision board and leave it there- instead we are going to spend a few minutes looking at it everyday as part of our daily planning routine! That’s how we can use the vision board to activate the receiving of the goals in our subconscious.
Strategy #5: Keep lists of affirmations in your planner
Strategy five is to keep lists of affirmations and positive self-talk in your planer as well. So, in my planner I have a divided section called Mindset and in this section I keep lists of affirmations that I’ve written out that inspire me to get in alignment with my goals. Generally, what I do with these lists is after I hang out with my vision board, I turn to these pages and read them out to myself and they make me feel super positive and inspired to create my plan and complete my work each day. If you struggle to keep motivated and inspired, a practice like this of using a vision board and affirmations will help you remain self-motivated consistently.
Strategy #6: Write a list of things you want to manifest each month
Strategy six is, every month, write yourself a list of things you want to happen and things you want to manifest and keep it in your planner. Another section of my planner is my Manifest section, and here I just have some simple notepaper, and what I will do every month is write out a complete list of all the things I’d love to happen and I write them out as though they have happened.
So, I might write “This month I earned $20,000. This month I reached x weight, This month I gained 1 million new followers” And sometimes I switch it up and I will say something like “I am so happy and grateful that this month I was featured in a national magazine.” Or “I quickly and easily gained 1 million new followers this month.” So, for every line I write I am writing in an affirmative that the thing has already happened. I already received it, it’s already done energetically.
This technique is also known as scripting and some people say you should do this every day, but I like to do it like a big wish list at the start of the month and then mentally let it go. I don’t micromanage this list by any means, and it’s okay to me if the things I write down don’t happen in the month- the interesting this is that I sometimes get what I ask for but in a different month. So this becomes like a landing page for what I want and my intentions beyond just achieving my goals because on a day to day basis I may think of new things I want to manifest so this is how I open myself up to receiving it.
Strategy #7: Use your best planner supplies and stationery
Last but not least, strategy seven. I know this is a strategy that you did not see coming but I promise you, it’s so important for your mindset and getting more of what you want this year using your planner. Strategy seven is you need to use all of your best planner supplies and stationery that you’ve been hoarding away and waiting to use for a special occasion. Guess what? Today is the day you are going after you goals and manifesting your best life, so it’s definitely a special occasion kind of a day! Got it! Stop holding onto your favorite pens, highlighters, sticky notes, inspo cards- whatever stationery supplies you’ve been hoarding- you need to use them and know that you are worth it, your plans are worth it and there is always more where that came from! Using those supplies you’ve been saving it going to unlock new levels of productivity and abundance and receiving for you because you are showing up and saying okay, today is worth me investing in, what I’m doing today no matter how big or small is worth the expense or sacrifice of some pretty planner things. I am worth it, my planner is worth it, my goals are worth it, my to do list is worth it!
So, those are seven strategies to manifest your best year ever using your planner. I want to hear which of these strategies you are going to integrate. I recommend them all but I don’t think you necessarily need to do all of them at once. Don’t overwhelm yourself, choose whatever seems the most practical for your life and see how it makes you feel and the results you end up getting when you start doing things a little differently than before.
Watch the Video 7 Ways to Use Your Planner to Manifest Your Best Year
10 Time, Task + Energy Management Strategies to Manage a Long To Do List
The following 10 strategies will help you to organize and manage your to do list so that you are optimizing your work for time, task load and the amount of energy you have in a day!
Strategy #1: Schedule Tasks
As you evaluate your to do list, identify which tasks need to be completed at or by a certain time and make sure you have clearly set aside that time for them. It’s not necessarily more productive to schedule all of your tasks for specific time frames, but it is important to do when due dates are involved with a task. For any work that needs to be done at a specific time (ex. meeting) what is the prep work you need to do in order to be ready at that time? Also schedule that work in ahead of your scheduled task.
Strategy #2: ID + Block Time for Projects
If you are working off a long to do list for the day or week, ultimately some of those tasks will belong to the same project. So, identify those items first so you are clear that this is one of the main objectives you are working on, and you can also take a moment to ensure that you aren’t missing any important tasks that go along with this project as well. Then block off specific time to work on that project and those tasks together- this will ensure you can go deep on the project and do it well
Strategy #3: Set Your Top 3
Setting your daily Top 3 is a planning strategy I recommend to ensure you are prioritizing your work and key tasks. Which three tasks on your to do list are the most important to complete today? Things which, if they don’t get done, it will cause issues or delays. Clearly ID these three priority tasks and get them done as soon as possible in your day
Strategy #4: Use the 80/20 Rule
The 80/20 rule is a task management principle that explains how only 20% of our tasks lead to 80% of the results we get. This means that there are some tasks we can do each day that have a bigger impact than others, so to save ourselves time and energy, we should ID and complete those few key tasks before worrying about the 80% of tasks that have nominal effects on our results. Hopefully, your top 3 list is comprised of these tasks, but any additional can be listed out on your daily to do list to be completed as soon as possible as well
Strategy #5: Batch Your Tasks
Some tasks on your list will likely be very similar to each other and to optimize your workflow, it would be a good idea to batch these tasks, which means you work on them together at the same time so you are doing the same general activity over and over. Examples: Creating posts for social media, running reports, making phone calls. When batching your tasks, ask yourself if there are any other similar tasks you can add into this process, even if they aren’t on your list for the current day or week, you may be able to spend a little more time working on them now, and save yourself even more time in the future.
