Sunday is the perfect day to reset, reflect, and prepare for the week ahead. Without a plan, Monday can feel overwhelming, leading to a stressful and unproductive start. But with a simple Sunday Reset Routine, you can set yourself up for success in just 20 minutes.
This checklist will help you organize your schedule, set priorities, and create a clear plan so you can step into the new week feeling calm, prepared, and in control.
Step 1: Reflect on the Past Week (5 Minutes)
Before planning ahead, take a few minutes to review the past week. This reflection will help you recognize your wins, learn from setbacks, and refine your approach for the upcoming week.
✅ What went well? Celebrate small and big wins. ✅ What didn’t go as planned? Identify what felt overwhelming or unproductive. ✅ What adjustments can you make? Look for ways to improve efficiency and balance.
🔹 Pro Tip: Keep a simple journal or planner where you track key insights from each week.
Step 2: Brain Dump & Prioritize (5 Minutes)
Clearing mental clutter is essential for a productive week. Take a few minutes to brain dump everything on your mind—tasks, appointments, deadlines, errands, and ideas.
✅ List out everything you need to do for work, personal life, and self-care. ✅ Categorize tasks by priority: Must-do, should-do, and could-do. ✅ Identify your top 3 priorities for the week—these are your non-negotiables.
🔹 Pro Tip: Keep your list realistic—if everything is a priority, nothing is. Focus on what truly moves the needle.
Step 3: Plan Your Weekly Schedule (5 Minutes)
Now that you have your priorities, it’s time to schedule them into your week.
✅ Block out fixed commitments (meetings, deadlines, appointments). ✅ Assign time slots for top priorities (projects, workouts, meal prep, self-care). ✅ Schedule white space for flexibility and unexpected tasks. ✅ Theme your days (e.g., Monday for deep work, Tuesday for meetings, Friday for catch-up).
🔹 Pro Tip: Use a digital or paper planner to map out your week visually. A weekly overview prevents overloading any single day.
Step 4: Prepare Your Space & Tools (3 Minutes)
A cluttered environment can lead to a cluttered mind. Spend a few minutes resetting your space so you’re starting the week fresh.
✅ Clean and declutter your workspace—a clear desk boosts productivity. ✅ Restock essentials (notebooks, pens, chargers, coffee, etc.). ✅ Check your calendar and to-do list—ensure everything is set up and ready to go.
🔹 Pro Tip: Organizing your space on Sunday helps you avoid the chaotic Monday morning rush.
Step 5: Set Your Mindset for the Week (2 Minutes)
How you approach the week mentally is just as important as how you plan it.
✅ Set an intention for the week (e.g., “I will prioritize focus and balance”). ✅ Choose a mantra or affirmation to keep you motivated. ✅ Visualize your ideal week—imagine yourself handling challenges with ease.
🔹 Pro Tip: Writing down a simple weekly intention in your planner helps reinforce it throughout the week.
Final Thoughts: Make the Sunday Reset a Habit
By taking just 20 minutes every Sunday, you can eliminate stress, reduce decision fatigue, and step into the new week feeling organized and in control.
Use this checklist to make the Sunday Reset Routine a weekly habit. The more consistent you are, the more natural it will become.
Want a more in-depth guide to balancing your schedule and setting up a productive week? Sign up for my free training and workbook, “How to Plan for a Balanced and Successful Life,” and learn how to design a time management system that works for you.Click here to get instant access!
Balancing work, personal life, and everything in between can feel impossible when your to-do list never seems to end. But the secret to managing it all without burnout isn’t about doing more—it’s about doing things more efficiently. The right time management strategies can help you stay productive, protect your energy, and create a sense of balance in your daily life.
Here are 10 powerful time management hacks to help you juggle work and life without feeling overwhelmed.
1. Plan Your Week in Advance
Instead of figuring out what to do each day on the fly, set aside 15–20 minutes at the start of each week to plan your schedule. Outline key deadlines, meetings, personal commitments, and self-care activities so you know exactly where your time is going.
🔹 Pro Tip: Use the Sunday Reset method—review your goals, plan your top priorities, and set up your environment for success.
2. Use Time Blocking to Structure Your Day
Rather than jumping between tasks, assign specific time blocks for different types of work. Dedicate focused blocks for deep work, admin tasks, and meetings, ensuring that each type of activity has its place.
🔹 Pro Tip: Include buffer times between tasks to prevent your schedule from feeling too rigid.
3. Identify Your High-Energy Periods and Work Around Them
Not all hours of the day are equal. Identify when you feel most focused and energized—whether it’s morning, afternoon, or evening—and schedule your most demanding tasks during those peak periods.
🔹 Pro Tip: Use low-energy periods for routine, repetitive tasks like responding to emails or organizing files.
4. Batch Similar Tasks to Minimize Distractions
Constantly switching between tasks wastes mental energy and reduces efficiency. Instead, group similar tasks together and complete them in one dedicated time block.
🔹 Example: Answer emails in one session instead of checking your inbox throughout the day.
5. Create a Default Weekly Schedule
Instead of making decisions about your time every single day, establish a default weekly schedule that assigns specific activities to certain days.
🔹 Example: Mondays for planning and deep work, Tuesdays for meetings, Fridays for personal development and catch-up time.
6. Set Daily Non-Negotiables
Rather than overloading your to-do list, pick three essential tasks that absolutely must get done each day. This keeps you focused on what truly matters instead of feeling scattered.
🔹 Pro Tip: Prioritize tasks based on impact, not urgency—what moves the needle the most?
7. Schedule White Space for Flexibility
An overly packed schedule leads to stress. Leave white space in your day for breaks, unexpected tasks, or spontaneous moments of rest.
🔹 Pro Tip: A 5–10 minute break after 90 minutes of focused work can significantly improve productivity and prevent burnout.
8. Use the Two-Minute Rule for Small Tasks
If something takes two minutes or less, do it immediately rather than adding it to your to-do list. This helps prevent small tasks from piling up and becoming overwhelming.
🔹 Example: Responding to a quick email, filing a document, or tidying up your workspace.
9. Implement Themed Workdays
Assigning a focus to each day of the week can help streamline your workflow and reduce decision fatigue.
🔹 Example:
Monday: Deep work and strategic planning
Tuesday: Meetings and collaboration
Wednesday: Creative tasks
Thursday: Marketing and outreach
Friday: Catch-up and personal development
10. Protect Your Personal Time Like an Appointment
Work can easily creep into personal life if you don’t set boundaries. Treat personal time—whether it’s exercise, family dinner, or a hobby—like a non-negotiable appointment and schedule it accordingly.
🔹 Pro Tip: Set a hard stop to your workday and create an evening routine that signals it’s time to unwind.
Final Thoughts
Balancing work and personal life isn’t about squeezing more into your day—it’s about being intentional with your time. By using these time management hacks, you can create a schedule that supports your goals, reduces stress, and allows you to focus on what truly matters.
Ready to take the next step in creating a balanced and successful life? Sign up for my free training and workbook, “How to Plan for a Balanced and Successful Life,” and start building a time management system that works for you!Click here to get instant access.
Balancing work, personal life, and other responsibilities can feel overwhelming, especially when every day seems packed with obligations. The constant pressure to get everything done can leave you feeling drained, scattered, and unproductive. But the secret to true balance isn’t about cramming more into your day—it’s about creating structure in your time.
When you have a clear plan for how you spend your time, you can focus on what truly matters while reducing stress and decision fatigue. Instead of feeling pulled in a dozen different directions, you can move through your day with intention, knowing that each task has its place.
In this post, we’ll focus on two key time management systems that will help you juggle your priorities effectively without feeling overwhelmed:
Your Ideal Daily Routine – A structured yet flexible daily rhythm that supports your productivity and well-being.
Your Default Weekly Schedule – A broader view of your week that ensures all of your key responsibilities fit into your available time.
By implementing these systems, you’ll create a strong foundation for managing your time with clarity and confidence—without sacrificing your health, happiness, or peace of mind. Let’s dive in.
Part 1: Create Your Ideal Daily Routine
Your daily routine is the foundation for maintaining productivity, managing energy, and avoiding burnout. It ensures that your time is structured around what truly matters to you, rather than being dictated by distractions and urgent but unimportant tasks. A well-crafted daily routine helps you stay focused, feel accomplished, and maintain a sense of balance.
The goal isn’t to create a rigid schedule that leaves no room for spontaneity. Instead, it’s about designing a flexible structure that allows you to operate efficiently while still adapting to the inevitable changes that arise throughout the day.
Why You Need an Ideal Daily Routine
A thoughtfully designed daily routine can:
Reduce stress by eliminating unnecessary decision-making.
Create consistency, making it easier to develop good habits.
