I am a bit archaic so I love me some pen and paper. But get your hands on your planner and get all the logistics written down. Get your work schedule, your spouse’s schedule, kid’s school schedule, extracurriculars, appointments, Chiropractic visits, vacations, and travel. Once these are written in, you should be able to see as far out as 3 months in the future. Of course things come up, but at least you will have the ground level logistics of your household down. If you are looking for a planner, some great planners out there are: Erin Condren, Passion Planner, Start Planner, Blue Sky Planner. Once your schedule is down on paper, meet with your household at the beginning of each month to have a look that particular month to see if there are any gaps or places you need a babysitter, etc. At the Webers, we meet once a month, as well as every Sunday to map out the week, see if any changes have been made and be able to squeeze something into the schedule if we want. Clearly communicated expectations with your family unit make for a well-oiled schedule and life.
2. Prioritize
Know what you value the most and make time for it! Yes, MAKE time. I hear this a lot, “When I get some time I will… have date nights, take the kids to the park, connect with that friend, exercise, make my health a priority…..yada yada yada”. You are the only one who is in charge of making time for the people and things you love most. No one else is going to do this for you. So carve it out and be intentional with your time. Make a list of what you value most: family, friends, church, connections, quiet time, Bible study, travel, etc. From there, look at your month and MAKE time for it.
In the past, my husband and I have been guilty of the “when we get some time….” bit when it came to date nights and because of this lack of intention, we could only count on ONE hand the amount of dates we went on last year. Insert a shocked emoji face here!
Since this appalling realization, we have carved out intentional date nights once every two weeks for two hours each time. And on the weeks we do not have a date night, that night is used for either a mommy/daughter or daddy/daughter date night. We wanted to have set aside quality one-on-one time with each of our kiddos. So now, those are on the calendar and all we have to do is get the babysitter for our date nights. Easy peasy lemon squeasy!
3. Execute the Plan.
We can plan all day, but if there is no action on those plans it is meaningless. There HAS to be follow through. Lots of people can get caught up in the perfection of planning and lose the big idea and intention of having a plan in place (myself included). Follow through helps us be more proactive in our lives rather than reactive. And the common element of both those words is “active”. So, ACT on those plans y’all!
I can’t wait to see how implementing these simple strategies sets you up with a more easeful and enjoyable year!
Happy Planning!
Your Dallas Family Chiropractor and neurotic planner,
Dr. Denisa Weber
#plan #success
