There’s something incredibly exciting about the start of a new year—it feels like a fresh slate, where anything is possible! Since my early 20s, I’ve made New Year planning a priority. I’d set aside time to reflect on the past year and strategize for the year ahead. In the beginning, I’d have these solo sessions, and later, my husband joined in. We’d treat it like a strategy meeting, dedicating an entire day to the process. Before kids, we’d make it a fun event, heading somewhere special to focus on our plans.

Now, with kids in the picture, our planning time has become much more limited, but it’s still something we value. In years where I’ve been pregnant and dealing with HG, I didn’t always have the energy for a full planning day, but I still made time for some reflection and intention-setting.

As you read on, you’ll find three approaches to New Year planning—one for every level of energy, motivation, and available time. I hope one of these strategies will resonate with you and set you up for an amazing year ahead!

Easy: "The Word of the Year Spark"

 Whether you're low on time/motivation/energy OR are finding it hard to plan because you're facing uncertanity, having a word of the year can be the perfect way to inspire and shape your year

Simply choosing a Word of the Year can be a powerful way to guide your decisions and actions without diving too deep into a complex strategy. This approach is especially helpful if you’re facing uncertainty or don’t feel ready to plan too far ahead. It provides a sense of direction and vision for the year, offering a "theme" that can help shape your choices.

Think about how you want your year to feel. Is there a word that captures that feeling or that you can use to guide your decisions? A word that you can turn to throughout the year, helping you realign with your values, make choices with clarity, or simply inspire and motivate you?

Sometimes, having just one word to focus on is enough. As the year unfolds, you can check in and assess whether your decisions align with your chosen word.

Some ideas for choosing your Word of the Year:

1. Pay attention to the words you hear or read daily—does anything stand out or resonate with you?

2. Free-write for 10 minutes and see if a particular word keeps coming up

3. Close your eyes and imagine how you want the year to feel—what words come to mind?

4. Browse through a dictionary or word list until something sparks inspiration

5. Brain dump by jotting down any words, phrases, or ideas that come to mind.

6. Ask yourself: what do you want more of this year?

Tip: Want to make this even easier? If you’ve used ChatGPT this year, ask it: "Based on our work together, what’s a good word for me to focus on in the coming year?"

Medium: "The ChatGPT Strategy Session"

Harness the power of AI to help you plan, brainstorm, and organize your year with a bit more depth, yet low effort

Craving a full plan for the new year but don’t have the time or energy to put it all together? ChatGPT can help! While I may be an outlier as I still have a few reservations about using AI, I also recognize how incredibly helpful it can be—especially when used the right way.

Have you seen the viral "Day in the Life" trend? I tried it out and made a few tweaks to make it even more impactful. Here's how to do it:

Step 1:

Think about yourself a year from now. What do you want your life to look and feel like? Be specific! Dream big—there are no limits! (Well, almost no limits. Try to keep it semi-feasible for a year—like, don’t say you’ll have four kids if you currently have none, haha). Write down everything that comes to mind that represents your ideal future.

Step 2:

Copy and paste what you wrote into ChatGPT and prompt it with: “Tell me a day in my future life based on this description.” ChatGPT will create a visualization of your future life! Read through it, let yourself absorb the energy of it, and really feel into it. It’s amazing how vivid and motivating the responses can be—mine even made me emotional!

Step 3:

Next, input this prompt: “Create a schedule for me to achieve this life. Break it down week by week with monthly milestones. My current life looks like (describe your current situation), and here are my parameters (include things like work hours, waking times, personal commitments, etc.).”
ChatGPT will likely generate a workable plan, but don’t hesitate to provide feedback and ask for adjustments as needed. It’s all about fine-tuning the plan to fit your life.

Step 4:

Once you’ve got your plan, plug it into your preferred tools—like your calendar or to-do list. You can even ask ChatGPT to format it for whatever system you use, making the process as seamless as possible.

Advanced: "The Full Throttle Blue Print"

If you have the time, energy, and motivation to go all in, this actionable planning strategy is for you! 

This is my signature planning process that I’ve used for years—and it works! If you’d like to dive deeper into the process and get a free printable to help guide you, check out this post.

Here’s what to do:

Step 1: Reflect

Before you jump ahead to the new year, take some time to reflect on the past one.

• What went well? What did you accomplish? We often underestimate what we’ve done, so take a moment to recognize and celebrate your achievements. Acknowledging your wins is the best way to fuel your motivation moving forward!

• What didn’t work? What lessons can you take away from the things that didn’t go as planned?

• What do you want to do again? Identify the things that worked well and that you want to repeat

• What do you want to do differently? Pinpoint areas for improvement or new strategies to try

Step 2: Dream

Now it’s time to dream big! This part should be fun and expansive. Divide your life into categories and think about what you’d like your life to look and feel like in each one. Here are the categories I’m using this year:

• Family

• Self

• Marriage

• Business

You can see the categories I’ve used in the past and examples of what this looks like here.

In this section, you won’t be focusing on how to achieve your dreams—that comes later. Dreaming is about the vision. Think about:

• How do I want to feel this time next year?

• What do I want my life to look like next year?

Let your imagination roam free! Don’t worry about how to get there—that’s the next step.

Step 3: Goal Setting

Now, take a look at your dreams and turn them into specific goals.

• What is your ultimate goal at this time next year?

• What are the monthly goals that will help you get there?

Goals should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

For each goal, you’ll want to determine:

• What action steps will you take? These could be daily or weekly tasks that will move you closer to your goal.

• What barriers might arise? What can you do to prevent them? And, if they happen, how will you handle them?

• How will you measure your progress? Set a timeline for checking in on your goals, whether it’s weekly, monthly, or quarterly.

Here’s an example of a well-structured goal:

Example:
“We will eat at least 5 servings of vegetables a day, 5 days a week. 80% of our weekly meals will be homemade.”
(Specific, measurable, and trackable)

Non-Example:
“We will eat healthier this year.”
(This is too vague—what does "healthier" actually mean? This belongs more in the "dream" section, not as a goal.)

Step 4: Schedule It

Now that you have specific goals and action steps, it’s time to schedule them. Open your calendar and map out when things will happen. Some goals—like “travel to Greece”—might only need to appear once on your calendar, while others—like “go to the farmer’s market weekly”—will need to be scheduled regularly.

This is also the time to break big goals into mini-steps, if you haven’t already. Most goals are achieved by completing multiple actionable tasks. Work backward from the end of the year and schedule each step that will lead you to the final goal.

This is a great opportunity to evaluate whether your goals are realistic. Time can feel abstract, but once you begin plugging things into your calendar, you’ll see if you were too ambitious. If you find that your goals are unmanageable, scale back to what’s actually attainable within the time you have.

For more detailed information on this process and to get a printable, check out this blog post.

Bonus Tip: If the idea of planning for the whole year feels overwhelming, try breaking it down into a quarter instead. That way, you can ease into the process and still create momentum without feeling overwhelmed.

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Did you know this is the kind of thing we can do during a coaching session together? If you want help planning your year or need support with the barriers that prevent you from achieving your dream life, let's chat. Book a free discovery call now.

Upwards and onwards,

Lena