Maximize energy by aligning activities with your natural rhythms.
Ensure time for self-care, personal growth, and essential responsibilities.
Many people find it helpful to create two versions of their routine: one for weekdays and another for weekends or days off. This allows you to maintain structure during the workweek while allowing more flexibility during your personal time.
Key Components of an Effective Daily Routine
A well-balanced daily routine includes the following elements:
Morning Routine – A structured start to the day that sets the tone for productivity and focus.
Workday Routine – Time blocks for deep work, meetings, and essential tasks.
Evening Routine – A winding-down period that helps you transition from work to rest.
Daily Planning – A few minutes dedicated to reviewing your tasks and preparing for the next day.
Breaks and White Space – Intentional pauses to rest and recharge, preventing burnout.
The Importance of Breaks and White Space
Many people believe that working longer hours leads to greater productivity, but research shows the opposite. Taking short, intentional breaks can help you sustain focus and energy throughout the day. A 5–10 minute break at the first sign of fatigue can restore mental clarity more effectively than pushing through exhaustion.
Develop Your Ideal Daily Routine
To create a routine that truly works for you, consider the following questions:
1. What key activities do you need in your day to feel balanced?
Think about the non-negotiable elements of your day: self-care, work tasks, family time, exercise, hobbies, or creative pursuits.
Tip: Identify what keeps you physically, mentally, and emotionally aligned.
2. When do you feel most energized and focused?
Pay attention to your natural energy rhythms throughout the day. Are you most alert in the morning, afternoon, or evening?
Tip: Schedule high-focus tasks during peak energy periods and less demanding tasks during low-energy times.
3. What habits or routines can you stack together?
Habit stacking is an effective way to build consistency.
Examples: Listen to a podcast while exercising, do your skincare routine while practicing affirmations.
Tip: Pairing habits makes it easier to stay on track without adding extra time to your day.
4. How much white space do you need in your day?
Consider how much unscheduled time you need to feel relaxed and avoid burnout.
Tip: Breaks, reflection time, and flexibility for unexpected tasks are just as important as scheduled activities.
5. What are your top three non-negotiables for an ideal day?
These are the anchor points of your day—the things that help you feel grounded no matter how busy you are.
Examples: A healthy breakfast, a midday walk, a nightly wind-down routine.
Tip: Prioritizing these habits creates stability in your day.
Putting It All Together
Once you’ve answered these questions, start outlining your ideal daily routine. Begin with the key anchor points—morning, work, and evening routines—then add in the supporting elements such as breaks, planning time, and habit stacking.
Your routine doesn’t have to be perfect from the start. Try it out, adjust as needed, and refine it over time to ensure it aligns with your lifestyle and priorities.
By building an intentional daily routine, you create a strong foundation for managing your time efficiently, reducing stress, and achieving balance in your life.
Part 2: Build Your Default Weekly Schedule
Once you have a solid daily routine in place, the next step is to zoom out and look at the bigger picture—your week as a whole. Many people try to fit everything into a single day, which leads to stress and burnout. But when you step back and consider your full 168-hour week, you’ll see that there is more than enough time to balance your priorities without feeling overwhelmed.
A default weekly schedule gives structure to your week by assigning dedicated time blocks for your most important responsibilities, ensuring that everything fits without feeling rushed or chaotic. Unlike a strict daily schedule, a weekly schedule provides the flexibility to balance priorities over several days rather than trying to do everything at once.
Why a Weekly Schedule Matters
Helps distribute tasks strategically rather than overloading any single day.
Ensures time for all key priorities, including work, personal life, self-care, and rest.
Reduces decision fatigue by establishing default time blocks for recurring activities.
Creates space for both structure and flexibility, allowing you to adapt as needed.
A well-planned week prevents last-minute scrambling and gives you a clear roadmap for where your time is going.
How to Structure Your Weekly Schedule
Your schedule should include:
Dedicated time blocks for key responsibilities (work, personal time, self-care, etc.).
Themed workdays to group similar tasks and minimize context switching.
Time batching to complete similar activities more efficiently.
White space and buffer times to handle unexpected events or catch up when needed.
The Power of Themed Workdays and Time Batching
Constantly switching between tasks is one of the biggest productivity killers. Every time you shift from one type of work to another, your brain needs time to adjust, which can cause 20–30 minutes of lost productivity per switch.
A smarter approach is to batch similar tasks and assign them to specific days or dedicated work blocks.
Examples of Themed Workdays:
Monday: Deep work, project planning, content creation.
Tuesday: Meetings, admin work, team communication.
Wednesday: Focused work, creative tasks, writing.
Thursday: Marketing, outreach, networking.
Friday: Finishing tasks, reviews, personal development.
Weekend: Rest, self-care, family time, personal projects.
This system allows you to stay focused on one type of task at a time, improving both efficiency and mental clarity.
Develop Your Default Weekly Schedule
To create a weekly schedule that aligns with your priorities, consider the following:
1. What are your top priorities for the week?
Work, family, personal development, fitness, hobbies, social life, etc.
Tip: Assign dedicated time blocks for each major priority to ensure they don’t get overlooked.
Tip:Batching similar activities reduces context switching and saves time.
3. What are your recurring obligations?
Work hours, meetings, deadlines, appointments.
Tip: Anchor these fixed commitments first, then schedule everything else around them.
4. How much time do you need for self-care and personal growth?
Exercise, relaxation, creative projects, personal development.
Tip:Block off specific time slots for self-care so it doesn’t get pushed aside.
5. How will you plan for flexibility and unexpected events?
Leave white space or schedule buffer times.
Tip: Having catch-up blocks ensures that setbacks don’t derail your entire week.
Putting It All Together
Once you’ve answered these questions, start drafting your default weekly schedule:
Mark your fixed commitments (work hours, meetings, appointments).
Assign time blocks for top priorities (work, self-care, personal development, social life).
Group similar tasks (batching, themed workdays).
Leave white space for flexibility and unexpected tasks.
Your weekly schedule should act as a framework—not a rigid plan. Adjust as needed and refine over time to find what works best for you.
Final Thoughts
By creating a default weekly schedule, you’ll gain better control over your time, reduce stress, and ensure that all of your key priorities fit into your life. Instead of feeling like you’re constantly juggling everything, you’ll move through your week with greater ease and confidence.
Conclusion: Structure Creates Freedom
Managing work, personal life, and other key priorities doesn’t have to feel overwhelming. The secret isn’t about trying to fit more into each day—it’s about creating a structured yet flexible system that ensures everything important has its place.
By establishing your ideal daily routine, you create a strong foundation that supports productivity, well-being, and balance. This routine helps you maintain consistency, reduce decision fatigue, and keep your energy levels steady throughout the day.
Expanding this structure into a default weekly schedule allows you to distribute your priorities in a way that prevents burnout. Rather than trying to do everything at once, you can batch similar tasks, plan for flexibility, and ensure there’s time for both work and personal life.
The goal isn’t perfection—it’s intentionality. With these systems in place, you’ll be able to approach each day with greater clarity, focus, and peace of mind, knowing that your time is aligned with what truly matters.
Now, take a moment to reflect: What’s one small change you can make today to bring more balance into your schedule?
Want to go deeper? If you’re ready to create a plan that truly supports your goals and lifestyle, sign up for my free training and workbook, “How to Plan for a Balanced and Successful Life.” Inside, you’ll get a step-by-step guide to mapping out your time, setting realistic priorities, and designing a schedule that works for you.
Do you ever feel like your daily to-do list keeps you busy but not necessarily productive? Like you’re crossing things off but still not getting closer to your big-picture dreams? If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone.
The secret to meaningful progress isn’t just working harder—it’s working smarter by making sure your daily plans are aligned with your long-term goals. And that’s exactly where the Daily Planner Alignment Checklist comes in.
This simple yet powerful tool helps you evaluate whether your daily tasks are truly connected to the things that matter most to you. Let’s dive into the checklist and explore how to use it to create daily plans that drive real results.
The Daily Planner Alignment Checklist
Before you finalize your to-do list, ask yourself these five key questions:
1. Does this task support one of my top priorities for the year?
Your priorities represent the key areas of your life that matter most—whether it’s your health, career, relationships, or personal growth. If a task doesn’t align with at least one of these priorities, it might not deserve a spot on your to-do list.
Tip: Revisit your annual priorities regularly to stay clear on what you’re working toward.
2. Does this task move me closer to one of my goals?
Each priority should have specific goals tied to it—clear outcomes you want to achieve. Review your goals and consider whether your tasks directly support them. Busywork can feel satisfying, but it won’t get you closer to your dreams.
Example: Instead of “reply to random emails,” try “email potential collaborators for my new project.”
