#3 Let's do this - 5 quick ways to set up your 2025

which apparently starts today for many of you

Hello everyone and welcome to February!

My friend sent me a message this morning that said “happy 2025” because she decided that her 2025 is only starting today. I love it!

I love the idea of a gentle easing in to the year but alas, that has not been the case. Kids going back to school and having to get up early again (!), work, exercise, all of it. Routines are lovely when you’re in them, but when you’ve had two months off, it’s hard to create those habits again. More on this later.

I remember a few years ago (I just went to check and it was 2018!) Susannah Conway followed up her December reflections photo prompt challenge with a gentle January one and I jumped right in because it felt just… lovely. Here is the hashtag to see all the photos. The one below is a photo of a gift from my friend Suzanne.

organisingqueen

A post shared by @organisingqueen

Work has been full-on and two of my team, in separate meetings yesterday, both told me they’re already tired and the year has just kicked off.

We are not the only ones feeling like this - the news cycle (if you subscribe - I don’t!) has been brutal and it’s hard to keep your peace with all the noise happening.

Despite all that, when I looked at my 25 in 2025 list, and started thinking about things that actually did work well, I was encouraged.

Decide once, or 5 quick ways to set up your year

Have you read The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi? (Hot take - this first book is my favourite of her three)

One of the 13 principles in that book is Decide Once. This means to make a decision once and just keep “working that decision” until it no longer works for you.

An example: decide on a baby shower gift once, and then buy that same gift forever….so that you don’t have to keep thinking about the decision for every baby about to be born.

You decide where you need to employ that principle in your life. Maybe it’s a meal you make every week or a nail polish you always use (Emily Freeman at one point only wore white or black nail polish; I don’t know if this is still the case) or a hotel you always book in a specific city.

I already use Decide Once in many areas of my life but this year I went one step further; I decided to set up my entire year in the following ways:

1. Medical appointments

Because of the cancer, I happen to have a LOT of appointments I need to go to over the course of this year. I counted 16 on my list. Who knows? We could end up with more?! I don’t want to have this hanging over my head so I spent a few days calling and emailing to set up everything for the year. This could change of course but I could choose days and times that look good now instead of being squeezed into times that are not the very best for me. All those appointments are blocked off in my Outlook calendar and now I don’t need to think about anything until I review my diary for the week ahead and see that I have an appointment coming up.

You may not have 16 appointments but you definitely have a visit with the gynae and perhaps a mammogram and scan on the list every year. Phone up, schedule and then you can forget about it (unless you’re already overdue).

2. Personal training appointments

One of my 25 goals for 2025 was to hire a personal trainer. I did it in the very first week. But…. I have also blocked off every Thursday after work for the whole year. Again, of course things might change, but just knowing there is no other option means it will probably happen. Another little hack for anything you struggle with is to pay in advance. This works for me because I hate wasting money so I don’t make excuses; I just go.

My Saturday morning Zumba and Monday evening Spanish classes are such a part of my life that they don’t need additional thought.

3. Friend dates

This might feel like “too much”. I’ll tell you now - it’s not. Decide on a recurrence pattern for your friend dates. Some friends you want to see monthly, some quarterly, some only for birthdays, etc.

I have many recurrent dates set up and when the time rolls around, it either works for both of us, or we postpone to another week, but it’s in the diary! I feel so loved when friends say to me “let’s make this a monthly thing” and then they actually send me a calendar invite and it’s in the diary. I feel prioritised.

4. Holidays

I have a rule I try hard to live by - when you’re finishing one holiday, schedule the next. It gives you something to look forward to :) Even better, if you know the dates you want to go on holiday, put in your leave for the whole year. I’ve done all my leave for the year but there is a week I haven’t scheduled yet as it needs co-ordination with family.

At the very least, put in all the leave next to public holiday weekends.

5. Book club

We meet on the last Saturday of every month, and if the month has 5 Saturdays, the host chooses if Saturday 4 or 5 is best for her.

We also like to have a couple of books to choose from. At the start of the year, we had 4 on our list so we’re good until the end of April.

I also set up a spreadsheet of hosts and I think we’ve got all that done until July or August.

I would love to know the places in your life where you have decided once with scheduling (which, now that I write it, sounds incredibly boring, but it will actually free you forever).

Alternatively, do you have a standard baby gift, housewarming gift, milestone birthday gift (I have one!) or any other decide once hack?

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