Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
Going into the New Year with a Clean Slate
A few years ago, I wrote about not starting the New Year with dirty laundry: no unfinished to-do lists, no niggling things hanging over your head (have you booked that mammogram yet?), just get it all done. I still think it’s great to clear the deck before the New Year, but this year I’m feeling more ambitious. It isn’t just that I want to have a serene holiday, it’s that I have big plans for 2017 and I want to hit the ground running.
I’m spending these last days trying to clear off my desk, empty out my email and get things on the calendar. I’m gearing up for my book launch on Valentine’s Day, so I’m scheduling things way down the line, because I don’t want them to get forgotten when it starts to get busy. One of my ambitions for the winter break is to teach my daughter how to go to the orthodontist’s office on her own. Like I said, 2017 is going to be big.
I spend a lot of time nagging people about the details–reminding them to label, to be consistent–but the New Year is a time to step back for a minute and looking at the larger view. What do you want to achieve in 2017? What steps are you going to take to get there? Dream big and then use that holiday energy to start building a scaffold to hold that dream up.