3. Have I broken big goals into smaller, actionable steps?
Big goals can feel overwhelming if they’re not broken down into manageable tasks. Instead of adding vague goals to your to-do list (e.g., “write a book”), focus on smaller, actionable steps (e.g., “draft the outline” or “write 500 words today”).
Action: Break down your big goals into projects, systems, or habits that fit your lifestyle.
4. Do my planned actions excite and motivate me?
One of the biggest reasons people procrastinate on their goals is that the tasks they choose don’t inspire them. Ask yourself if the actions on your list feel exciting—or at least manageable. If not, consider tweaking your approach to make it more engaging.
Example: If meal prepping for the week feels like a chore, try creating a playlist or podcast queue to make the process more enjoyable.
5. Is everything organized in one place, so I can see the connection between my goals and daily tasks?
Disorganized planning systems can leave you feeling scattered and disconnected from your goals. Instead of using separate systems for your daily plans and long-term goals, keep everything in one functional planner.
The Charmed Life Master Planner is a perfect example. It combines space for goal-setting, task management, and habit tracking, so you can easily align your daily actions with your long-term vision.
Why Alignment Matters
When your daily plans are aligned with your long-term goals, everything you do has a purpose. You’re no longer just checking items off a list—you’re building momentum, staying motivated, and making real progress toward the life you want to create.
Remember, every small, intentional action adds up over time. By following this checklist, you’ll create a planning system that helps you focus on what truly matters and let go of the rest.
Ready to Take It a Step Further?
If you’re ready to go deeper into aligning your daily plans with your long-term goals, I’ve got something special for you:
🎉 Join my FREE on-demand workshop, How to Plan for a Balanced and Successful Life! 🎉
In this workshop, you’ll learn even more strategies for creating a life of alignment and intention. Plus, you’ll get access to a free workbook filled with actionable exercises to help you implement everything you learn.
👉 Click here to sign up now and take the first step toward creating a life that feels balanced, productive, and deeply fulfilling.
Let’s make your daily plans work for you—and your dreams! 💖
What’s one small change you can make today to align your plans with your goals? Share in the comments below—I’d love to hear your thoughts!
When it comes to achieving your goals, having a clear plan of action is crucial. But not all goals are the same, and the way you approach them shouldn’t be, either. That’s where objectives come in. Objectives are the actionable steps that help you bridge the gap between where you are now and where you want to be.
The best part? You can customize your approach to fit your goals and lifestyle by using one (or a mix) of these three types of objectives: projects, systems, and habits. Here’s how each works and how to choose the right one for your goals.
1. Projects: Multi-Step Plans with a Clear Endpoint
Projects are great for goals that involve achieving a specific, one-time outcome. They’re multi-step plans that take you from start to finish with a clear result at the end. Once the steps are completed, the project is done.
Examples of Projects:
Launching a website for your side business.
Planning and hosting a family reunion.
Decluttering and organizing your home office.
Projects are ideal for goals that require focus and a well-defined timeline. If you have a goal that feels overwhelming, breaking it into a project can make it more manageable.
2. Systems: Ongoing Processes to Maintain Consistency
Systems are recurring, multi-step processes designed to produce consistent results over time. Unlike projects, systems don’t have an endpoint—they’re about creating sustainable routines to support your goals.
Examples of Systems:
Weekly meal planning to maintain a healthy diet.
Managing your household budget every month.
Maintaining a content calendar for your business’s social media.
Systems are perfect for goals that require regular, repeated effort. By setting up a system, you create structure and eliminate decision fatigue, making it easier to stay consistent.
3. Habits: Small Actions with Big Impact
Habits are the simplest form of objectives, but don’t underestimate their power. Habits are individual actions you perform regularly, and over time, they build momentum toward your goals.
Examples of Habits:
Journaling for five minutes each morning to boost mindfulness.
Taking a daily walk to stay active.
Practicing gratitude before bed to improve your mindset.
Habits are especially effective for goals that benefit from small, incremental progress. The beauty of habits is that they often grow into something bigger over time, making them a powerful tool for personal and professional growth.
How to Choose the Right Objective for Your Goal
The best part about these three types of objectives is their flexibility. You can use one type or combine them depending on the nature of your goal:
If your goal has a clear, one-time outcome, go for a project.
If your goal requires ongoing effort, establish a system.
If your goal needs small, consistent steps, build habits.
By understanding these three types of objectives, you’ll have the tools to create a customized, effective plan for any goal. Whether you’re working on a personal milestone, a career achievement, or building better habits, these approaches will help you stay on track and move closer to your vision.
Which type of objective will you use for your next goal? Let me know in the comments!
Are you ready to take your goal-setting and planning skills to the next level? Aligning your daily plans with your long-term goals is just the beginning!
Join my FREE on-demand workshop, How to Plan for a Balanced and Successful Life, and discover actionable strategies to create a life that feels intentional, productive, and fulfilling. 🎯
✨ In the workshop, you’ll learn:
How to prioritize your goals effectively.
How to break them into actionable steps that fit your lifestyle.
Tools and techniques to stay consistent and motivated.
Plus, you’ll get a FREE workbook packed with exercises to help you implement what you learn right away!
👉 Sign up here to start your journey toward a more balanced and successful life today. Let’s turn your big dreams into your everyday reality! 💖
Have you ever felt like your long-term goals are slipping further away, no matter how hard you try to focus on them? One of the trickiest challenges in life is figuring out how to stay connected to the big picture while juggling the demands of daily life. It’s easy to lose sight of what truly matters when your days are filled with endless to-do lists and distractions.
But here’s the thing: your long-term goals don’t have to feel distant or out of reach. The secret lies in aligning your daily plans with your bigger vision, ensuring that the small actions you take each day bring you closer to your dreams.
That’s where my annual goal-setting method comes into play. While we don’t have time today to dive into a full goal-planning session, I’ll share the essentials to help you get started on the right track. By the end of this post, you’ll have a simple, actionable framework to stay in touch with your goals and take consistent steps to achieve them. Let’s get started!
Define Your Priorities and Goals for the Year
The first step to aligning your daily plans with your long-term goals is defining your priorities for the year. Think of your priorities as the foundation for everything you want to achieve. They represent the key areas of your life where you want to set or maintain standards. These might include relationships, health, career, personal development, or other areas that are most meaningful to you.
When identifying your priorities, go beyond broad categories. Instead, focus on specific people, institutions, or projects that you want to create or grow. For example, rather than saying “relationships” is a priority, you might identify your partner, your children, or a close friendship you’d like to nurture. Making your priorities tangible gives you a clear vision of what your efforts are building toward and a stronger sense of purpose.
Start with Yourself
Here’s a non-negotiable truth: You should always be your #1 priority. Why? Because if you don’t take care of yourself, you won’t have the energy, clarity, or presence to show up fully for the other priorities in your life. Self-care isn’t selfish—it’s essential.
Limit Your Priorities
After prioritizing yourself, select up to four additional priorities for the year. Why limit it? Because when everything is a priority, nothing is. Narrowing your focus to just a few key areas brings clarity and helps you make meaningful progress.
Set Goals for Each Priority
Once you’ve identified your priorities, the next step is to set clear, achievable goals for each one. Think of goals as the outcomes you want to accomplish within your priorities. For example, if your priority is your career, your goal might be to earn a promotion or start a new business.
To avoid overwhelm, set 1–3 goals for each priority. It’s better to have fewer, focused targets and give them your full attention than to spread your energy too thin.
Action Step: Take a moment to write down your top 1–5 priorities for the year. Then, set 1–3 goals for each priority. Remember to keep these goals specific and meaningful. By defining what matters most, you’ll create a roadmap for your year that aligns with your values and aspirations.
Decide Your Objectives for Each Goal
Now that you’ve defined your priorities and set clear goals for the year, the next step is figuring out how to achieve them. This is where objectives come into play. Objectives are the actionable steps that bridge the gap between where you are now and where you want to be.
Every goal can be broken down into smaller objectives, making it more manageable and less overwhelming. There are three types of objectives you can use: projects, systems, and habits. Let’s break them down.
1. Projects: Clear Multi-Step Plans
Projects are objectives with a clear beginning, middle, and end. They involve completing a series of steps to achieve a specific outcome. Once the steps are done, the project is finished.
Examples:
Launching a website.
Organizing your home office.
Planning and hosting a family event.
If one of your goals involves a significant, one-time outcome, a project is likely the best way to achieve it.
2. Systems: Ongoing Processes
Systems are recurring, multi-step processes designed to maintain a specific result over time. Unlike projects, systems don’t have an endpoint—they’re about creating consistency in your life.
Examples:
Weekly meal planning.
Managing household finances.
