5 Things to do before 2021

Are you hoping and praying for a better year? I guess we all do after what we have seen this year. We all started this year with the excitement and with hope to achieve our goals this 2020. Jan and February just passed so quickly and we haven’t even dreamt of the entire Nation going in a lockdown let alone the world. But everything happened so fast and we had to adjust to those situations.

2020 has not been the best year for so many reasons, but we can’t deny the fact that we all learned a lot this year. Most of us were able to spend time with our family and re-think about our life. The biggest gift according to me was that we were all able to pause our routine lives a little and analyze and go deep down within us and our thoughts.

Whatever or however this year has been, it’s coming to an end. Just because last year didn’t go as planned doesn’t mean we can’t plan for 2021. It’s always better to have some plan and our goals figured out than being a headless chicken with no plan and no idea what to do this year. I feel planning our goals and trying to stick to them is more important this year than it was ever before.

I think some of you might have planned and are waiting for Jan 1 to begin with your work, but trust me it doesn’t work like that. We can just start following a few things before and so we can have a better hold of the New Year and know exactly what to do.

Before we even start with our goals there are a few important things we must do before the New Year. I am doing those things and they have been really helpful for me. And that is exactly why I have come up with a list of things you should do before 2021 to have a better start to the year.

So let’s dive into the list now.

1. De-clutter & Organize

For most part of this year we have been in our home leading to a cluttered space. First we need to de-clutter the space and organize everything in an orderly manner. It takes a lot of time and we need to plan and start clearing one area at a time. This will make the whole process not only easy but also enjoyable.

Not only physical clutter in our space there would also be digital clutter. So many memes, videos, screenshots and many more would be taking up the space in our phones and laptops. Schedule a time to just sit and clear all that unnecessary digital clutter. This will be so helpful and you will also get some free storage space.

A de-cluttered and organized workspace, phone and laptop will just make everything easy for us when we step into the New Year. This will make our goals and process of achieving them easy and hassle free.

2. Reflect & Set your Goals

At every month end we all should look back at that month and analyze how it went. Reflection is very important and has to be done at the end of the month and year before we begin a new month or a New Year. I will tell you why.

We would have set yearly goals and monthly goals. If we keep working without going back to the month and checking what we have done and what we need to do now, we will never learn from our mistakes, worse than that, we may not even know about our mistakes. We must check our previous month’s goals and progress and answer questions like,

a. What went well this month?

b. What did not go well this month?

c. What were my big wins this month?

d. Did I achieve all my goals this month?

e. What can I do to improve myself?

f. What are my top 3 goals for the next month?

Now these questions will help us analyze about ourselves and we will be able to plan better for the upcoming month. After answering these questions we can go ahead and start planning our goals for the next month. Now we can divide the goal into small tasks and assign targets every week. This will make sure we are on track and we exactly know in what direction we are going.

3. Habits to break & Habits to build

Most of us think we must set our New Year Resolution on the New Year day. But let’s be honest here. We either will be partying or enjoying in our home and we often consider New Year as a holiday. How will we possibly work on a holiday? The next day after New Year’s Eve we will get busy with our routines and forget everything about our resolutions and goals. And then we want a new week or a new month or worse another new year to take the resolutions. Have you also been in similar situation like this before? Don’t let this limiting mindset stop you this year.

Plan your goals ahead so you have the right direction and have a clear state of mind so that you can enjoy New Year’s Eve because guess what, you know what you are going to do the next day and don’t have to waste time planning.

Now spend at least 30 minutes and start thinking about how you spent this year and start writing down what all bad habits you cultivated this year. It may be binge watching series, sleeping late at night, not drinking enough water or not sticking to your to-do list, it can be anything. Start listing down all those habits which you want to break this year in one section.

Then in the next section, start writing the habits that you want to inculcate in the coming year. Now make sure you write it in actionable step. For example if you’re sleeping late at night and want to go to bed early, write it like, I will go to bed at 10pm sharp every day.

Now repeat this process for all the habits that you wish to inculcate in the upcoming year. Make sure to follow one or two new habits every month and not more than that. You didn’t develop bad habit in a day; it took you some while, to develop a good habit it will take even a little longer.

4. Plan for 2020 & Vision Board

After the reflection exercise we will know what we did and what we didn’t do this year. We have already set our goals and now it’s time to plan and set our vision board. There are so many benefits of setting a vision board. Having a clear vision and staying motivated are important among those benefits.

Set your goals across different aspects of your life like, personal, health, professional, finance, etc. Now choose any images and quotes that you find meaningful and correlating to the goals you have set. Print them cut them out and paste them in a chart paper or mesh vision board bricks. Place it in your workspace. This will constantly remind you of your goals and you will stay motivated throughout.

5. Reading list & Travel list

I can’t stress enough on the benefits of reading and if you’re a reader, I guess you would have already prepared your reading list. If not or if you are a beginner then also it’s not late, you can prepare one now. You can list down as many books as you want to read or go with 21 books to read this 2021. This step actually gives clarity and prevents us from buying any books on an impulse just for it to sit on our bookshelves.

Let’s also prepare a travel list. Yes, this year didn’t turn out to be too good in traveling aspect but that should not make us stop from planning for the coming year. Let’s hope and be realistic with our travel list, and start listing down where all we wish to travel. Even if we don’t travel, that doesn’t matter, but just making the list alone will be so much fun and who knows we can get a chance to travel to one or two places in the list. So, don’t think much about it, go ahead and plan away.

Follow these simple yet effective steps to have a productive and successful New Year.

Have a Happy, Healthy, Wealthy and a Prosperous New Year guys.

Happy New Year 2021.

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Until then, take care

Bubye.