Strategy #6: 3D’s: Delegate, Defer + Delete
Remember, you are not responsible for doing all of the work on your to-do list! Which tasks can you delegate to someone else? Which can you defer for another time that might be more optimal for working on the task? Which tasks can you simply delete off your list because they aren’t a result driver?
Strategy #7: Manage Habits
Some of the tasks on your list may actually be habits you are working on, so don’t simply leave them on your to do list to be done whenever, pause and figure out where in your daily routine these habits make the most sense to be accomplished. When a habit sits on your to do list, it’s just another thing to do, but when you assign it to a place in your daily routine, it has a purpose in your life.
Strategy #8: Mindset Check
Our mindset is a major factor in determining how much work we are able to act on each day and how productive our day ends up becoming. So, ask yourself, which tasks on your list will you feel much better once they are accomplished? These tasks may be things we should consider prioritizing because often doing a difficult thing first gives us mental relief and removed roadblocks to our productivity. Yes, you are going to have to do the things that intimidate you, but once you do them you will feel unstoppable!
Strategy #9: Energy Audit
Your personal energy level is going to be a major factor in how much work you can accomplish in a day, so check in with your energy level to understand which tasks you can reasonably expect to complete today. Also consider what time of day your energy is highest and lowest. It would be a good idea to schedule more energy intense activities during your peak energy times, and allow yourself to work on lower intensity work during times when you know your energy will be waining.
Strategy #10: Create Your Workflow
Once you have organized and evaluated your to do list according to the previous nine strategies, decide the most logical order for you to use to work on this list. This may mean that everything doesn’t get done today and you are intentionally moving tasks to the next day or another week, but all of this is part of creating a good plan that sets reasonable expectations and avoids creating overwhelm.
How to Use These Strategies
When it comes to creating a to-do list, I prefer to create lists for the month, and then choose items from that list to apply to my week. This prevents me from keeping too long of a list and it also helps to drill down to the context of my current months priorities. Once you have your monthly to do list, I recommend using the 10 strategies to filter the tasks you need to do for the current week and identify the tasks for you to do each day. If planning ahead for the week works for you, great! But if you find you set your task list for a day and then things don’t get done and need to be transferred to the next day, this becomes a problem if you have pre-planned your week. So, unless things are scheduled for a specific day on purpose, don’t feel the need to fill in every day of the week ahead of time.
Using these recommendations, you are going to start to see that you begin to plan more strategically and intentionally, and stop taking on too many tasks that aren’t necessary. The hard truth for most of us is that we put too many tasks on our list and then fail to prioritize them, so that we are always expecting not to get everything done and when we continue to push tasks off day after day, we accept it. But you can teach yourself to recognize priority tasks. You can learn how to block off time to do deep work. You can practice batching tasks and checking in with your mindset and energy to determine what is reasonable for you.
So give these strategies a try- understand that there is a learning curve with this, but the more you execute on these strategies the more you will integrate and utilize them.
Having a successful year is not about waiting for motivation and inspiration to strike. It’s about creating systems and environments that cultivate momentum and accountability. – Alexis C Giostra @MissTrenchcoat
Hello my Charmed Ones and welcome back to my channel for the first video of 2023! My 2023 Annual Reset Routine.
If you are watching this video around the time it goes live, we are at the start of a new year and nothing says fresh start inspiration and motivation like resetting your planning system. Your planner can be an amazing tool for your success and quality of life this year if you treat it like a system that helps you manage your focus and effort.
So, there is a brief routine I recommend you follow to get your planner reset for the new year that follows along with the Yearly Functional Planning Routine that you can find inside my bookThe Functional Planning Handbook.
Here is a recap of the routine for your reference:
◼ CHOOSE AND SETUP YOUR FUNCTIONAL PLANNER
◼ SET ANNUAL GOALS
◼ BREAK LONGER TERM GOALS INTO QUARTERLYMILESTONES
◼ DEFINE OBJECTIVES TO REACH EACH GOAL
◼ POPULATE YOUR PLANNER WITH KNOWN TASKS,EVENTS AND DUE DATES
Q1 PLANNING ITEMS
◼ POPULATE PROJECT PLANS FOR OBJECTIVES
◼ ALLOCATE TASKS FROM PROJECT PLANS TO MONTHLY MASTER TASK LISTS
Grab a coffee and your planner, and let’s get started with the 2023 Reset.