Maintaining a consistent content schedule for your business.
If your goal involves maintaining a long-term habit or routine, building a system will keep things running smoothly.
3. Habits: Individual Actions Done Regularly
Habits are the simplest form of objectives. They involve small, repeated actions that you incorporate into your daily life. Over time, these habits build momentum and lead to significant progress.
Examples:
Journaling each morning.
Taking a daily walk.
Practicing gratitude before bed.
Habits are especially powerful when your goal requires daily consistency and incremental improvement.
Choose Objectives That Fit Your Goals
For every goal, there are multiple ways to achieve it. Some may require a project, others a system, and some just a simple habit. The beauty of this approach is its flexibility—you can design your path based on your strengths, resources, and the time you have available.
Action Step: Choose one of the goals you wrote down earlier and brainstorm potential objectives to achieve it. Ask yourself:
Is this goal best achieved through a project, system, or habit?
What actions can I take to move forward?
Write down your ideas and choose the objectives that feel most aligned with your vision. By breaking your goals into actionable steps, you’ll transform them from abstract ideas into achievable outcomes.
Choose Actions You Feel Excited and Confident About
Once you’ve decided on the objectives for your goals, it’s important to choose actions that you genuinely feel excited about and confident managing. Why? Because the biggest reason people give up on their goals isn’t lack of ambition—it’s choosing actions that don’t align with their interests, strengths, or resources.
Avoid the “One-Size-Fits-All” Trap
Many people fall into the trap of believing there’s only one ‘right way’ to achieve their goals. When that method feels overwhelming, boring, or completely out of alignment with who they are, they lose motivation. The truth is, there’s no universal formula for success. The best way to achieve your goals is the one that works for you.
For example:
If your goal is to improve your fitness, and you hate running, don’t force yourself to become a marathoner. Instead, explore activities you enjoy, like dance classes, yoga, or hiking.
If your goal is to grow your business, but you dislike creating long-form content, focus on strategies that feel fun, like hosting webinars, making short videos, or networking.
Personalize Your Approach
The most effective actions are those that fit your personality, strengths, and lifestyle. When you choose actions that excite you, you’re far more likely to stay consistent and make meaningful progress.
Here are some tips for creating an approach that works for you:
Play to Your Strengths: Focus on actions that leverage what you’re naturally good at. This builds momentum and confidence.
Start Small: Choose manageable actions that you can realistically stick to. Small wins add up over time.
Be Flexible: If something doesn’t work, adjust your approach. It’s okay to experiment until you find what feels right.
Action Step: Brainstorm Aligned Actions
Think about one of your goals and the objectives you’ve identified. Ask yourself:
Which actions feel exciting or motivating?
Are there any actions that feel overwhelming or intimidating?
How can I adjust the plan to make it more enjoyable or achievable?
Write down a few actions that align with your preferences and strengths. Remember, the journey to achieving your goals doesn’t have to feel like a struggle—it can and should feel rewarding.
By choosing actions you feel excited about, you’ll create a path toward your goals that feels energizing and sustainable. This is how you turn ambition into consistent action.
Use the Right Tools to Stay on Track
Even with clearly defined goals and objectives, staying organized and consistent is key to making progress. This is where the right tools can make all the difference. By using a functional planner that connects your long-term goals with your daily actions, you’ll ensure you’re always moving in the right direction.
The Importance of Staying Organized
Achieving your goals requires more than just intention—it takes consistent, intentional action. Without a system to keep track of your plans, it’s easy to lose focus or forget the steps you need to take. Staying organized gives you clarity, ensures your efforts are aligned, and helps you make the most of your time.
Why You Need a Functional Planner
A functional planner is the ultimate tool for bridging the gap between long-term vision and daily execution. Unlike a traditional planner, which might only include a calendar or to-do list, a functional planner integrates your goals into every part of your planning process.
The Charmed Life Master Planner, for example, is specifically designed to help you:
Plan Projects: Break down your big goals into actionable steps with dedicated project planning pages.
Stay on Top of Tasks: Use monthly and weekly task lists to keep track of what needs to be done and when.
Track Your Progress: Monitor your habits and objectives with built-in trackers that ensure consistency over time.
By combining goal-setting, daily planning, and tracking in one place, you’ll have a clear path forward every day.
Why One Planner is Enough
One common mistake people make is using separate systems for goals and daily plans. While it might seem logical to track your goals in one place and your daily tasks in another, this can actually cause more confusion.
Here’s why: when your goals are disconnected from your day-to-day planning, it’s easy to lose sight of them. To stay aligned, everything should be in one central system. The Charmed Life Master Planner simplifies this process, ensuring your daily tasks are always tied to your long-term priorities.
Action Step: Get Started with a Planner
If you don’t already have a functional planner, now’s the time to invest in one that meets your needs. Start by mapping out your priorities, goals, and objectives in your planner, and use it daily to keep yourself accountable.
By using the right tools to stay organized, you’ll transform your goals from lofty ideas into achievable outcomes. With every task you complete, you’ll be one step closer to living the life you’ve envisioned.
Aligning your daily plans with your long-term goals doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By defining your priorities, setting clear goals, creating actionable objectives, choosing aligned actions, and staying organized with the right tools, you can make meaningful progress toward your dreams every single day.
The key is to stay connected to your vision while breaking it down into manageable, realistic steps. When your daily actions reflect your long-term goals, you create a life of balance, intention, and purpose.
If you’re ready to take this even further, I have something special for you. Join my free on-demand workshop, How to Plan for a Balanced and Successful Life. In this workshop, you’ll learn even more strategies for aligning your goals with your daily life, and you’ll receive a free workbook packed with practical exercises to help you put what you’ve learned into action.
Have you ever felt like you’re carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders—juggling work, family, relationships, and personal goals—yet still feel like it’s never enough? If so, you’re not alone. I firmly believe women today have a major productivity problem! We’re running our homes, holding down one (or two) jobs, managing endless responsibilities, and still find ourselves feeling guilty, overwhelmed, and stressed that we haven’t done more.
And here’s the kicker: We’re already the most productive people on the planet. Between raising children, caring for loved ones, tending our homes, volunteering in the community, and excelling at our careers, we often end up sacrificing our own well-being to meet endless external expectations. The result? Exhaustion, self-doubt, and a nagging sense that we’re failing—when in truth, we just need a new perspective on productivity.
Yes, planning can help, but much of the advice out there sends us down the wrong path, glorifying busy schedules and 4am hustle mindsets. Stickers and washi tape won’t fix overwhelm if we don’t address the deeper issues behind our never-ending to-do lists. We need to shift our focus away from doing “all the things” and learn to set meaningful boundaries, honor our priorities, and create balance on our own terms.
In this post, we’re going to challenge the notion that productivity is about cramming more into your day. Instead, we’ll explore how real balance emerges when you get honest about what truly matters, stop measuring your worth against external “shoulds,” and channel your energy into the tasks, goals, and aspirations that light you up. Let’s dig in and discover how to get more done in 2025—without losing yourself in the process.
Why Women Feel Overwhelmed
Let’s talk about why we, as women, feel so overwhelmed by our obligations—because let’s face it, we wear a lot of hats. We’ve never had so much power, freedom, and opportunity in history, but we’re also facing more expectations than ever before. Women are still expected to be the primary caregivers: raising children, caring for a spouse or aging family, tending the home, and volunteering in the community. And at the same time, many of us work one (or even two) full-time jobs, with more women now serving as head of household or the primary breadwinner.
So, here we are—quite literally running the world—yet we’re still plagued by the sense that we’re failing. We feel like we’re not doing enough, and that constant stress leads us to continue sacrificing our personal energy everywhere else while ignoring our own well-being. That’s precisely where the overwhelm and guilt start to creep in, and why we end up feeling burnt out or resentful.
Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that society often glamorizes “busy” as if it’s a badge of honor. We’re told we should be able to juggle it all—perfect home, perfect job, perfect family life—without ever slowing down. But here’s the truth: none of us can run nonstop without consequences. We end up drained, anxious, and unsure of how to catch up, and the pressure to “do it all” only perpetuates the cycle.
The real problem is that we aren’t just not doing enough—we’re often doing too much of the wrong things, or at least too many things that don’t serve our genuine priorities. This leaves little room for self-care, rest, or joy. That’s why it’s so important to pause, reflect on what really matters, and cut out the tasks, expectations, and obligations that are keeping us in a perpetual state of overwhelm.
The Misconceptions of Hustle Culture
We’ve all heard it: “Eat, sleep, hustle, repeat!” or “The secret to my success is my 4am morning routine.” or my personal favorite, “You can sleep when you’re dead; the bags under my eyes are Chanel!” It’s all around us—this skewed advice that if we just pushed ourselves harder, managed our time better, and sacrificed more of our peace, we’d magically become super-productive.
