Are you looking to start the New Year off on the right foot? Planning is a great way to ensure you make the most of your time and achieve your goals. In this article, we’ll discuss some New Year planning tips for planning out the New Year. These tips will help you get organized and achieve your goals. So read on to learn more!
New Year Planning Tips
Planning for the new year can be difficult, but here are some ways to make it easier.
Set aside time on your own or with your partner to assess what has worked well for you in the past year. Also, consider what could be improved and how you could do things differently.
Putting all these goals down on paper will make them feel more natural and achievable. Or you can use a planning tool like Trello. If you have trouble sticking to your goals, try setting smaller ones that you can achieve in a shorter period.
The Setup
Write Your Goals Down
Start Travel Planning
Learn Something New
Get Fighting Fit
Focus on Healthy Eating
Declutter Your Closet and Home
Make your New Year Resolutions List
Apply the Pareto Principle
Financial Planning
Consider your Relationships
Planning, Planning, Planning
Consider your Relationships
Think about your romantic and friendship goals. What do you want to achieve with the people in your life? How can you better those relationships in the new year?
Do you want more friends this year than last year? Are there some existing friends that you’d like to see more of? Maybe your goal is to date more. Whatever your relationship goals are, write them down.
Financial Planning
First, consider your finances and what you want to do with them in the new year. Plan your finances for the upcoming year by making a budget and sticking to it.
This will help you stay on top of what you have going out and what is coming in. If you use cash, make sure that there are enough bills available so that spending cannot continue without replenishing funds from somewhere else (i.e., your bank account).
Start a savings account and make transfers to it automatic. Keep track of your investments with a calendar or spreadsheet.
Do you need a new credit card? What about investing in stocks or bonds? Anything can help you move forward with your financial goals.
Apply the Pareto Principle
According to the Pareto Principle, 20% of your activities will give you 80% of your satisfaction. It’s also known as the 80/20 rule and holds that 20% of efforts give 80% of results.
You might wonder how this applies to things to do for the New Year – well, the rule can be used for almost any element of your life. You can even apply this principle to friendships. Spend the most time with those who make you the happiest.
Not advocating cutting out all those who don’t fall into this category but simply focusing on those who are the most enthusiastic about meeting up with you and who contribute equally to the friendship.
Lists are your Best Friend
Make your New Year Resolutions List
It’s tricky changing old habits and sticking to new ones. If you write a list of negatives you’re not allowed to do, such as eating sugar, you may be setting yourself up for failure.
Instead, create a list of positives you want to achieve, such as drinking water 30 minutes before meal times. Try to make SMART goals – i.e., those that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely.
Tell a few close friends about your goals so they can hold you accountable. Studies have shown that we’re far more likely to stick to a resolution when we’ve mentioned it to other people.
It’s generally best to set one resolution and stick to that rather than a whole host of goals. Reward yourself when you reach certain milestones (i.e., if you write ten pages in one night, reward yourself with an hour of TV).
One thing you might do is to put yourself number one on the priority list. We’ve found that this works great, especially if you always put yourself last.
Declutter Your Closet and Home
Now is the perfect time to start planning if you want to move in the new year. Look at different neighborhoods and what might be available there.
If you want to stay put but want to make changes around the house, start thinking about what those changes might be. Are there things around the house that need fixing up? Are there any big-ticket items you need to invest in for the New Year, such as a laptop or flat-screen TV?
Assess how often you use each item in your possession. For example, you probably wear around 20% of your wardrobe most of the time. Therefore, consider decluttering your closet and keeping only the most frequently worn items. It’s a similar principle for your home and if you find getting rid of things difficult, ask yourself whether an item is beautiful or valuable. Do it the Marie Kondo way. You have to love it, or it goes.
If it’s neither and you haven’t used it in at least six months, then let it go. Charity shops will welcome objects in good condition, and old CDs or books can usually be donated to a local library.
Education of the Fittest
Focus on Healthy Eating
Are you getting your five a day – the minimum recommended intake of fruit and vegetables? It can be challenging to fit so many in, but we have a few suggestions that may help.
Rustle up healthy and delicious juice drinks to start the day right. Why not try a new fruit or vegetable every so often too? There is always something new showing up at the grocery store.
