Happy New Year!
While there are still a lot uncertainties heading into 2022, the new year gives us a chance to start fresh with new goals and new ideas.
And with new goals and ideas comes new planners.
Planning Ahead for 2022
As with past years, I set quarterly goals based on three categories: Writing, Professional/Skill Development, and Personal/Health. However, sometimes my goals were too broad or included unrealistic time expectations. This quarter, I narrowed things down to focus on more specific goals. After last quarter, I realized I need to have a clearer desired outcome and establish deadlines for each project.
Here are my Quarter 1 goals (at least the ones I can share):
Writing – This quarter I want to finish the edits on my first novel. I will have a couple rounds to work through, along with getting feedback from beta readers. But the general goal is to have my book ready for a professional editor and moving towards publishing by the early spring.
Professional – I am in the process of looking for a new full-time job. This involves updating resumes and doing a better job of utilizing online resources. As I restart my job hunt, part of this process will also include trying to improve my skills through reading and/or taking related courses.
Personal/Health – I won’t go into specifics on this one since it involves some personal things. But this goal incorporates both physical and mental health. It includes some benchmarks for activity and nutrition, as well as things such as hobbies, bible study, and even activities purely for fun.
Planner Lineup 2022
If you’re a planner person, I’m guessing you have also been in the process of setting up new layouts and brainstorming for 2022 goals. I spent the last week of December deciding on which planners to use and watching YouTube videos about planner set ups for new ideas.
While I do use multiple planners, I decided to keep my 2022 lineup simple. Like many creative people, I have stacks of notebooks. Instead of buying a bunch of new stuff for this year, I wanted to use more of what I already had. I only bought a handful of things so that I can start using up my stash and save money.
What’s New?
The only new items I purchased this year were those specifically dated for 2022. I have never used disc-bound planners before. But when looking for 2022 planners, I came across a couple that matched notebooks from my shelves.
- Writing and Social Media – I picked a Harry Potter themed planner to use as my writing and social media schedule. I already had a Marauder’s Map notebook, so I couldn’t resist a similar planner. The planner was undated, so used a small stamp set to add the dates. The daily pages included three vertical boxes which make it perfect to outline individual tasks for each day. I plan to use the notebook to track writing sprints, word counts, and random story ideas.
- Wellness – Each quarter, I have some sort of health related goal. In the past, I kept track of that in my regular daily planner. This year, I decided to use a separate planner since I’m expanding this goal into more of a total wellness thing. I found the cat themed Happy Planner and had to have it. Because cats. And I already had another small notebook to match. I’ll use the daily boxes for various physical health goals and the monthly page to track what I’m calling Growth. This includes anything creative or inspiring to help me grow spiritual and emotionally.
What’s Staying
There are a couple things I’ve been using for a while that will continue. I have used the same goal setting system for over a year now. And there are a few ongoing journals. While I did have to buy the planner pages for the quarter, they are a digital download I can print myself. Everything else, I am continuing with my current notebooks.
- HB90 Method – This is my catch-all planner. It includes quarterly goal planning. But it also has weekly and daily pages. This system goes beyond a regular To-Do list. I also use the pages to track progress on my quarterly goals, time management, and future planning.
- Reading Logs – Last summer, I started keeping a log of the books I read throughout the quarter. I don’t do a full write up or annotations.. It’s just a one-page summery and review. Keeping this journal helps me to not only remember what I’ve read, but also allows me to offer suggestions when people ask for book recommendations.
- Quote Journal – I’ve been keeping a quote journal for some time. As I read non-fiction books, I try to write down favorite quotes or insights. This goes back to my academic days, but I like having quick access to key points from the book. Having this journal also helps when I need a quote or idea for an article or other writing project.
What’s Going
Last year, I used a planner for household things – chores, cleaning, shopping lists, and expense tracking. I realized that I didn’t need a separate planner for these. My life is pretty standard in that I don’t have kids’ schedules or home maintenance needs since I live in apartment. While going through my goals for the year, I decided to let go of this household planner. I added basic expense trackers and extra note pages for anything that might come up to my regular daily planner.
Gearing Up For 2022
While the motivation to start new goals is high at the beginning of the year, sometimes getting into a good routine takes time. This is especially true when making big changes. My big goals fit into the same basic categories as past quarters. However, with some changes to the specific goals, it will take a little time to develop good habits around working on them consistently.
As a visual person, using planners and journals has always helped me with both goal planning and planning the small daily tasks needed to make progress. I look forward to seeing how things unfold in the coming weeks.
**What are your 2022 goals? How do you plan out your goals and track progress?**
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To tell the truth, your article gave me such a huge surge of motivation and gave me the right attitude which I had a lack of. I absolutely agree with you that there are still a lot uncertainties heading into 2022, but, of course, we need to move forward and set new goals no matter what. It is so cool that you shared your techniques of settling goals because really often I’m unmotivated and only discipline can help me to pull myself together. I think that it is really important to have a structure and set your goals in an effective way. I really like your idea of using the HB90 Method because I really like something which goes beyond ordinariness and which has a little bit of creative approach. I also think that planners and journals are an important part of the way to achieve goals and I think that they perform a significant function in this process which many people can underestimate. Thank you loads for such an informative article!