But here’s the thing: this hustle culture is not sustainable, and it’s not even aligned with what truly drives productivity. Hustle culture glorifies busyness, and for many women, it becomes a never-ending treadmill of feeling like we need to do more—often to our own detriment. We end up comparing ourselves to those who proudly proclaim they work non-stop, which only leads us to burn out faster.
Yes, I’ve bought into these stereotypes before—and even perpetuated them at times—but not anymore. The truth is, women are already doing so much, and the hustle mindset only piles on additional stress and unrealistic expectations. We end up exhausted, questioning our worth, and wondering why we can’t keep up with this mythical ideal of “doing it all.”
Instead of subscribing to a 24/7 hustle, we need to focus on the results we want to achieve rather than ticking off endless tasks we think we “should” be doing. We have to stop should’ing ourselves to death—because that’s what hustle culture demands: an endless “should” list that never acknowledges our real capacity, needs, or well-being.
By letting go of the hustle mindset, we make space to prioritize, plan effectively, and set boundaries that safeguard our energy. After all, if we’re already working so hard, shouldn’t we ensure that our efforts align with what truly matters to us? Hustle culture doesn’t teach us that—we need to learn it for ourselves.
The Truth About Finding Balance
Let’s set the record straight: balance doesn’t mean you give equal time and energy to every area of your life. True balance comes from clarity on your priorities and the willingness to make intentional decisions about what you’ll focus on—and what you won’t. It means making space for the work and personal tasks that matter most, rather than running yourself ragged trying to be all things to all people.
The reality is, you don’t need to do everything by yourself. You don’t need to chase every new project or say “yes” to every request that lands on your plate. In fact, trying to play superhero usually results in more stress, less joy, and missed opportunities to do the things that truly fulfill you. It’s easy to get caught up in external pressures and the ever-present fear of letting someone down, but if you never pause to consider your own goals and well-being, you’ll never find that elusive sense of “balance.”
A big piece of this puzzle is self-reflection—taking the time to understand what makes you happy, which tasks are aligned with your authentic values, and where your energy is best spent. That process isn’t always easy, especially if you’ve spent years chasing someone else’s definition of success. But once you recognize that your life is yours to shape, you unlock a powerful truth: you already have permission to prioritize what matters most to you.
Remember: balance doesn’t mean perfection. It doesn’t mean your schedule will always run like clockwork or that you’ll never feel pulled in different directions again. It means you have a compass guiding your decisions, and you can confidently say “no” to demands that don’t serve you. When you learn to stop should’ing yourself and start getting clear on who you are and what you want, real balance becomes a natural outcome—one that empowers you to get more done without sacrificing your well-being in the process.
Shifting Your Mindset to Embrace Your Worth
One of the biggest roadblocks women face on the path to productivity is not believing we’re enough. We tend to measure our worth by how many tasks we accomplish, how perfectly we juggle roles, or how consistently we meet everyone else’s expectations. But here’s the truth: you are already incredibly productive and capable, and no to-do list will ever define your value.
It’s time to give yourself credit for all that you do. You’ve been comparing yourself to others who might have different priorities, resources, or even support systems—yet you never stop to acknowledge the magnitude of what you alone handle every single day. When you’re constantly looking around and thinking “I should be doing more,” you undermine the great work you’re already doing.
Remember, your worth isn’t tied to how many checkmarks appear on your to-do list or how flawlessly you schedule your time. Your worth is inherent. It comes from who you are, not how perfectly you perform. That’s why it’s so essential to stop ‘should’ing yourself to death and start acknowledging that you’re already a strong, capable person who can make your own choices about what truly matters.
One powerful way to shift your mindset is to use daily affirmations—simple, intentional statements that reinforce positive beliefs about yourself. For instance:
> “I am a Smart, Strong, Capable Woman, and I’m Prepared to Get Shit Done!”
Repeating affirmations like this can help rewire your perspective so that, instead of feeling you’re behind or inadequate, you recognize that your productivity and potential are already within you. By embracing your self-worth, you’ll find it easier to filter out unhelpful external expectations, prioritize what genuinely matters, and finally make room for the balanced, fulfilling life you deserve.
Redefining “Getting More Done” in 2025
It’s time to throw out the idea that “getting more done” means adding endless tasks to your day. True productivity isn’t about checking off boxes just to say you did; it’s about aligning your work with what matters most in your life. That’s why I teach a system of defining “Priorities” (with a capital P)—the people, places, and institutions that deserve your focused energy because they help shape the life you truly want to live.
In my system, you limit yourself to 5 Priorities. Why five? Because you can only meaningfully devote yourself to a handful of areas without sacrificing your well-being. And here’s the rule: you must be Priority 1. Think of the airline analogy—if you don’t secure your own oxygen mask first, you can’t effectively help anyone else. It might feel strange to put yourself at the top of the list, but trust me, when you are taken care of, everything else you manage thrives, too.
Your other four Priorities can be anything that genuinely matters to you: your partner, children, job, home, community, religious institution—whatever resonates. But make sure each Priority is something you want to establish, increase, or maintain to a specific standard. The beauty of this approach is that it clarifies where to channel your energy each day. Instead of juggling a million random tasks, you filter your choices based on which Priorities they serve.
Once you have your five, the next step is to set up to three goals per Priority. These goals are tangible benchmarks or outcomes you want to achieve. If “Your Home” is a Priority, maybe one of your goals is to upgrade your living space by decluttering or renovating a particular room. If “Your Business” is a Priority, a goal might be to launch a new product or grow your audience by a certain number.
By defining—and limiting—your Priorities, you’ll see a dramatic shift in how you plan and execute your tasks. You’ll spend less time on meaningless busywork and more time on what truly deserves your attention. That’s how you get more done in 2025: by focusing on the things that deeply matter and giving yourself permission to let the rest go.
Practical Strategies to Bring More Balance
So, how do we take all these insights—about your worth, about redefining “getting more done,” and about setting 5 clear Priorities—and actually put them into practice? The truth is, it starts with getting a handle on the tasks that occupy your days. Here’s a simple yet powerful exercise to guide you toward living in alignment with your true Priorities rather than letting overwhelm rule your life:
1. Identify Your Top 5 Priorities
Write them down in order, with you as Priority 1. (Remember, you can’t show up for others if you aren’t showing up for yourself!)
2. Brain Dump Your Tasks
Under each Priority, list out every task or responsibility you’re managing—or would like to manage—to establish, increase, or maintain that area of your life. Don’t hold back; get it all on paper. This could be anything from scheduling doctor’s appointments for yourself to brainstorming a new marketing campaign for your business.
3. Apply the Eisenhower Matrix
Now, review each task and decide which quadrant of the Eisenhower Matrix it falls into:
– Important + Urgent: These tasks go on your to-do list right away; they matter to your Priority and need timely action.
– Important + Not Urgent: Schedule these tasks for a later date. They still matter, but there’s no immediate deadline or crisis.
– Not Important + Urgent: Delegate these tasks to someone else or find a system to handle them automatically. If it’s urgent to someone else but not significant to your Priority, it’s better not to let it derail your day.
– Not Important + Not Urgent: Delete or defer these tasks guilt-free. If they don’t move the needle for you, they’re just cluttering your schedule.
4. Delegate and Delete with Confidence
One of the biggest challenges women face is the guilt of handing off or ignoring tasks. But when you see, in black and white, that a task isn’t serving your Priority (or maybe anyone’s priority), it becomes much easier to let it go. The goal is to free up precious time and energy for the tasks that really matter to you.
5. Plan Your Next Moves
Finally, reorganize your “Important and Urgent” tasks into your planner or calendar to ensure you’re giving them the attention they deserve. For the “Important but Not Urgent” ones, set realistic deadlines or time blocks in your planner so you can chip away at them without panic.
By following this exercise—especially the Eisenhower Matrix step—you’ll be shocked at how many tasks you’ve been carrying around that don’t truly align with your 5 Priorities. Suddenly, you have permission to delegate, delete, or defer those tasks that aren’t pushing you closer to your goals. And that’s the key to genuine balance: focusing on the few activities that genuinely matter while confidently releasing the clutter that’s been weighing you down.
Finding genuine balance in your life isn’t about pushing yourself to do more. It’s about realigning your mindset around what truly matters, giving yourself permission to focus on fewer things—the right things—and confidently letting go of everything else. You already are a highly productive and capable individual; it’s simply a matter of recognizing your worth, honoring your 5 Priorities, and planning in a way that respects your time and energy.
If you need a quick reminder of just how powerful you are, repeat this affirmation:
> “I am a Smart, Strong, Capable Woman, and I’m Prepared to Get Shit Done!”
