Flexible Planning - Let's show 2022 who is Boss! Action not Reaction in 2022!

Let's look forward to 2022

What are your goals for next year?

Do you have any?

How do you look forward?

Are you planning 2022 already - holidays, birthdays, family get togethers, date nights?

Or do you sit back and wait for 2022 to happen to you?!

The past two years, not all due to the strange times in which we live, I have been reacting to events rather than taking control and planning activities in advance.

I don't want 2022 to be like this if I can help it!

Having recently discovered the wonders of Flexible Planning when it comes to my blogging and my business as a whole, I am aiming to take it to the next step in 2022!!

This is something I have developed as I have become more interested in planning and scheduling in my business.

There are a set number of things which have to get done each week.

However, the very nature of having a family means that there are also unplanned and unscheduled things which may arise any time during the week and I need to make sure that my planning and scheduling is flexible enough to accommodate these things.

I do this by making sure everybody is aware of the times when I am not available - working outside of the home. Then I make sure there are gaps in my calendar, every available day. Then if somebody needs a lift or I have an appointment I can move things around using the gaps.

It helps that I use a digital calendar which I can access on my laptop, phone and tablet. My calendar of choice is Google.

If I have planned to do some research for an hour but I need to go for an appointment, I can simply click on the research block and move it to one of my gaps, meaning the job still gets done.

So now I am seeing if this method can be used in my personal life.

Here is how I am going about it:

1 List all the important dates

Birthdays holidays when family is here or not, appointments you already know about, if you run a business you could also include important dates for your business. These are the dates which are set in stone and cannot be changed.

2 Brainstorm all your ideas for things you want to do, places you want to go etc.

3 Do you have any goals in 2022? Do you want to save an amount of money by a certain date? or are you aiming to run a marathon? Add these to your list.

4 Find a year at a glance calendar I have a 2022 year at a glance planner - you can print one for free here https://www.lindajharper.com/shop from my shop or on google docs, and fill in the dates - if you are like me you can go as far as to colour code them - birthdays one colour, holidays another etc.

5 If any items on your second list are time specific enter them onto the calendar, these are also set in stone.

6. Now, you decide whether to add all, some or none of the items on your brainstorm and goals list onto the calendar. These are your flexible chunks of time - until they become date specific.