Setting yourself up for a clean New Year
The first month of 2021 is already here and for most of you, it’s the time when you wanna start over, make everything better, start new habits, and put away the old ones. New Year's resolutions are pretty common when a new year starts. I’m not quite sure if setting up resolutions is always the best thing to do, because i believe, you can reinvent and start over every single day. You don’t need the 1st of a new year, new month, or Mondays to start over again. So don’t feel forced to wait for these days. If you made a decision, then go for it right away. Not the next day, no... RIGHT AWAY. I know from experience, and i guess we all do, that when we are totally motivated in the evening to start working out again, to stop eating candies, or to learn a new skill, this feeling of motivation doesn’t last long. Especially not when we slept over it. The next morning looks always different... no motivation at all, no focus no meaning anymore why we wanna do it. For some of you though, a new year has something magical and refreshing and i can totally understand if you like starting over at this time. It all depends on what you believe in and what works for you. No golden rule here.
The thing i found out over the years though is, that we cant really set up good resolutions or start fresh when our life is in chaos. Thats why its so hard for most people to do things differently, because their mind and physical place is not set up in the right state to do so.
I normally like going through a few things when i wanna restart my routines, habits, and goals and i thought it could be useful when i share these things. I followed the bottom points for this year as well and i feel so much better than before. So i can definitely recommend trying it out for yourself.
If you didnt cleaned up for a new refreshing year already (or whenever you read this and you need a refreshing start at any time), then i hope that helps you now. :)
I like to break the points into 4 bigger sections. Sidework, Cleaning, Planning & Selfcare. Each of them has its own function to clean your mind and physical space so that you can be more open to new and good things in your life. So let’s get through it.
1. 💻 Side-work
I like starting out first with some side work, which needs a bit more focus and motivation to do so. That’s why i normally do this first. Side work is everything that we didn’t finish or wanted to do during the year. Small tasks, which we pushed away for weeks and months because they weren’t so important or urgent at that time. But those lists can grow when we don’t take conscious time for them. Here are some examples:
Making new thumbnails for your videos
Updating your resume/cv
Uploading projects in your portfolio which you can show now
Creating a new logo
Redesigning your Social Media presence
Finishing the work that you promised to finish for your friend
Updating & organizing your finances to have it easier when you need to do tax and client work
Putting together your new demo reel
Complement the new client contacts and names you met. (Making a list with their names, companies, addresses, emails, etc.)
Finishing that specific blogpost
Finally, build the new cupboard which stands around for months
Painting the image which you promised to paint for your mom
...
It can be actually everything. Mainly small tasks, but when these small things build up it can be super distracting having these in your mind. I know from myself, that i can’t really focus on important projects when i know i have these specific things in the back, which i ALWAYS wanted to do but never did. It’s totally okay when you don’t do these small tasks immediately (because urgent and important comes first), but i highly recommend doing these things at some point. You can write them down and do them at once for maybe a week or so. But to clear your mind and refresh your focus, you should work on all side-work which are laying in the back for months or years. And also, even the small things can be super helpful and life-changing. It would be a shame if you don’t take that chance.
2. 🧹 Cleaning
Cleaning is a very important section to make room for new and better things which serve you. It also makes you do things faster because your space is well more organized. I know there are people who love the chaos and are more organized in that kind of space than when it’s clean. (artists have a fable for living in chaos) But like everything here, it all depends on you and your needs.
Cleaning the balcony, basement, attic
Clean your Spotify list, create new music folders
Clean your computer files and save them on an external drive
Clean your phone (apps, images, videos, music, messages, and other things)
Clean your email folders. Save important ones when needed
Reorganize and clean your Explorer bookmark links, tabs
Clean up your Youtube channels. Sort out the ones which are not useful anymore and add new ones which can help you to grow
Clean your wardrobe and get rid of clothes you don’t need anymore (Maybe donate them)
Clean your rooms and put away distractions. Maybe making it more minimalistic
Cleaning friend lists on social media (often times we have people in our environment who don’t bring any value to our life. People you don’t even know. Sometimes cleaning is needed to make space for people who are worth having in your life)
Cleaning accounts you follow (oftentimes our interests change over time. It’s okay to stop following those who don’t inspire you anymore and add new ones who do)
Stop subscriptions you don’t need anymore and maybe start new ones
...