Let it guide you as you cultivate new habits, establish better boundaries, and set meaningful goals that push your life forward without burning you out.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
Join My How to Plan for a Balanced and Successful Life Workshop
If you’d like deeper, hands-on instruction for balancing personal items, work tasks, and everything in between, I invite you to sign up for my training workshop, How to Plan for a Balanced and Successful Life. In this workshop, you’ll learn:
– Practical methods for combining personal and professional priorities in your planner
– Step-by-step strategies for creating plans that accommodate all areas of your life
– Techniques to ensure you’re focusing on your most meaningful goals rather than getting lost in busywork
As the end of the year approaches, I often hear this question from my community:
“How do I set goals that I will actually achieve?”
It’s a question that speaks to the heart of effective planning—wanting not only to dream big but to create a plan you’ll follow through on. If you’re feeling stuck or unsure about how to set goals that truly work, I want to break down some common reasons you aren’t achieving your goals and walk you through the goal setting method I teach and avoids these common pitfalls.
Let’s start with a thought-provoking question: What if the reason you haven’t achieved certain goals before wasn’t due to a lack of motivation or discipline but simply because your goal-setting process wasn’t designed to truly work for you? Many people struggle to reach their goals because they unknowingly fall into common pitfalls:
Setting Arbitrary Goals: Many goal-setting methods encourage us to set goals in predefined categories, like health, career, or finances. While these areas are generally important, focusing on arbitrary categories often leads us to set goals based on what we think we “should” do rather than on what truly matters. When a goal isn’t personally meaningful, it’s difficult to stay committed. My process focuses instead on defining your true priorities, which are unique to you, and using those as the categories to set your goals against.
Mistaking Habits for Goals: It’s common to set habits, like “drink more water” or “work out daily,” as primary goals, but these habits are actually objectives or action steps to take that support a larger goal. For example, if your overarching goal is improved health, drinking more water is a strategy to support that. Reading a specific number of books a year isn’t a goal itself, rather it’s a reflection of the type of person you want to be who may be more informed or considered well read- which is the actual goal you desire. Identifying and linking these habits to a big-picture goal makes it easier to stay motivated and see meaningful progress because you have correctly identified the reason why the habit itself is crucial to your success and self-image.
Relying on Goals to Create Change: Many believe achieving a goal will magically create a sense of accomplishment or transform them into a better version of themselves. The version of themselves who eats right, works out, is great with money etc. In reality, change begins internally and must happen before you achieve the goal. Start by embodying the person you want to become, taking the actions that person would take and then your goals will happen as a natural result of the changes you’ve made.
If you resonate with any of these common mistakes or have used a goal setting method in the past that encouraged these errors to begin with, I am here to tell you that with the right goal setting system you can achieve your goals. Today I want to give you a brief overview of my method and process which has helped hundreds of women set goals they actually end up achieving.
Women like Rose who started using my method years ago and after the first month reported back to me “so far January has been my best month ever regarding productivity, focus, and goal achievement.”
She has been loyal to my method ever since and even purchased the workshops to share with her team because she swears by my method for goal setting and planning!
And Peyton who messaged our accountability group: “I’ve been truly struggling with identifying priorities and narrowing down my goals. I watched the master class and it was game changing for me. Something finally clicked and I was able to identify my true goals and priorities based off my current life situation and I am so proud of this! I think Alexis is a true subject matter expert and I’m so glad I decided to join the master mind!”
Or Karmon who ended up achieving all her goals much earlier than expected one year due to my method and had this to say: “I think this is the 4th of 5th year I’ve goal planned the year with Alexis. The process evolves and refines each year. The break out sessions with the other attendees was a great addition – the additional perspectives and glimpses into others’ goals were inspiring. Definitely the kick start I needed to work on my annual plans. Thanks, Alexis.”
I’m sure you are thinking now, Alexis, what is this unique goal setting process?!
Here’s the step by step process I have used for the last 10 years to set goals that I can achieve and get so much more done than most solo business owners.
Step 1: Choose 1-5 Priorities for the Year The first step in any goal-setting journey is identifying what matters most to you. Think about the core aspects of your life that bring you joy, fulfillment, and purpose—these are your priorities. It could be family, your home, career, or a passion project. By narrowing your focus to 1-5 key priorities, you create a strong foundation for meaningful and impactful goal-setting.
Step 2: Set 1-3 Goals per Priority For each priority, establish up to three specific goals. Each goal should represent an outcome that either raises, changes, or maintains a standard in your life. Make sure these goals are clear and measurable so that you can track your progress. This clarity not only gives you direction but also ensures that every goal aligns with your most valued priorities.
Step 3: Define Objectives for Each Goal With goals in place, now it’s time to create objectives—these are the specific actions that will lead you to your desired outcomes. Think of objectives as your action steps. They should be chosen based on your strengths and interests, so the journey feels engaging and rewarding. And remember, your path can be unique to you; it doesn’t have to follow a conventional approach if there’s a better way that suits you.
Step 4: Assign Objectives Across the Months of the Year Goal-setting is a marathon, not a sprint. Instead of trying to do it all at once, assign your objectives to different months, focusing on just a few at a time. Be realistic here—no more than three objectives per month will allow you to make steady progress without feeling overwhelmed. This pacing is key to creating a sustainable rhythm throughout the year.
Step 5: Use a Functional Planner to Track Your Tasks Finally, your plan will only be as good as your follow-through, so tracking is essential. Using a functional planner (like the Charmed Life Master Planner) allows you to map out each objective, month by month, and track tasks daily and weekly. This approach keeps your goals top of mind, ensuring you make consistent progress toward achieving them.
Why this method works
You are setting goals based on your priorities and where you want to go in life next, not arbitrary goals you feel like you “should” be setting but may not be meaningful for you.
You have a clear roadmap put in place at the start of the year so you can confidently show up in the short term to take actions knowing that by the end of the year everything will add up to the completion of your goal, instead of trying to do it all at once, getting overwhelmed and giving up.
You are limiting the amount of new tasks you can apply to a given month so you don’t take on too much and then fail to complete any single one objective.
You have room for changes and adjustments because your future objectives are penciled into your roadmap but not planned out in depth until you reach the month they belong to. I can’t see the future and neither can you, so our forward planning needs to be a point of reference, not detailed instructions.
Now, it’s one thing to read about the process, but it’s another thing to actually see the activities and steps as you would be performing them all together.
That’s why today I want to give you a look inside my YOU GOT GOALS Planner, including the Annual Review & Goal Prep Workbook!
The video is going to answer another major question I am often asked about my goal planning system…
“Is the YOU GOT GOALS Workshop + Planner only for personal goals or can you also use it for business goals?”
Answer: No, this system isn’t just for personal goals, you can also use it for business goals as well. However, because business goals require more specific types of annual planning including strategic projects, marketing and campaigns, I use another system that is designed specifically for reviewing business data and breaking down business related goals, called the CEO RETREAT!
Both systems are available as on-demand workshops to purchase from my shop individually or as a special bundle.
But of course, Charmed Life Master Mind members get these workshops included in their membership subscription. Master Mind members get to attend the live workshops for direct coaching from me during our class and also get on-demand goal setting support through our private Slack community.
So, if you want to use a goal setting method that increases your chances of success instead of setting you up for unnecessary expectations and failure, I’d love for you to get your hands on one or both of these guided goal planning systems.
Why I Don’t Recommend the 12 Week Year as a Female Productivity Guru
Hey there! Today, I want to chat about a popular productivity approach that you might have heard of—The 12 Week Year by Brian Moran. While this book has definitely made waves in the productivity world, I’ve got a few thoughts on why it might not be the best fit for women, especially those of us juggling multiple priorities.
What’s the 12 Week Year All About?
First, let me give you a quick rundown of what The 12 Week Year is all about. The author, Brian Moran, noticed that when people set annual goals, they often coast through most of the year, only to kick into high gear during the last 12 weeks. You know that last-minute hustle before the year ends? Moran believes that by focusing on shorter, 12-week sprints, we can keep that momentum going all year long and get more done.
Why the 12 Week Year Might Not Be Ideal for Women
While the idea of breaking down goals into more manageable chunks sounds great, I have a few reservations about the 12-week planning structure, especially for busy women like us. Here’s why:
Hustle and Burnout Culture: The 12 Week Year leans into a hustle mentality, which can be a fast track to burnout. Sure, taking action is super important, but living in a constant state of urgency can be draining—especially when we’re already managing so much.
Pressure on the Nervous System: This constant push can actually overwhelm our nervous systems, making it harder to stay productive in the long run. That’s why I’m all about a more gentle, sustainable form of productivity that works with, not against, our natural rhythms.
