This year is going to be a HUGE year for me and mine, I can feel it in my bones.
Every new year I have big aspirations for the future.
It’s probably because I’m an eternal optimist, but I just believe that good things are going to happen to me and the people I love.
Funnily enough, looking back, most of the time the best does happen. So there’s that.
Fu*k pessimism.
Traditionally speaking, I’m a terrible planner.
It’s just an area of life that I have never really given the time of day.
I wake up, I do things, I go to bed, I wake up the next day and repeat the process.
While this has worked out for me pretty well over the past 25 years, it’s definitely time for a change.
I have BIG goals and BIG aspirations for this new year.
Don’t you?
If I want a shot at completing those BIG GOALS then I need to get my life organized and planned out a bit better than I have in the past.
New year, new me, right?
Here are the top 3 things that I’m doing to help me start my new year off right.
#1 – Habit Tracking
To help myself get everything planned out a bit better I have adopted a habit-tracking method from one of my top internet mentor’s, Sebastian Marshall.
(If you have no idea who Sebastian Marshall is, you need to look him up, he just might change your life.)
Sebastian has this thing called a “Lights Spreadsheet” that he uses to track his daily habits that he wants to accomplish.
Click here to check the lights spreadsheet out for yourself.
Lights Spreadsheet an excel spreadsheet that you access via google docs.
It lists out all of the days of the month and has columns for you to put in habits that you would like to follow.
So lets say you want to start reading a book for 30 minutes everyday.
You put that in your lights spreadsheet, then when you complete that habit, you check a little dropdown box that says “Yes” next to that habit under the day that you are currently in. The box then turns green and it’s a habit completed.
If you don’t do the habit you check “no” and it turns red.
If you half do the habit, you check “half” and it turns yellow.
That’s it.
It’s super simple but extremely effective for looking at when you are reviewing your week. You can very easily see what habits you hit and what habits you missed.
At the end of the week, you adjust your habits as you see fit and then move onto the next week.
It’s a cool little way of gamifying whatever it is that you want to do.
Here’s what my lights spreadsheet looked for during the last week of December.
#2 – Work Cycles
This is another method borrowed from Sebastian Marshall and it’s one of the best productivity tools I’ve ever used in my life.
It’s called Work Cycles.
Work Cycles are a bit confusing to get at first, but after using them a few times you won’t know how you were productive without them.
Here’s a simple breakdown…
Work Cycles are a way of organizing your work and tasks for the day.
Lets say that you have 5 tasks that need to get done today.
You take each of those tasks and assign them to a work cycle.
Each work cycle lasts for around 30 – 45 minutes.
Followed by a 10 – 15 minute break after each cycle ends.
Before each work cycle, you lay out exactly what needs to get done during that work cycle.
Then you set a timer and get to work.
When the timer goes off, you note how you feel (Energy & Motivation levels), what you got done, and any quick notes about anything noteworthy that happened during that work cycle.
Then you get up take a break for 5 – 15 mins and then quickly plan out–this should take 30 seconds or so–what you want to do for the next work cycle, you set the clock and you do it.
Simple. Easy. Effective.
Click here to checkout and download a free copy of Work Cycles for yourself!
#3 – Compounding Interest (GO HARD)
Albert Einstein once said that compound interest was “The 8th wonder of the world.”
He’s right.
When most people think of compound interest, they think of retirement accounts and investing.
But compound interest goes a LOT further than just investing in the stock market.
The benefits of compound interest apply to nearly every single area of your life, for better or worse.
Like the beginning of a brand-new-year for example.
A new year is a special time.
There’s so much optimism and opportunity and potential for greatness in front of everyone!
Anyone, literally any single person, can completely change their life in 1 year.
- You can go from being in debt to being financially free.
- You can go from being fat to being athletic.
- You can go from never having left your hometown to living halfway across the world.
The potential is limitless, the sky’s the limit!
So you know what’s a really smart idea to do?
You start the new year off going as hard as you possibly can.
- JOIN THAT GYM AND GO EVERY SINGLE DAY.
- WORK ON YOUR SIDE HUSTLE EVERY SINGLE NIGHT.
- BUY THAT PLANE TICKET ON CREDIT FOR 3 MONTHS FROM NOW AND FIGURE EVERYTHING ELSE OUT LATER.
You need to harness as much of that New Year’s Spirit as you possibly can.
You need to take MASSIVE ACTION RIGHT NOW before that spirit fades away.
Because trust me, that spirit will fade away, it always does.
Usually by Mid-February the New Years Spirit is gone.
And if you’re still struggling to figure out what it is that you want to do this year come February, I’m sorry my friend, but you just missed out on a booster pack of momentum for the new year.
I’m not saying that you can’t accomplish your goals if you don’t get to work on them in January.
You definitely, 100% can. Anyone can change their life at any point in time in the year, whether that’s January or October.
HOWEVER…
It’s going to be harder for you.
Compounding interest.
Negative: The longer you wait to start… the harder it is going to be.
Positive: The more work you do today… the less work you have to do tomorrow.
Harness that New Year’s Spirit and go as hard as you possibly can for as long as you possibly can.
Then when that New Year’s spirit leaves come February, you’ll have accomplished so much that you won’t want to stop.
You’ll have gone so far that you will be cool with letting yourself drop the work ethic from 150% down to 80% to give yourself a little breather and you won’t stress about it.
BECAUSE YOU’LL HAVE ALREADY DONE THE WORK TO PUT YOURSELF AHEAD.
Personally speaking, I’m going as hard as I possibly can this month.
I have a ton of energy, I have a ton of drive, the fire inside of me is burning bright–so I’m going to harness as much of that as I possibly can.
This month is about work for me.
Work. Work. Work.
I’ve got big goals and I am going to go as hard as I can to put myself in a position to achieve those goals.
Then, come February, I’m going to lay off the gas for a bit.
I’m going to take a month-long trip to Europe with my girlfriend.
I’ll still be working while I’m in Europe of course.
But I won’t be putting in the 12 hour days every single day that I am putting in this month.
WORK HARD TODAY SO YOU CAN TAKE IT EASY TOMORROW.
That’s all folks.
My plan for starting your year off right really comes down to two main themes…
PLANNING & CONSISTENCY
Plan out what you are going to do every day, and then do what you planned on doing.
It’s a lesson that’s as simple as time is long but it bears repeating every once in a while.
Do you have any tips or tricks or plans for how you are going to start your new year off right?
Let me know in the comments.