Let’s talk organization and goal setting, some of us love it and some of us get anxiety just hearing those words. Which one fits you? Well for me, I love organization, planning, and setting goals, it just makes me feel productive and happy. I was the kid in school who could not wait to get our new agendas every year so I had a place to write down notes, my homework, my school activities, and anything else that came up. I LIVED by my agenda and wrote everything down, I‘m obsessed with to do lists, and I get overly excited when I get to check something off my list. Weird, I know. BUT I’ve felt in the past year or so I’ve gotten off track with my organization (personally and professionally) and I’ve been really working on reigning it in and organizing my life. Through career changes, major moves, my business, and first time homeowner, I feel I’ve lost touch with my organized self, maybe you’ve experienced this too?

Now it’s time to get back on track so I wanted to share some tips and tools I’ve been using to help get back on track. My first tip is to find some sort of planner or notebook that you can write down tasks, appointments, reminders, and things to do. It’s helpful to have ONE place to reference all the things going on in your life, because let’s face it; life isn’t slowing down! My two favorite are the Passion Planner (pictured above) and this Bloom planner, they are both amazing!I needed to get back to having one central location for my schedule and to do lists and this planner is perfect. It separates personal and work tasks so you can work off both lists depending on what you are trying to get accomplished, which is huge for me because of my online business. Everything was getting jumbled and I was losing track! It also has space to write down weekly and monthly goals, to create a focus of the day, to reflect on the previous month, to write down new ideas, and it features motivational quotes each week to keep you inspired. This week it’s “Good, Better, Best. Never let it rest. ‘Til your good is better and your better is best” –St. Jerome. Good food for thought huh? It’s been HUGE in helping me find some central organization and I think you will find it (or any planner you choose) very beneficial as well!

As for goal setting, the biggest tip I have for you is to BREAK it down and WRITE it down! Big, scary, crazy goals can feel overwhelming and unrealistic at times and if you really stop and think about it, it’s all the small things we do each day that lead up to achieving our big goals. So, start with a monthly goal and break it down into weekly goals. Then, take those weekly goals and break them down into daily goals. That will make it much more manageable! Since fitness is my thing, I’ll give you a very basic example relating to that (of course right?). Let’s say your overall goal is to lose 30 lbs within the next 5 months. So let’s break it down into smaller goals….

Monthly Goal = Lose 6lbs.

Weekly Goal = Lose 1.5 lbs.

The monthly and weekly goals sound a little less intimidating right? Now before we make a daily goal, we need to think about HOW we are going to get to our overall goal and we know that we can’t keep our same habits if we want to change right? So to achieve your overall goal, you will need to set aside time to workout and you determine your new workout program consists of 30 minute workouts each day.

Daily Goal = 30 minutes of working out

So now in your planner, you write down your weekly goal of losing 1.5lbs and your daily goal of 30 minutes of exercise. Block off that time each day and don’t let anything come in the way! If you take it step by step, day by day, and workout by workout, you will feel a lot less stressed and overwhelmed by the big goal. No, you aren’t going to lose 30 lbs. overnight or after one workout but losing 1.5lbs in a week seems pretty manageable right? Getting to your big goals takes time and consistency but by knowing each day you have done your 30 minutes of exercise (and ate healthy of course) you can go to bed knowing you are one step closer to that big goal. You can relate this to any goal you have whether it’s about fitness, health, your business, your job, your finances, etc. Just BREAK it down step by step and WRITE it down in your new shiny planner I know you will get after reading this (right?) and it will help take the stress and anxiety off those big scary goals.

As always my friends, when I doubt, sweat it out! 🙂

*As per FTC Regulations,I would like to let you know that I do have affiliate links in this blog. The links provide me with a small percentage of commission but do not cost you anything extra. 🙂