Masculine vs. Feminine Productivity: The strategies in The 12 Week Year seem to be designed with a more masculine approach in mind, where work often takes center stage. But for many women, life is about balancing work with family, health, community, and so much more. We need a productivity strategy that reflects that.
Capitalism Over Quality of Life: The book’s approach might be great for business goals, but when it comes to improving our overall quality of life, it falls a bit short. Productivity should be about making our lives better, not just increasing our output.
Limited Representation of Women: There’s only one example of a woman using the system in the book, and it’s all within a work context. The goals discussed are mostly performance-based, which doesn’t always fit with the holistic, multifaceted goals many of us are working toward.
What I Do Agree With
Now, don’t get me wrong—there are some things I like about The 12 Week Year:
Lack of Execution: Moran is spot on when he says that most people don’t follow through on their plans because they don’t feel that sense of urgency.
Parkinson’s Law: He also touches on a great point about how tasks tend to expand to fill the time we give them. By limiting our timeframes, we can push ourselves to be more efficient.
Compelling Vision: Having a clear, compelling vision is crucial for staying motivated, and this is something I emphasize in my own planning methods.
Weekly Planning: Moran and I both agree on the importance of weekly planning—not just as a to-do list, but as a strategic plan that guides our actions.
Commitment is Action: Commitment isn’t just about setting goals; it’s about taking consistent action to achieve them.
Why My You Got Goals Method Is Better Suited for Women
After working with so many incredible women on their productivity and planning, I developed the You Got GoalsMethodology, which I believe is a better fit than the 12-week sprint approach.
Annual Goals with Quarterly Milestones: Instead of focusing only on 12-week sprints, I’m all about setting annual goals with quarterly milestones. This way, you can manage multiple priorities across the year while keeping things balanced.
Managing Multiple Priorities: Annual goals give you the flexibility to plan for the right times to tackle different tasks, ensuring a more sustainable approach to productivity.
Long-Term Planning: Women often have goals that require longer timeframes, and annual planning allows us to look beyond just 12 weeks, which is often necessary for the kinds of goals we set.
Mindset Integration: My method also weaves in mindset work, helping you feel a positive sense of urgency and accountability without the stress of a ticking clock.
Looking for more productivity and planning strategies that work for women?
If this resonates with you and you’re looking for productivity and planning strategies that really work for women, I’d love for you to join my Charmed Life Master Mind. Inside, you’ll get access to my complete productivity and planning philosophies, including my You Got Goals Workshop series and the You Got Goals Planner. These tools are all about helping you set and achieve your goals in a way that feels good and sustainable.
If you’re just getting started, you can purchase my annual goal-setting and planning workshops separately. But when you join the Master Mind, you get so much more—a resource library with hundreds of classes, inserts, workbooks, recordings, and more. Plus, we have three live calls per month, along with on-demand coaching and accountability from me within our private group coaching community.
It’s that time of year again – time for a mid-year reset. I absolutely love the idea of a mid-year reset because we’re halfway through the year. If you’re anything like me, you started January 1st with huge goals and plans. However, life inevitably gets in the way, things shift, and you might find yourself off track. Now, as we approach the halfway point of the year, it’s a fantastic opportunity to realign, re-strategize your goals, and reset your plan.
Why a Mid-Year Reset is Essential
If you didn’t set goals at the start of the year, don’t worry – that’s totally okay. The transition into the new year can be incredibly busy. Often, we have the best of intentions to set goals, but if it doesn’t happen in January or by February, we feel like we need to wait until next year. That’s simply not true! This mid-year halfway point is a perfect chance to clarify the goals you want to achieve, make a plan, and organize your life to support those plans.
Don’t Have Goals Yet? No Problem!
Full disclosure: this post isn’t going to dive into the specifics of goal setting and planning. If you haven’t set your goals yet but want to follow my process, I recommend purchasing my You Got Goals Planner and workshop series. As a special treat, use the code 2024RESET at checkout to get 50% OFF. This will help you set the right goals now to carry you through to the end of the year!
The Power of a Mid-Year Reset
My approach to a mid-year reset is inspired by an amazing quote I heard years ago: “Six months of hardcore focus and alignment can put you five years ahead in life.” I truly believe this is true. If you can get clear on your goals, align your life with them, and put in the work, you can achieve in a matter of months what most people take years to accomplish.
The Four Stages of a Mid-Year Reset
This guided mid-year reset activity consists of four stages. For each stage, I’ll share some thoughts and specific activities for you to work through. I recommend setting aside at least one hour to complete this process in one sitting. Once you get the ball rolling, you’ll build momentum that will help you complete it sooner. When we break things into smaller pieces, we often either don’t finish the process or it takes much longer than it needs to.
Make sure to grab your goal materials and plans for the year, plus extra space to write and go through the activities – a notebook or a notes app will work just fine.
The four stages we’ll work through are:
Goal Reset
Vision Board Reset
Goal Life Realignment
Goal Life Organization and Reset
Phase One: Goal Reset
In this phase, we’ll take a close look at our annual goals and the plans we’ve made so far. This step is crucial to ensure we are moving forward with the goals that truly matter to us.
Activity: Reviewing Your Goals
Start by reviewing your list of goals for the year. For each goal, complete the following prompts:
Assess Progress:
What progress have I made on this goal so far?
What is left for me to do in order to accomplish it?
Identify Obstacles:
If no progress has been made, what obstacles have stopped me from taking action?
Is this still something worth prioritizing this year?
Commit to Goals:
Which goals am I committed to pursuing for the next six months?
What objectives do I need to achieve to complete them?
From here, assign 1-3 objectives to each remaining month of the year. This will act as the outline for your monthly planning.
Understanding Objectives
If you’re not familiar with my goal-setting terminology, an objective is the action plan for how you will achieve a goal. If the goal itself is what you want, the objective is how you will make it happen. Objectives take one of three forms:
Project Plan: A series of steps that you complete to get your desired outcome.
System: Similar to a project plan, but instead of working through the process once, systems are repeated on a recurring basis.
Habit: A single action you take on some recurring frequency.
For each goal you decide to move forward with over the next six months, you may have a number of different objectives to accomplish it. Take all those objectives and assign 1-3 per month of the year. Some objectives, like systems or habits, may need to be assigned to more than one month and that is perfectly fine.
Moving Forward
Once you know which goals you are committed to pursuing for the rest of the year, you can move on to Phase Two: The Vision Board Reset.
Phase Two: The Vision Board Reset
Creating a vision board for my goals has been an essential part of my process for years. Here’s why: when we can see the things we desire over and over, it not only reminds us of what we are working towards but also helps us get into the energy of that desire. It activates our creativity, our problem-solving abilities, and regulates our nervous system around the idea of trying new things to get new results.
I like to use the mid-year reset as a time to get back into the excitement of my goals by creating a new vision board. Whether or not my goals list has changed, it’s just nice to freshen things up and bring in a new excitement and energy around our goals.
How to Create Your Vision Board
Envision Your Goals:
Take each of your goals one by one and think about what you envision for this goal.
What would it look like for you to live in the reality where you have achieved it?
Search for Images:
Use Pinterest or other online resources to find images that resonate with your vision.
Save the images to your computer.
Create Your Vision Board:
Make two versions of your vision board: one landscape orientation for your computer and iPad background, and one portrait orientation for your phone and planner.
Use tools like Photoshop or Canva to create your vision boards. Alternatively, you can print your images and create a physical collage.
Tips for an Effective Vision Board
Get Clear on Your Future: Ensure the images reflect the future you envision when you achieve each goal.
Choose Inspiring Images: Pick images that seriously inspire you.
Avoid Faces That Don’t Look Like You: To maintain relatability, either choose images with no faces or blur out the faces.
Create Multiple Versions: Having different versions for various devices and places ensures you see your vision board frequently.
With your new vision board created, it’s time to move on to Phase Three: The Goal/Life Realignment.
Phase Three: The Goal/Life Realignment
In this phase, you will identify the habits you need to put in place to support your goals and create your ideal weekly and daily schedules to make room for each of your goals, ensuring dedicated time and space to work on them.
Habits for Goal Achievement
There is a quote attributed to Aristotle that I love: “You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.” When it comes to achieving your goals, they are not just tasks you experience once; you need to develop the right habits that make your goals a consistent part of your life.
For each of your goals, get clear on which habits will help you achieve them and make them a permanent part of your life.
Additionally, I recommend incorporating the following seven success habits, which I call the Self-Mastery Seven. These are daily habits for success, and while you don’t need to do each one every single day, your life and goal achievement will benefit from doing them most days of the week.
