The start of a new year can be overwhelming. You may often hear at work, “We’ll take that on in the New Year.” As those projects pile up, you may feel like you are drowning in goals and tasks and wondering how you are going to succeed in what you want to accomplish. You may feel like there is so much you want to do that you don’t know how to start completing your goals. You may feel out of control and paralyzed as to how to regain order. Here are three tips to help keep you sane and moving forward so you can accomplish your goals:
1. Use a planner.
Visualization is a powerful tool. Use a calendar planner to write down meetings, appointments, tasks and deadlines.
Transfer your thoughts on to paper, and give yourself a break. Write down what you need to do, so you don’t have to remember everything in your head. Refer to your planner each day. Check off what you have done so you can feel a sense of accomplishment each day.
2. Complete less important tasks first.
If there is something on your mind that you can’t shake off in order to focus on taking steps forward, address it. Maybe you want to clean out your closet or organize your account passwords. Complete the task that is giving you the most anxiety first so that you can have a clear head moving forward to tackle the rest of the work you want to complete.
Be careful not to complete numerous menial tasks first. Don’t use this as a stalling technique to procrastinate on the more important work. Complete a basic task that you want to do, and then move on to what you need to do.
3. Compartmentalize.
You have your professional life and personal life. Within your professional life, you have your work tasks, work relationships and professional development. Within your personal life, you have your family, friends and chores. Life has a lot of facets, and it can be difficult to keep up with everything.
You don’t have to be on top of all aspects of your life to be successful. You don’t have to have every part of your life organized to feel organized. It is okay to compartmentalize and focus on some elements of your life at certain moments. You can be on top of your life even if you are not on top of every element of it. You are human, not superhuman.
Starting the new year can be overwhelming. You may have numerous goals and tasks on your list. You may be able to achieve and complete them all, if you break them down so you don’t feel like you have to do everything in the first day or week of the year. Use a planner, get some things out of the way and compartmentalize.