If you find it hard to resist temptation when eating out, go to restaurants that only serve healthy food until you’ve achieved your ideal weight.
Get Fighting Fit
Are you planning to lose weight or gain muscle in the new year? You need a plan for that, too!
It’s a popular time of year to join a gym but first, ask yourself if that’s your favorite form of exercise. You’re more likely to stick to something that you enjoy.
Dance classes such as Zumba are another excellent option for getting fit; they burn many calories too. If you like being outdoors, consider cycling, running, or a boot camp.
Break your goal down into small, achievable steps for the best chance of success. For example, if you’ve always dreamed of running a marathon, start alternating walking and running over short distances before working your way uphill sprints to build up endurance.
Learn Something New
Seize the New Year by planning to learn a new skill. There are lots of resources online. Google is your best friend – remember that!
Try out a musical instrument, a new language, or a sporting skill; trying something new will energize you for the whole year. Additional benefits may include making new friends, getting fitter, or increasing concentration.
The Groundwork
Start Travel Planning
It is also an excellent time to plan your travel for the year. If you want to go on a couple of trips, make sure that you save up now. There are many great deals if you book in advance, and some airlines offer significant discounts when tickets are bought well in advance.
Do you have any trips already planned? You’ll also want to consider if any places might be off-limits because of political unrest or travel restrictions.
Whether you prefer to use a printed or online calendar, we suggest inputting key dates first, like personal vacations and school holidays.
With careful planning, you can maximize your time away by booking off dates on either side of some national holidays. Reserve the flights and accommodation as soon as possible, since they’re likely expensive at these peak periods.
Think about the trips you’d like to make in the next couple of months – skiing is a must for all winter sports fans. If there’s a bucket list destination that you’re keen to travel to, start saving all articles about it that you can find online.
One of the best ways to do so is on Pinterest, a goldmine of information for travel planning.
Write Your Goals Down
So, each evening, jot down what you want to achieve the next day. It helps to focus the mind. Don’t beat yourself up if your goals slip from time to time but give yourself a small reward each time you achieve one.
In addition, write out your goals for the next 12 months and post them somewhere visible so you’ll be reminded of them every day.
In Conclusion:
New Year Planning Tips
Achieving personal goals in the New Year is easier if you start planning for them now. The New Year isn’t the only time to make resolutions.
This should be a year-round process of taking stock of your life and planning how you want things to go. You don’t have to do all these essential tasks at once – take one step at a time.
Remember that it’s okay if things don’t go according to plan – keep moving forward! Also, be patient – it takes time to achieve your goals!
We hope you’ve found these suggestions for planning for the New Year helpful. Here’s to a fantastic year ahead. What are you planning for the New Year?
Absolutely Stop Having Negative Self-Talk About Yourself
How often do you find yourself talking down or negatively to yourself? Come on; you can be honest; no one is watching you raise your hand here. Are you even aware that you’re doing it? Many people aren’t even aware that what they say to themselves mentally or mutter under their breath is negative and sabotages their progress and success. So, in today’s article, we will talk about the different ways you can absolutely stop having negative self-talk about yourself.
Being Aware
You first need to become aware that you are doing it and pay attention to when you are doing it. If you mutter things to yourself when something goes wrong, start listening to yourself. You’re likely being negative. If you use phrases like, “Well, I knew that would happen,” “Well, that’s how things go for me,” or “Why should I expect anything to be different,” or “That’s just my luck.” Then you are engaging in negative self-talk.
Things will go wrong. Everything isn’t perfect. When these situations happen or arise, it’s best to move on and not even acknowledge them, especially if you can’t be optimistic about them. I know it’s hard to be positive when everything seems to be going wrong. However, if you notice when one thing goes wrong and react negatively, it will create a domino or snowball effect, and the rest of the day will go the same. If you walk away, so to speak, and do not let it bother you, things will start to go smoothly again.
Giving Negativity Power
More often than not, it’s one little minor instance that gets the ball to roll. When you mutter or think negatively about it, you give power to the negative, and it escalates. Instead, try having a positive thought. Think of something you’re grateful for. This will not only change your mood and outlook, but it will change your vibration as well. When you get into a positive vibration, it helps to repel the negative.