Mindset Work: Engage in activities like visualization, affirmations, journaling, or meditation. You don’t need to do all of them daily, but doing one of these most days of the week will improve your mindset, which plays a major role in achieving any goal.
Movement: Aim for 150 minutes of zone 2 cardio a week, which translates to 30 minutes, five days a week, of a workout at roughly 60-70% of your maximum heart rate. This has significant science-backed benefits for managing your wellness and personal energy.
Planning: Consistently plan before taking major action. Setting your top three priorities and scheduling your day will make you more focused and productive.
Cooking: Prepare and eat home-cooked meals most of the time, as they are generally more nutritious and cost-effective.
Learning: Engage in continuous learning through reading, taking courses, watching instructional videos, or listening to educational podcasts.
Connection: Reach out and talk to people, develop intimate relationships, and share your innermost thoughts and feelings with trusted individuals. This significantly helps in reducing stress.
Sleep: Prioritize getting a good night’s sleep. Protect your sleep like it’s the most important thing you can do each day, as it truly is. Most people are sleep-deprived, which has the same effect as being drunk. Better sleep is crucial for every area of your life.
Next, let’s talk about creating your ideal or default weekly schedule.
If you’ve never heard me discuss the default weekly schedule, it is the master outline for what I do across an average week. Whether you realize it or not, you likely already have a loose weekly routine because we all fall into patterns. Taking control of this weekly routine allows you to create an intentional schedule that gives you time and space for everything that matters in your life.
While it’s true there aren’t enough hours in a day to fit everything, when we zoom out to the week, we have 168 hours to play with. To utilize your week strategically, think about the major categories of tasks you do—for work, home, personal goals, etc.—and time-block them across your week.
Morning Routine: Include your mindset work and daily self-care.
Recurring Tasks: Set aside time blocks for your grocery run, meal planning, and meal prep.
Workouts: Schedule your exercise sessions.
Connections: Allocate time for one-on-one interactions.
Rest: Include rest periods.
Life Essentials and Goals: Dedicate time blocks for life essentials and deep work on your goals.
Creating a themed workweek can be helpful, whether you work for yourself or in a job where your tasks vary. A default template for when you work on each category of tasks helps you stay focused and achieve better results.
Use this template as the skeleton of your plan when planning your weeks. Batch tasks and leave room for white space, so if something unexpected comes up, you have time for it without ruining your plans.
Creating Your Ideal Daily Schedule
Just like the default weekly schedule, you should have a version of your ideal day, noting when you will do certain habits or essentials. Since many activities are done daily or most days, set aside time in your daily routine for them.
Only schedule habits into your daily routine if it’s something you should do most days. Think about adding time for the Self-Mastery Seven mentioned earlier. Once you have this ideal daily routine, it becomes the template for how you move through your day. While it won’t always be 100% accurate, and some days will require adjustments, having this template will help you establish strong routines that make you a more organized and successful person.
Once you know what habits you need to work on, you can start adding those habits to your existing routines and create this time-blocked default weekly schedule to work from.
Phase Four: Goal/Life Organization
Now it’s time to get to the fourth and final phase of this mid-year reset process: Goal/Life Organization!
In this phase, we will cover what needs to get organized in your life to support the achievement of your goals. We’ll look at how your environment is currently set up and how it may already be supporting or perhaps hindering your goals. When I say environment, I mean three things: your physical environment (home, office, spaces where you live and work), the people in your environment who are impacting and influencing you, and your mindset (self-talk and limiting beliefs).
The way I see it is this: there is a reason you don’t have your goal yet—it’s because your environment isn’t optimal for you to take action. It doesn’t make it easy and stress-free for you to show up and live your life. So we need to ask ourselves some hard questions to see what needs to change so we have an environment conducive to achieving our goals!
Evaluating Your Current Environment
First, evaluate how your current environment either supports or hinders your goals. Look at your physical environment, the people in your life, and your mindset. What is working and what is not? Identify elements of support in each area and areas of hindrance that need to be fixed.
With that brain dump of ideas out of your head, let’s start getting more specific. Which areas of your home, office, or other personal spaces need organizing or optimization to bring you into alignment with your goals and ideal life?
Optimizing Your Physical Environment
One strategy I recommend for everyone is to get a handle on your wardrobe by choosing a Daily Uniform Template. Then, organize your closet so that your uniform is prioritized and the excess you don’t wear is moved or decluttered. Getting dressed in the morning is one of the most stressful points of the day for a woman. Research shows women are stressed out in the morning trying to choose what to wear, even with closets filled with clothes. A Daily Uniform Template solves this. It’s essentially deciding on a formula for dressing that works with your body shape, personal style, and the formality you dress for daily.
For example, my template for summer is a tank top, linen button-down, and linen pants or shorts. In the winter, I wear wool joggers and cashmere sweaters. Knowing this, I have cleared out clothes I don’t wear, pieces that don’t fit this template, or can’t easily be integrated with it, and streamlined my closet. This makes it quick and easy for me to get ready in the morning, and I know it will make it easier for you as well!
Beyond the closet, think about what you need to change in your physical environment to get the most from your space. Do you need to better organize files in your office? Reorganize the closet in the spare bedroom? Find a better storage solution for your towels in your bathroom? Identify the areas that need to be addressed. Some issues may have simple solutions like purchasing an organizational tool, but others may be projects requiring time to reorganize a space. These changes won’t happen overnight, but clearly identifying them means you can schedule time over the next few weeks to address them.
Evaluating the People in Your Life
Next, think about the people in your life. There is a quote I love that says, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” If you are trying to hit specific goals, you need to surround yourself with people who have also hit those goals or at least people with goals they are also going after.
On the flip side, if you have people in your life who are negative, unsupportive, or just not on a journey for personal growth, you may need to set boundaries with them, especially if they drain your time and energy more than necessary.
Ask yourself who in your life is bringing you stress and draining your energy. Take steps to set limits with them and protect your energy, so you have more energy for your goals and for interacting with like-minded individuals who are also working on their goals and dream life.
Sometimes, finding people on a similar journey is difficult, which is why I have the Charmed Life Master Mind where women in my community can learn, find accountability, and get coaching together to help them achieve their goals and create their best lives.
Improving Your Self-Talk
Finally, let’s address your self-talk. The way you speak to yourself is a major factor in your success. You are either your greatest hype person or your biggest critic. Your words and thoughts can motivate you into action or spiral you out of control. We need to get our self-talk to a more positive place by identifying the limiting beliefs we need to replace.
When you think about your goals, what limits do you see to your potential? A good way to identify limiting beliefs is to ask yourself why your goal might not work out. The answers will reveal the beliefs you need to face and replace. For each limiting belief, find some evidence or an affirmation that challenges the negative belief.
Here are a few examples:
Limiting Belief: I can’t get healthy; my whole family is out of shape.
Evidence: There are so many people who came from unhealthy families who made a change and ended up inspiring their families as well!
Limiting Belief: I can’t start a business; this niche is already too saturated.
Evidence: A saturated niche means plenty of business opportunity if I show up in a unique way.
Limiting Belief: I’m in my 40s and still not married; I’ll be single forever.
Evidence: People get married and divorced at every age; the right person for me is out there somewhere, also looking for me.
Once you have this evidence or affirmations, use them with your mindset work scheduled as part of the Self-Mastery Seven Success Habits!
Watch the Mid-Year Reset Video
Congratulations!
Once you have worked through this process, you have completed your Mid-Year Reset! You now have a clear vision for the next six months, a fresh vision board, realigned goals and life, key habits identified, template weekly and daily schedules in place, and a plan to organize your environment for success. Well done!
Join the Charmed Life Master Mind!
If you loved this post, gained valuable insights, and wish for more resources to help you plan and organize your life around achieving your goals, you belong inside the Charmed Life Master Mind!
The Charmed Life Master Mind is a planning, productivity, and personal development community designed for ambitious women. Here, you can learn, gain accountability, and receive coaching to help you show up as your best self each day, achieve your goals, and live your best life!
What You’ll Get in the Master Mind
Live Classes & On-Demand Tools: Access a mix of live classes and on-demand tools to enhance your planning and productivity skills.
Community Support: Join a supportive community where you can find inspiration, solutions, and coaching from me and other like-minded women.
Daily Inspiration & Coaching: Get daily inspiration and coaching as needed to keep you motivated and on track.
Why Join?
You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. If you lack growth-minded people in your life right now, the Charmed Life Master Mind can be the community you need. Share your journey, struggles, and celebrate your wins with people who also want the best for you—including me! I’ll be there to mentor and coach you as often as you need it.
Remember, six months of hardcore focus and alignment can put you five years ahead in life. Massively up-level your life this year by joining the Charmed Life Master Mind and getting the support and tools you need to make a quantum leap with your goals!