3 Tips For Creating New Year’s Resolutions

Learn how to set New Year’s resolutions like a professional organizer with a printable planner full of positive habits and actionable goals.

For most people, New Year’s resolutions seem like a good idea until it’s time to do them. Then the resolution is not to embrace the year, but to simply get through it. Ya feel me?

I was tired of this pattern, too, and I wanted to change it in the most Organized-ish way possible—lounging with paper and a rainbow pen, with the dreamy sounds of Ray LaMontagne cheering me on. Here are my three best tips to escape the rut of New Year’s resolutions, and how these printable goal planning sheets keep me laser-focused on sticking with my own.

3 Steps For Better New Year’s Resolutions

1. Get Really Clear On Where You Are Now

Before you can start throwing out resolutions just because they “sound nice” you need to really evaluate where you are in your life in all aspects. I like to rate each category of my life on a 1 to 10 scale. This helps me see which areas I really should focus on versus just picking random goals.

The categories I usually rate myself include fitness, finances, career, home, family, future-planning, and charity. I honestly rate how I’m doing in each category, then I focus on the lowest two ratings. If fitness got a 5 and future-planning got a 4, while the others ranked 7 and above, it would be in my best interest to create resolutions based on fitness and future planning.

2. Make A NOT To Do List

You’re probably familiar with a to-do list. You know, that crumbled up piece of notebook paper that you lost three times and haven’t crossed anything off since your last birthday. To Do lists are great if you use them correctly, but you can’t expect it to be a catch-all for the stuff you’d like to do sometime.

A to-do list isn’t so great for resolutions, so what I like to do is make a NOT To Do list instead. I write down all the things I’m NOT going to do to help me break bad habits and stay on track with my goal.

For example, some things on my personal NOT To Do list for next year are

• order takeout more than one day a week
• use my phone in bed
• reply to emails during non-work hours
• skip Winston’s walk just because I don’t feel like it

3. Make 90 Day Goals

If a New Year’s resolution seems impossible to plan for, that’s because for most of us, it is. It’s so hard to visualize what you’ll be doing a year from now. 2020 taught us that, huh? I have always been an unconventional organizer because I shout it from the rooftops that one-year goals just don’t work.

I highly recommend breaking up your big annual goal into four 90 day goals instead. It’s a lot easier to track, visualize, and stick with a three month goal versus a 12 month one. Just decide on your annual theme (your big goal) and break that up into four steps. Those four steps are your 90 day goals. Then break up those four steps into micro steps, which you will complete in each three month period. Easy!

Need A New Year’s Resolutions Planner?

The same new year resolution planner I use is in the Binder Kit Membership Library. It has pages for everything I mentioned—lifestyle evaluations, not to-do lists, and monthly habit trackers—plus action plans, bucket lists, and reading lists. At the back, there’s space for affirmations, manifestations, and all things positive thinking.

Download the printable New Year’s Resolutions planner with member access to the Organized-ish Binder Kit Collection. A 5-Day Limited Access Pass puts the most organized week of your life into action, while a Lifetime Membership unlocks permanent access to this planner, plus tons of others that are released monthly. Start here to see the library for yourself.

If you have a brilliant hack or unique method that keeps your New Year’s resolutions on track, share it with us in the comments. We’d love to hear from you.