3 Tips for Finishing This Year Well
The rest of the year is going to absolutely fly by. Thanksgiving is behind us. Christmas is around the corner. And before you know it, the new year will be here. What are you going to do with these next few weeks?
They could just be a wash. We could let ourselves skip right over them, ignoring any possibility they hold because “we will just start fresh on January 1st.”
Or, we could really make them count. As cliché as it might sound, if we live just a little more intentionally over these next few weeks, we can accomplish a whole list of things we didn’t know were possible. To borrow a thought from author and speaker Rachel Hollis, “What if you commit to living your last 90 days (or 21 in our case) of this year as hard as you are committing to living the first 30 days of the new year? What if instead of a downhill slide into 2019, you are ramping up!”
But how exactly are we supposed to do that?
Here are three things to think about as you commit to finishing this year well.
1. Review your goals
Look back at the goals you set for yourself this year and prioritize which ones you can still accomplish. When we talk about time management, we often offer a tip that with the last 15 minutes of your work day, look at what’s left on your list and get just one more thing done. What can you get done with the last 15 minutes of this year? Knowing you only have a month or so left, pick one or two (or three, if you are feeling ambitious) things that you can still get done.
Tip: Need help knowing where to start? Check out our prioritization quick filter. This nifty tool helps you sort through what’s in front of you and figure out if it is something you can accomplish now. After you’ve narrowed it down, schedule time on your calendar to accomplish it. Be sure you can cross that thing off your list by being sure you have the time to get it done.
2. Refresh your relationships
Take an intentional moment here, towards the end of the year and reflect on the people around you. Who had an impact on you this year? Who helped you grow or move forward this year? Who haven’t you connected with yet this year? Take a minute now and refresh your relationships with them.
Tip: We believe in the power of the thank you note. We think the act of writing down the impact others have had on you is truly powerful. But we also know it can feel a bit foreign for some. If that’s the case, or if you just need a little refresher, check out this step by step guide and then let us know how it goes!
3. Start Planning
Reflect on how you would like to get even better for next year. Maybe there are some things left on this year’s to do list that could carry over to next year. Maybe you accomplished one of your goals so well that next year you can take it a step further. Maybe you already know of some changes that might be headed your way and want to start preparing a little early. Now is the perfect time to make next year even better.
Tip: Not quite sure how to do this? You aren’t alone. One of our most popular on-demand webinars is How to Make Sure Next Year is Even Better Than This Year. Full of tips and tricks, this webinar teaches you how to facilitate an effective retrospective to help you identify what’s working and how you can capitalize on it, along with what’s not working, broken, or completely missing in action, and how you can improve it. Check it out here.
Now you have three tools to help you live right now. How will you spend the rest of your year? Let us know on social media!