Cleaning up everything makes your mind and physical space free for new things. Maybe new cloth and fashion styles which you wanna try out. Less distraction when you walk around your home, which also helps with your focus and concentration. Faster workflows and switching tasks when you have all your files organized and in the right places without searching for minutes. Sometimes we hoard a lot of things we think we would use in the future. That is not bad at all, but more than often we hoard not only things but also bad habits in having or using them. When your space is already full, how can you add stuff on top of it? It’s the same with the overflowing cup of tea. When you don’t empty the cup, you have never space for new tea. Think about it.
3. 📖 Planning
The next part is planning and i know that not all people like to do these things, but i think it’s a good self-reflection on your life and yourself. We rarely think about our dreams, goals, wishes, and also what we already achieved. Because most of the time we complain about the things we didn’t get and what a hard year, month, and week it was. Or that we didn’t get things because we blame everything and everyone out there but never take the time to consciously reflect on ourselves. There are a lot of videos on Youtube about all these topics. You can watch it when you wanna know more about the points i listed here.
Writing down your bucket list (maybe checking off the ones you did and writing down new things you like)
Creating Milestone bars and see how far you came in the past and how far you still wanna go
Writing down your yearly, monthly, and weekly goals (write your big goals down and then split them into smaller tasks backward)
Create a new form of a to-do list. Maybe the old one didn’t work or set up a new one for the upcoming months
Create some Habit tracker for the things you wanna start out
Printing out your Vision board for the future (you can also do digital vision boards for example on Pinterest. Just save all the images which make you feel good to have in your life)
Writing down Affirmations & Words which you have on a Post-it so you can go through them when you need them. Maybe reading it out loud in the morning
Planning to write in a Gratitude journal or just simply close your eyes and tell yourself a few things in your head to be grateful for
Buy a new book to keep going or start journaling
Scripting your future letter for the things you want in the future. Writing it down in the present form
Build a new Finance table in Excel to be prepared for the new jobs and to be organized
Get a new Idea book to write down your thoughts for later projects
Put together your fav Meditation and Work music, so you can highly focus when you start fresh
Buy that specific course or tutorial already for your business, workout, health, etc. to start right away
Setting up a calendar and write down already what is currently in your life or what you want to do at specific times in the future
Write down your daily schedule so you know exactly what you have to do every day
Stocking up the basics so you don’t need to think about them anymore for a while (example: several shampoos, toothpaste, nutrition & vitamins, tissues & toilet paper, cleansing stuff, women's articles, make up, etc. - all the things you use on a daily bases and you always need. By buying them in advance in bigger amounts you don’t need to think about them for a while)
...
There are a lot of things you can do to plan and be organized for your future work and life. It doesn’t matter if you do things in a digital form or in a traditional form. That totally depends on what works best for you.
This whole step is pretty important because when you are aware of what’s going on in your mind, you will be more focused, have more purpose and passion for the things you like to and even when things get hard, you always have something in your hand you can look at when you are about to give up.
4. ❤️ Selfcare
The last point is pretty self-explaining. I don’t know if it’s just me but when i take a full day or weekend of self-care, my body and mind feel different. Refreshed, clear, clean, and motivated. Here are a few examples but self-care is different for everybody. You know what to do to make yourself happy.
A warm bath or a long warm shower
Scrubbing your body so that old skin can be rinsed away (and hopefully some old emotions too)
Reading a book the whole day
Watching your fav movies and shows
Try out new perfumes and senses
Meditate with nice-smelling oils in the room
Washing and cutting hair (if you want, try a new style)
Cutting everything you need to (nails, all kinds of hair)
Using face masks and good nutrition cremes, gels, and water
Go to a massage or try to massage yourself
Make a wellness day or go to a wellness salon alone or with friends
Cook your favorite meal or order from/ go to your favorite restaurant
Color your hair so it looks fresh
Have a nice walk in your favorite place or nature
Call or meet people you love and have nice conversations
Eat a yummy healthy/unhealthy breakfast in bed
Write letters with nice things to the people you love
Be active or lazy the whole day. Whatever you like the most
Don’t work at all and take all your time for things you love (and if you love to work, well try at least to do work you don’t need to do so that you don’t have any pressure)
...
___________________
After you worked away all the little tasks you never finished, you cleaned your whole space physically and in a digital way, you planned out your goals, your wishes, and dreams and were grateful for the things you accomplished already and after your full body and mind is super fresh, smells and looks good, you did everything possible for a new start
Doing all these things can take a while and maybe more than one day, depending on how much you wanna do in each area, but it’s totally worth it!
Before you wanna start over again, make sure you know whats going on in your life and think about all the different sections here. I guarantee you, you will feel so much more ready to rock the next chapter of your journey! 💪
