The Complete New Year Checklist

The Complete New Year Checklist

Planning frenzy! Last-minute Christmas shopping! Keeping it all together, oh my! 

With enough people telling you how to set goals, what accessories you will need in 2020 (queue eye roll), and the overwhelming quickness of the holiday season, I've put together a concise and comprehensive checklist that even only half-completed will set you up for a killer 2020. 

Read on to get the complete checklist for how to close out the current year and complete all the activities that set up the next one!

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How to Plan Your Year with Vision Casting - Start Here Before Setting Goals

How to Plan Your Year with Vision Casting - Start Here Before Setting Goals

Have you ever thought about setting a goal and felt… stumped?

Start your new year with a strong vision and try this vision casting activity before setting your goals and resolutions. If goal setting feels hard, if you continue to set goals you don’t achieve, or if you have never set goals before, start with vision casting so you can have your best year yet. 

Read on for vision casting activities and examples from my own 2020 planning to inspire your process.

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How I Plan for the New Year: Your High-Level Planning Guide

How I Plan for the New Year: Your High-Level Planning Guide

2020 Planning Guide: Complete your yearly review, start vision casting with a possibilities brain dump activity, get clear on your big dreams, create boundaries for time management and self-care, set goals, choose a theme word, and set up your planner, calendar, and schedule for 2020. Learn how to complete these activities in this 2020 guide for planning the new year.

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How to Write Year-in-Review | Planning Season Series

How to Write Year-in-Review | Planning Season Series

This year, my intuition called for radical change.

Doing this “Year-in-Review” activity helps to represence all the incredible things that occurred this year - all in one place. I asked myself, What did you lean into and give your time and attention? What results did you see from your efforts? Who did you connect with? Where did you go? The answers to these questions, found by racking my memory, re-reading my journals, and flipping through the year’s photos on my hard drive, paint the picture of a year well-lived.

Read on and try this activity for yourself as you plan for 2020.

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How to Write Your Holiday Bucket List + Make The Most of the Holiday Season - Updated for 2023

How to Write Your Holiday Bucket List + Make The Most of the Holiday Season - Updated for 2023

Write your Holiday Bucket List instead of letting this season fly by in a flurry of family obligations and late-night shopping excursions. In this post, I focus on creating a list of activities + intentions to help you keep the spirit (and the joy) alive and make the most of this wonderful time of year. I also share my Holiday Bucket List that you can draw from for example!

Read on to get the full activity + make this your most memorable season yet.

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What I Learned at 3686 in Nashville & How I'll Make the Most of Conferences in the Future: Part 2

What I Learned at 3686 in Nashville & How I'll Make the Most of Conferences in the Future: Part 2

Make the most of any conference with these lessons learned from my experience at Launch TN’s 3686 entrepreneur’s conference! Tips for planning & goal setting ahead of time, how to make the most of your real-time experience, and how to process what you learned to make the memory part of your momentum.

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My 2022 Theme - Listen | Honing my weakest sense

My 2022 Theme - Listen | Honing my weakest sense

Each year, I practice vision casting as the anchor of my planning season. With every vision comes a theme, something I’d like to cultivate more of in myself and in my daily life. This year’s theme is Listen and in this post, I dive into my process, inspiration, and outlook for 2022.

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My 2021 Theme - Faith | Cultivating optimism and belief in my dreams

My 2021 Theme - Faith | Cultivating optimism and belief in my dreams

Since 2016, I have selected a “theme,” an intentional declaration of what I’d like to cultivate more of in my state of being. In the past, I have chosen Ritual, Consistent, Grace, Authenticity, and Patience. This year, my theme is Faith, and with this I include a quote from Kahlil Gibran (which can be seen on my vision board). This post is about my 10-year journey to reclaiming my dreams, my belief in myself, and ultimately, my faith.

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It’s Planning Season - Why Do I Feel So Lost? 

It’s Planning Season - Why Do I Feel So Lost? 

