5 Ways to Prepare to Power Through 2017:Quarter One

2016 is coming to an end. Its time to start fresh and leave much of 2016 behind. Here are 5 things you can do to prepare you to power through the beginning of the New Year. Face 2017:Quarter One inspired and with a clear head! It’s okay if you don’t finish your list by New Year’s Day, the first week of January is usually quiet, so try to keep working until you have spent time on all five.

Clean Out Your Email

It’s easy to let emails you intended to act on build up, but it’s time to clean out your inbox. Save emails that are truly important, only leaving ones that require specific attention. You may even find opportunities you missed earlier in the year. Everything else should be deleted. Be brutal. If you haven’t looked at it for more than three months, and you still can’t or won’t  take action on the issue, then it’s probably not important. If you are left with more than 35 emails in your inbox, it may be time to consider hiring a personal assistant.

Sort Through Your Facebook Friends

Facebook can be a great personal tool to keep up with the people who are important in your life, but you may not be able to keep up with your news-feed. One reason is that too many people are posting things you don’t care about. At first it was fun to connect with people, but now posts about things you care nothing for, from people you never see, are just clutter. If you don’t remember who they are and how you met them, then they aren’t really friends. Also, leave the business networking on LinkedIn and the news-sharing on Twitter. That way you can use Facebook to keep up and enjoy the personal sharing. 

Sort Out Your LinkedIn

Go through your list, look at the profiles, and identify 10 specific people who can actually help you with your desired objectives. Send each of them a Happy New Year greeting and begin a conversation. Sort through your Groups and eliminate the ones that no longer support your interests. Reduce all your digest mailings to once a week to rid your daily email of clutter.

Clean Your Desk

Even people who happily tolerate clutter will benefit from a freshly cleaned work space. Papers/coupons/receipts that have long been dealt with or expired build up. Move as much paperwork to electronic filing as possible. If carefully planned, electronic banking, faxes, and signatures can make paper almost disappear from your filing system. You will clear your view, your mind and might even save a tree or two.

Identify 5 Priorities for 2017:Quarter One

Start the year with clear purpose. Take a few hours to identify the priorities that will advance your journey this year. Write out your top five initiatives for the next three months. Position them on the wall by your desk, make them the home screen on your smart phone, or post them on your mirror or your computer monitor. You may be surprised how quickly these tasks can be accomplished.

Source: an article by Kevin Daum