Over time, negative self-talk can lead to low self-esteem, low quality of life, a sour outlook on life, and everything else, leading to health problems. You rarely see positive people suffer from the same maladies as negative people. Negative people tend always to have something wrong with them, even if it’s minor things, and many of them spend a good deal of time going to the doctor to find out what’s wrong with them. You hear them say, “Of course, I’m getting a cold. I always get sick.” “There’s always something wrong with me.”
That’s not to say that positive people never get sick or have ailments, but they generally heal or recover faster, often without going to a doctor for medication.
Positive Affirmations
Start practicing positive affirmations. This won’t be easy in the beginning if you’ve been a negative thinker for some time, but you can start practicing when you are in a good mood. Doing this will prepare you to use them when thinking negatively or to talk down to yourself.
Pay attention to the things that make you think and feel negatively. There’s often a pattern to these events. If you can start to catch these events and use your affirmations, you can ward off a full-blown damaging meltdown. It may even feel unnatural initially, but it will get easier once you start practicing this.
You don’t have to go through life being negative. You can change this behavior. Just like any changes in behavior you make, this one will take time and can be very challenging. It is worth it in the long run. Try it and see if you don’t start to feel better; see if people don’t respond to you better. No one wants to hang around a negative person. If you want to be someone people consider friendly, start practicing having a better attitude and stop the negative self-talk.
Learning to listen to your customers is essential to go above and beyond with your customer service. When you know how to listen, you’ll begin to hear about what they want and need from your brand. Getting your customers to talk isn’t as hard as you think.
You can use the ideas below for inspiration.
Surveys
You want to send out a survey to your customers at least once a year. This allows you to track your industry’s growth, predict trends before they become hot, and see gaps in your niche that no one else is filling.
Be aware of the timing when you send out a survey. A survey sent in the middle of the holiday season isn’t likely to receive much attention, and you may only get a handful of subscribers to participate. But a survey sent out in the middle of January when the holidays are over will get a much better response rate.
Suggestions
Keep a form on your website open constantly just for suggestions. Your customers might suggest content ideas, feedback on a current product, or questions about your services. When customers take the time to fill out your suggestion box, it means they care a lot about your business. So let them know you value their thoughts and periodically remind them that you have a suggestion box if they’d like to share their ideas.
Set up a form on your website with questions to help you write a case study. Start by asking for some basic information from your customers. Ask for their names, ages, marital status, and location. Details like these help set the stage for writing your case study later.
Then go deeper by asking customers to describe their life before trying your product or service. What was their business, marriage, or life like before your brand? Were they happy? What was bugging them?
Ask your customers how their lives have changed since they implemented your product. Did they get out of debt thanks to your financial success product? Did they finally have enough for that dream vacation they always wanted, thanks to your work-at-home product?
Don’t forget to ask for a picture of your customer. Your case study will interest more people if you include your customer’s vision.
Extra Services
Testimonials
Case studies tend to be longer and more in-depth than testimonials. Both are good ways to generate interest in your product or service. But due to the transient nature of testimonials, it’s easier to gather these from customers than case studies. Customer service and your clients can provide you with referrals that will exponentially expand your business.
Make a testimonial form on your website. Ask open-ended questions that encourage more than simple ‘yes or no answers. For example, ask customers about their biggest fear before buying your product. Ask them why they chose you over a competitor or what other products they’ve tried previously.
Make It Beautiful
When a customer gives you a testimonial or provides a case study, turn it into a beautiful image. At the bottom of your image, include your website address. Then share the image on your blog, in your social media circles, and with your mailing list.
Your customer will be so proud to be featured that they’ll share it, too. This exposes your brand to even more potential customers and can help you grow your business in new ways.
Customers are eager to share their opinions when you give them the opportunity. Feedback forms like surveys and case studies show your customers that you care about what they want.
No Excuses! It’s time to take your customer service above and beyond. Do that now by downloading your free workbook.
Today’s article is about your Membership Conservation Efforts. This may or may not pertain to your current business model, but the information is worth a read.
