Personal Goal-Setting Tips for 2023

Tuesday, January 24, 2023

A new year typically is the impetus for many people to think about fresh beginnings and big changes. As it was just a few short weeks ago, the month of December can reflect quite a few indulgences and maybe allow a few standards to drop or a couple of rules to be broken.  

But now it is time to look at 2023 as a clean slate ready to be tackled with the best of intentions about how to manage our personal and professional lives. Make a concerted effort to not just dream about a few changes to make our lives more organized or efficient but to make a targeted plan filled with goals to work on and achieve throughout the year. Personal goal setting can become a reality when implementing a best practice tool like a daily, weekly, or monthly planner.  

Grab a Pen and Open Your Calendar 

Remember that old saying about “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step?” Let us rephrase that a little and say, “a journey of 365 days begins with a calendar planner.”  Even the most organized person who is adept at remembering special dates and appointments must rely on a calendar to keep track of both current and future responsibilities. 

Where do you start? 

Decide what calendar works for you. Your preference might be a daily, weekly, or monthly planner or it might be a desktop calendar. Whatever your choice, find one that is conducive to your individual organizational strategy, and be prepared to use it every day. Are you more in the moment and can only handle one day at a time? Maybe you are a big-picture person and need to see an entire month at a glance. What matters as you begin the process of recording all essential entries is that you use your calendar as often as you need to stay on target with the goals you have set.  

Let’s Fill in That Clean Slate 

Sometimes New Year’s resolutions have a built-in self-destruct button that will not carry you to even January 30th with positive changes. It might benefit you to rethink your approach so that it reflects enhancing what you have rather than berating your actions as something that is wrong. 

Think about want you want to achieve over the course of this next year. It is fair to say that a large part of the population zeroes in on eating better and exercising more. There is nothing wrong with either of those goals other than many folks giving up before they have a plan in place.  

This is where using your daily or weekly calendar can help track your progress, especially when you make lists of what you plan to accomplish every week. Eating the recommended daily five servings of various fruits and vegetables might be out of the realm of possibility but setting a goal to increase this part of your diet by just a few is a victory- a victory that will happen more frequently and with greater success, if adhering to a plan documented in your calendar.  

The other resolution belonging to this typical twosome is incorporating more exercise into your daily routine. Maybe you aren’t a workout junkie or even a step counter but listing a few realistic fitness goals to your schedule will help to reinforce this goal as one that can be achieved every day or week until it becomes a habit.  

We have addressed the usual suspects regarding goal setting for our New Year’s resolutions, but there are plenty more to add to your daily planner that will help you to focus on who you want to be both personally and professionally as well as what tangible accomplishments you have set for the next twelve months.  

Planning for Personal and Professional Gain 

Calendars and planners are a necessity for remembering dates, appointments, special events, and project deadlines. Even if we think we have a steel-trap memory, it is never wise to solely depend on it. If one of your goals throughout the year is to have a perfect- or near-perfect- record of acknowledging every birthday, anniversary, family or work event, and every meeting or appointment then adding each one to your daily planner or desktop calendar will ensure success. 

This advice may seem like common sense as these are calendar entries we note every day, but goal-setting best practices like checking each day that special dates are not forgotten will provide you with an immediate sense of not dropping the ball on what is important to you.  

Long-Term and Big Picture 

One year may seem like a long time, but when it comes to setting benchmarks for larger objectives it may be necessary to look at a five-year monthly planner. Many life goals can often take several years to achieve but are no less important when creating a strategy that culminates in success.  

In addition to your daily, weekly, and monthly calendars, it can also be beneficial to utilize a multi-year calendar for areas like saving for a house or vacation, graduating from college, and earning career advancements. While this calendar will not provide immediate gratification, the sense of accomplishment at the end of this plan will be just as satisfying.  

Top Tips for New Year Goal Setting 

•  Get a calendar now! Use one that works with your organizational style.

• Spend time entering all the dates you know - birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, graduations, medical appointments as well as work deadlines, meetings, conferences, and other events.

• Many of us are visual learners. Color-coding your calendar entries is an effective way to help you remember all the parts of each week.

• Find a time each day that you look at your calendar- maybe over breakfast, when you sit down at your desk, or before you stop for the day- the point is to do what works for you!

• Constantly update. It would be great if we could enter everything on January 1st and then we were set for the year, but life doesn’t work that way.

Start your new year right with the perfect daily, weekly, or monthly planner from House of Doolittle. They have a calendar just for you!