Spiral Findings

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Intentions For A New Year

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I’m not interested in resolutions.  I find that I fail at these before I even get to January 2nd and there is too much pressure assigned to keeping a resolution that it doesn’t provide the right kind of energy when I’m trying to start fresh at the beginning of the year.

I have found a few resources and tools that bring a bit of closure to the end of the year and help me set intentions for the new year.  Intentions, rather than resolutions, feel gentler somehow.  This isn’t my idea, and I’m sure I read it somewhere, but I’ve definitely adopted it!

I thought I’d share some of the resources I use in case you are interested in starting your year, or month, or week off with a bit of mindfulness.  I don’t think you have to do these at the beginning of the year, and if you’re at a major shift in your life and this type of reflection would be helpful, go for it!

What resources do you use to finish up a year and to begin a new year?  Do you have any traditions you use at this time of year?  Are resolutions/intentions things that you set for yourself yearly, monthly, weekly?  Do you have a word for the year?  If so, you don’t have to share it here, especially if it’s personal, but I’m curious if others go through the year choosing a word to help them move through the year.

Happy New Year!

2017 Planners

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I’ve been evaluating my current planners after a chat with a friend, and trying to figure out what I’m going to do for next year.

I have four options in the mix that I can choose from:

  1. Passion Planner
  2. Day Designer Planner
  3. Kate Spade Planner/Filofax Ring Binder
  4. Desire Map Planner

But which of these planners do I want to use for the end of the year and next year?

I started by breaking down what type of planner I like.  These are the things I’ve learned over the evaluating different planners in 2016:

  • Weekly planners rather than daily planners – daily planners is too much overhead given the craziness of the week
  • 2 page view of the month before the weekly views – to view the month at a glance, one page isn’t enough space
  • 2 page view of the week – to have enough space to map out my week because one page doesn’t seem like enough space
  • Time for the weekday broken down into 30 minute blocks – most of my meetings during the week are usually scheduled in 30 minute increments.
  • Pre-printed with the date to minimize the amount of time I need to set up my week.  If it’s too much work, I won’t use it.
  • A place for my Most Important Task for the day, and weekly To Dos, ideally with a section for personal and work, because they are both important
  • A place for tracking habits
  • A clear separation of the work day from the evening, so I can remind myself to unplug and make time to take care of myself as well – make dinner, exercise, rest, recover, read, etc.
  • Portable – anything larger than 5.5″ x 8.5″ is too big for me to carry around

I think I’m going to start with the Passion Planner and the Desire Map Planner and go from there.  And of course, like everything else, I had intended to post this before the end of the year, and it’s January already!

What tools will you be using in the new year?  Are you predisposed to analog or digital planning options?  Which tools have you had success with in the past?

168 Hours

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There are 168 hours in one week.

  • Around 60 of those hours are spent asleep.  This leaves 108 hours.
  • Around 40-60 of those remaining hours are spent at work. For me, it is probably closer to 60, maybe more.  This leaves 48 hours.
  • Let’s estimate 4 hours daily are spent eating.  This leaves 20 hours.
20 hours for personal time for…
  • showering & grooming
  • building relationships
  • fitness
  • reading
  • writing
  • learning
  • time to yourself
Just 20 hours a week.  3 hours a day.  We’re not going to give up sleep or food for personal time.  Something has to change.
How do you spend your weeks?  Have you tracked the time you spend doing different activities during the week?  Is it what you want to be spending your time doing? If so, great!  If not, what would you change?  How can you plan your weeks more intentionally to do the things you want to be doing?

Planning Day

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As one year comes to a close and another begins, the time is ripe for reflecting and planning for the year ahead.  There are so many ideas that flow through my brain at the end of the year – where I’ve gone, what I’ve done, most likely what I haven’t done and need to improve for the next year…but resolutions don’t work for me.  I gave them up several years ago, because they seemed a bit like they were not encouraging things to motivate me but rather sources of lofty unattainable goals that I wasn’t achieving actually were making me feel worse about myself.  Who wants to start the year off that way?  Not me!!

So at the end of 2015, I heard about something interesting online through one of the blogs I follow.  Jamie Ridler was offering something called Planning Day.  It was a 1/2 day session where she guides you through some prompts and helps you set up for the year ahead.  At first I was skeptical.  Did I need another planning solution?  I’d already done the Unraveling the Year Ahead the last few years and was eagerly waiting for Susannah to post this next workbook.  Wouldn’t that just work for this year as well?  But for some reason, I was drawn to the idea of this Planning Day course, and it seemed like a minor investment, so I jumped in…I took the day off work and I set my intention to have a nice relaxing morning and an introspective day with this seminar.  🙂

I can’t believe I didn’t post this back in January…that just proves that sometimes life happens and your best intentions get away from you.  As an update, I’ve been reflecting on the outcome of that planning day event pretty regularly and it’s been a bit of a guiding light for my year.  When I’m down or I don’t know what I should be doing next, I refer back to the words I scribbled and brainstorming I did with Jamie’s guidance and plan out my next week or month with renewed vision and excitement.

I’m definitely looking forward to doing this program again in December.  In fact, I think I might make it a regular thing!

How do you plan your next week, month, or year?  Do you have any favorite workshops or programs you like to use?  

Wardrobe Reinvention

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I recently shifted my home from the East Coast to the West Coast.  The weather is much better, the culture is different, and consequently the attire is a bit different too.

I’ve been trying to figure out how to change up my wardrobe to be less East Coast professional to more West Coast chic because dressy trousers don’t work out here.  I want to have a simple closet with a few favorite pieces that I can wear regularly, not a ton of clothes that I don’t wear or that don’t feel great to wear.

Some ideas I had or people had shared with me regarding refreshing my wardrobe:

  • Flip through some style magazines like InStyle, Vogue, etc. to see what’s in fashion and what appeals to me.
  • Try things on at my favorite stores and see what looks and feels good.
  • Work with a fashion consultant at my favorite stores or try Nordstrom’s Personal Shopper, making sure to tell them what types of clothes I want to wear and for what purpose.

Approach 1:

Today, I tried flipping through style magazines while I was at the local Target.  There are less magazines there than I expected.  I didn’t find this particularly helpful and didn’t see fit to bring any of the magazines home.  Things look great on the pages of a magazine or on the rack at a store, but they may look completely different on me.  So, as much as I liked this idea, I think I’m going to just end up having to stick with my other two approaches.

Approach 2 & 3:

Next steps are to find a couple stores that I like, and when I’m in the mood, go try things on.  I find that you have to be in a “trying on clothes” mood, otherwise you’ll just think everything looks terrible or not want to experiment.

I also want to pick a day where I’m feeling a bit adventurous and try Nordstrom’s Personal Shopper.  Maybe I can convince a friend to go and we can do it together.  That might be fun.

Have you ever reinvented your wardrobe?  How did you go about it?