Following Through With Your New Year's Resolutions
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Following Through With Your New Year's Resolutions

How a planner can help you get there.

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Following Through With Your New Year's Resolutions
Estée Janssens / Unsplash

I've noticed that as the end of January drifts near, most people's New Year's resolutions seem to slip away. I have noticed, however, that for me, writing things down is a foolproof way of making sure that they happen. This month, I started a planner/bullet journal to keep track of the things that I need to get done, and trust me there's this feeling of happiness and productivity you get when you check off a box of "To Do's."

I've noticed thus far that keeping a master list of things I have to do in a month, and then breaking that list down into weeks and days helps me stay on task. In my opinion, that is KEY to completing any New Year's resolution. I'm all about Google Calendar and all those nifty little apps that help me keep track of daily tasks. I don't like to rely heavily on them though, because with technology it is way easier to get sidetracked and somehow end up on YouTube, watching cat videos.

To get started, I took a spiral bound journal I had (although most people prefer Moleskine and Leuchtturm notebooks I don't think this requires anything too fancy) and filled up the first page with a calendar of the month. I then highlighted all the dates on which I had events. I hate crossing things out like most people, but keep in mind that life happens and some events might need to be moved or deleted. That is LITERALLY the "hardest" part- the rest is all up to you. Since I like painting, most of my pages are also filled with small watercolor drawings. You can do anything at all.

For starters, this site is a great resource to see where it can get you. But trust me, it doesn't have to look like this and personally IT SHOULDN'T! It's YOUR journal so it should be UNIQUE.

I've also seen people include meal planning, budgeting, and even grocery lists. Instead of wasting paper on that, I use post-it notes and I seem to be holding up just fine. I do, however, have a dedicated "To Be Read List" for books I'm looking into reading soon.

One last thing, if you start looking at this as just another chore, there's only so far you'll get with this. So relax before you go overboard and start looking at this as just another thing you HAVE to do.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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