This year, as I prepare for 2021, I find planning season to be more intimidating and daunting than ever. So, I’m taking a look at what has been feeling this way to get to the root of what’s keeping me from one of my favorite yearly traditions.

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With Your Theme as Your Guide, Prepare for 2018

A peek into my "set it and forget it" lifestyle.

This may be the first time I admit this but here we go: I'm a sporadic creative. If I don't set myself up for success, I will inevitably fail. Some mornings I wake up completely unable to make decisions, comprehensively organize projects, or manage communications. On these mornings I make mistakes. I miss deadlines. Calls that were supposed to take place get missed and apology emails go out after I've already let someone down. 

Read on for activities you can implement in your own life to "set and forget" the actions to take to bring make your 2018 priorities your reality! 

 
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2018 Holiday Bucket List

2018 Holiday Bucket List

In the clarity of the present, I’ve created a 2018 Holiday Bucket List so when September and October of the upcoming year start sliding rapidly by, I have a bold reminder of my commitment to making the most of the holiday season. 

Read on for my list of 12 Holiday Bucket List traditions I'd like to bring with me into the new year. 

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A Year in Review: 2017

A Year in Review: 2017

Life tends to pass by in a blur, dotted with formative moments, the occasional surprise that moves you, and can only be remembered with the fleeting space we have in our minds. This year I made a point to document as much as I could - to take photos, write in journals, create plans and lists and save them for later. Packing everything I owned into a bus mid-year had me regretting my memory hoarding, but looking back this week, it was entirely worth it. 

Read on for the whole year in review! 

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The Complete New Year's Checklist

The Complete New Year's Checklist

Planning frenzy! Last minute Christmas shopping! Keeping it all together, oh my! 

With enough people telling you how to set goals, what accessories you will need in 2018 (queue eye roll), and the overwhelming quickness of the holiday season, I've put together a concise and comprehensive checklist that even only half completed will set you up for a killer 2018. 

Read on for a series of checkboxes to start your year on point! 

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How I Plan for a New Year

How I Plan for a New Year

It's no secret that I believe in planning as a tool for any endeavor: Project management, grocery shopping, a lifelong bucket list, getting Christmas shopping completed on-time. That's why December has seen more of me face down in my notebook more than any other month. 

Read on for a suite of activities to guide your 2018 planning. 

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Experiments in Time (and Self) Management

Experiments in Time (and Self) Management

In my own perceived self-importance, I thought, "How superficial can you be, to just get high checking things off and never be done with anything?" I never claimed this was a nice thought! 

Since I started using my Ink + Volt to-do list daily, I've seen a change in that. Without a "job" with a set schedule of clock in-clock out, how many hours I spend working each day is essentially up to me - which can be a positive or detrimental fact. I found that laying out what I needed to (and expected myself to) do each day was helpful creating my days and sharing expectations with others. These line items were typically informed by project plans (bus, business, education), commitments (chores, appointments, self-care), and begrudgingly: stuff that just popped up and seemed urgent. 

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Extraordinary Dreams Require Extraordinary Planning

Extraordinary Dreams Require Extraordinary Planning

It's no secret that I'm a proponent of getting out of my brain and into some realm of reality: paper, computer, calendar, another person;

anything to get my thoughts one step closer to actualization.

It can get exhausting, the extensive gathering of information about what it is I hope to accomplish, what's already been done, who I might connect with, how much time I have, and so many more considerations. I've found it difficult to keep a planning "routine" as my life lacks structure and I am full of excuses. (Really, just the latter)

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How I Plan for a Trip (Especially to NYC)

How I Plan for a Trip (Especially to NYC)

New York is my favorite place to go alone. To be completely anonymous, not just in a foreign place but among so many strangers who respect your space in response to you respecting theirs. Moving fluidly from metro stop to destination, one neighborhood to the next, a new world opening up before me as I climb the stairs from underground. 

In this post, I detail how I plan for my trip, the details I've arranged, and some special events I'm excited about. 

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