There are certain times of the year which are strongly associated with new beginnings:  New Year’s and the start of a new school year are probably the most common.

Like a lot of people, I love to create lists of what I want to accomplish in the new year.  Not necessarily to the point of a Resolution (because I give myself way too much slack to be that resolved), but more like guidelines or goals.

A few years back, my best friend, Lindsay, used to have a Break Your New Year’s Resolution Already party every January, since by the end of January was the life expectancy of most resolutions.

Being in the planner world has made me want even more to actually keep some of my goals throughout the year.  I haven’t ever had a completely successful year, but I do keep trying.  And I think for most people, that’s the most important goal of all:  to keep trying even when you slip and fall and forget.

I haven’t cleaned my office out yet, so planning has been a little scattered for me lately.  Which means that most of my plans and resolutions are written down on various scraps of paper.

I need to get it together.

I need organization.

Enter #Wild30!  In my planner group, there are courses you can take for 30 days for a nominal fee.  Courses include:  Llama Lettering, BuJo for Beginners, Decluttering and Resolutions.  I will be taking the Resolutions course in January, taught by Jen DuFore, where she will be focusing on resolutions, goal setting and goal-achieving for 2017.

One of the things I want to focus on this year is budgeting.  To help this, I am putting my budget plan on a dashboard and will place this on the monthly view page of my planner, so that I can keep my priorities in mind as I pay bills and look to allocate any disposable income.

The other tool that I’ve found was suggested by my friend, LisaV: Calendar Budget.  It gives you a monthly calendar view and allows you to record expenses, as well as project expenses, so that you have a day-to-day idea of how much money will be in your account.  So far, I’ve uploaded and reconciled November and December (to date) and found it helpful to see where my money is going.  You can assign colors to different categories, so I’ve assigned the orange-red color to any category where I’m prone to overspending.  A red flag, so to say.

It is always my intention to blog more, and somehow it always gets away from me.  However, as I more clearly define my plans for 2017, I’ll share anything I think will be useful or entertaining here.  Please share your plans in the comments!

[Cross-posted to Twidget Enterprises]