You probably email your members monthly to deliver their content if you have a membership website. But if you want your members to stay subscribed, you should be emailing more often. Frequent messages keep your members engaged with your brand and make it less likely that they’ll suddenly cancel their membership with no warning. Ideally, you want to be emailing your subscribers once a week.
Types of Emails
Week #1: The Delivery Email
This email should contain a link to the new content you have available. Let subscribers know where to log in to download their content and provide their usernames. Then take it a step further and offer them help if they can’t access their content for some reason.
You could say, “If you’re having trouble downloading your content this week, open a ticket with my help desk by clicking here.” This will ensure that you don’t have people unsubscribing simply because they couldn’t get help when needed.
Week #2: The Reminder Email
You want to use this message to remind subscribers about this month’s content. Some subscribers may have missed your original email, or they may not have had a chance to download it on the day of release.
Encourage subscribers to download their content by telling them a little about it. For example, if you’re a wellness coach that provides nutritious recipes for families, you could say, “My kids love the applesauce muffin recipe I included this month. They asked me to put these muffins in their back-to-school lunches.”
Week #3: The Teaser Email
Use this email to tease your subscribers about what’s coming up next. The teaser email makes them curious and gives them a reason to stay subscribed. This doesn’t have to be a long email, and you shouldn’t include everything that you’ll be giving them next month because you want to keep a bit of mystery about what they’ll be getting.
You could say, “Just wanted to give you a head up. Next month, I’ll be giving you [item]. I love this because [reason].” It’s a simple message, but it gives you a reason to stay in contact and keeps your brand fresh in your subscribers’ minds.
Week #4: The Expiration Email
This is your chance to remind subscribers that the current month’s content will expire soon. Urge them to download it while there’s still time. You could say, “This is the final call to download your content. I’ll remove this month’s content when I upload next month’s resources. I don’t want you to miss out, so click here to log in and save your content.”
Make the Emails Personal
Try to be personal in every email you send to your subscribers. Let them know what’s going on in your life or business. You could say, “Happy September! I enjoyed this summer. But the kids are back at school again, so I’m gearing up to set my autumn business goals.”
You want to weave in these details because it strengthens your connection with your subscribers and gives you a chance to tell them about other neat stuff you may have going on.
Keeping your subscribers engaged with your content is one way to go above and beyond with your customer service. Little touches like consistent emails will make your brand memorable to your subscribers.
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You can add a personal touch to your customer service when you use postcards or greeting cards to reach out to your customers. They make your customers feel valued, and in an increasingly digital world, your brand stands out when you send a card or gift through the postal system.
Look for One of A Kind Cards
If you are sending a card, make it something special. Skip the cheap, blank notecards, and don’t go for bland. You want to send a card that your customers will pin to their bulletin board or share on social media. You want a special card. Once your customer knows it is not junk mail.
One place where you can find unique and original cards is Etsy. There are hundreds of hand-made greeting cards that you can search for on the site. You can even have one custom designed for your customer if you want.
Try Send Out Cards
Another option that you may want to consider is Send Out Cards. This is a website where you can select a greeting card you like and have it sent to your new customers. It works similarly to stock photo sites in that you buy credits for a certain amount of money. You use your credits to purchase cards and upload your signature, so it looks like you signed the card. Then it’s sent out like a regular letter to your customer.
Send Out Cards will let you keep a contacts database to send birthday cards to your customers. But it’s not just for birthdays—there are plenty of holiday-themed cards to choose from, too. Whether your clients celebrate Christmas, Kwanzaa, or Hanukkah, you’re sure to find a card that’s right for them. Using postcards and Send OutCards makes it easy for your business to use.
Use Reminders to Make Personal Connections
Your new client just mentioned she’s expecting a little one in six months. Pause to add this info to your calendar and set a reminder ahead of time. You can put something simple like, “Jane’s baby is due in June. Send a card.”
Sites like Send Out Cards, have a gift area that’s perfect when you want to add something special to your card. You can send your customers a treat like a fantastic brownie or tasty fudge. Of course, you can opt for a non-food item if you prefer. You can include a gift like a necklace, a toy plush, a beautiful scarf, or any number of genuine products.
Sending out cards to your customers is a small personal touchthat will delight them. It shows that you care not only about their business but also their lives. When your customers feel you care, they are excited to work with you.
