Well it’s a new year and I think I may have seen enough advertisements, TV shows and commercials about weight loss to last a lifetime. That said, I do love the start of a new year. There’s something about it that erases all the silly time-wasting stuff you did in the previous year and lets you start with a clean (albeit, fictional) slate. So in my quest to eat better, plan better and get more done than I did last year (lofty? probably), I did a couple of things you may find helpful.

Make a schedule. I recently read something that said “if it isn’t scheduled, it isn’t real.” I couldn’t agree more, however I spent some time in a state of overwhelm while considering what tools to use. There are people that swear by apps like Evernote. I have it on my phone but haven’t been too successful using it. A friend of mine recently told me she went old school and purchased a paper planner. I started looking online and was immediately tempted to buy a fancy one that came with all kinds of pretty stickers, colored markers and movable labels that would seemingly make my plan a lot more fun. When I looked at the price I decided Kevin and I should be in the planner making business! Honestly, don’t over think it and get stuck in tool selection mode. Do what I did – buy the one with the biggest squares to write in, set some goals and schedule the steps you need to do to accomplish them.

Purge baby, purge! Our house always seems to have what Kevin refers to as “The Panic Room.” The room changes from being the third bedroom upstairs to the back room by the laundry area, but I don’t believe they have ever both been clean at the exact same time. I was watching a show a while back about a Yogi that would go to client homes and help them purge so they would have a calm mind (why yes, I am addicted to these shows). I know if our home is uncluttered, we just think and function better. So yes, cleaning the panic room is on my new schedule, in my new plain planner, taking up a big square on Saturday!