2019 Clarity Organisation Plan

I don’t know about you, but for me the New Year always brings with it a tingling sense of expectation. Things will be different this year! I love my sense of enthusiasm but the problem is that I continue to do everything in exactly the same way. If you don’t change your actions how can you hope to have a different outcome? Yet still each year I repeat the process. This year though is different because I have a plan, a new idea, so I thought I would share with you my 2019 Clarity organisation plan.

Word of the Year – Clarity

So many people I follow online have talked about the word of the year recently. It seems to be the contemporary replacement for New Year’s Resolutions, which most people completely fail in, often before the end of January. When Lee from the Fibro Blogger’s Network asked us what our word of the year was, I gave it some real though. I came up with not only a word of the year but also a word for each quarter and they all underpin my anticipation for a real change this year. My word for 2019 is clarity.

Reduce (January to March)

My first barrier to clarity is stuff. We are talking about physical, digital, mental and emotional clutter. As many of you know I began the decluttering process last year, and I made a little progress, but I need to do much more. We have all heard the saying of not being able to see the wood for the trees, well, this is the exact situation some parts of the flat is in. The craft area in particular – still! I am savvy with technology (judging by the amount of people who have asked me for digital help over the years). But even though I have digital skills and I am organised, it is easy to fall off the organisation band wagon. You leave your computer to download files you need and they sit in the Inbox. You return to your computer and get caught up with a different project and the files remain in the Inbox, does this sound familiar? The thing with organisation is it isn’t once and done. I have now (the 6th January) emptied my Inbox but I have also created a routine to ensure I do this every day. I still have a few relatively organised folders I need to tweak, but I am making good progress. Finally Mental and Emotional clutter, I am making time for mindful activities and I am (digitally) surrounding myself with people who have a positive vibe. I can’t switch off my Fibromyalgia symptoms but I can switch off the negative thoughts that can easily creep in when living with a chronic illness.

Think (April to June)

I imagine the first thing on your mind at this point is why on earth do you need three months to think? I hear you! The word think also includes ideas such as testing and trialing. This period is about assessing all the ideas and plans I have I never seem to make progress on. Which of these ideas are pipe dreams, which projects are viable but they will take a large chunk of time and what can I get on and do. One problem of being equally right and left brained is that I am both creative and logical in equal measure. Add into this the fact I am an INFJ and you have complications like being better at having ideas than seeing them through. Getting lost in my own thoughts and being empathetic to the point of imagining myself in someone else’s life altogether. By June I hope to have gained real clarity what projects I will take on, current contenders include: writing the novel that has been rattling around in my brain for over a decade; creating my own digital artwork for cardmakers or colourists; putting together some digital courses or training materials for spoonies, to name a few.

Plan (July to September)

Once I have worked through the reduce phase and given myself a real chance to think the next phase of the 2019 Clarity organisation Plan is to Plan.  I am good at day to day planning. If you have read any of my Digital Organisation articles, especially Concur each day with Todoist, you will have glimpsed how I organise and plan from day to day. The flaw in my plan is my long-term strategy. Because I have not really thought through my long-term goals, they all become filed under one day. (You may remember last year I talked about doing my long-term planning with Trello but late in 2018 I moved this to Click Up, which I believe will be more beneficial. I will write a post all about Click Up soon). Because I haven’t given myself the space to go through the first couple of phases, long-term goals are really no different from pipe dreams. Once I get to this stage, I hope to create a solid plan and map out the big projects I will work on.

Create (October to December)

Finally, towards the end of the year I hope to get to work carrying out my goals with a clear picture of the direction I am moving in. I can imagine there are people out there who would say why wait so long? Why not write the novel or design the graphics now?  The problem is without taking a decent chunk of 2019 to gain clarity I know myself well enough to know I would start several projects, doubt myself and finish nothing. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to give yourself the space to trust your decisions and have a practical plan having already weighed up the possible outcomes.

I know most people are fortunate that they need not go into this amount of detail just to get their life in order. My 50/50 left/right brain and INFJ personality can be both a blessing and a curse. I would love to know if you have a word of the year for 2019 or perhaps you have made a resolution? Please tell me in the comments below, I’d love to hear what it is.

I will keep you up to date with my progress throughout the year and if I have inspired you, and 2019 will be your year to gain clarity too, use #2019clarity  on Twitter then I can see how you are getting along.

Until next time,
Gentle Hugs,
Susan