I spent almost all of 2016 unwinding my mind from the academic calendar. I have always loved making resolutions, but for most of my life, I have looked at the new year as a pit stop from the start of the academy year in September to the end in May. Resolutions have long felt like mid-year corrections rather than a fresh start. Working with a proper calendar, I have started to see the year in time blocks–quarters, halves, months. I have a better sense of how to plan.

I have always been the kind of person to make resolutions. Some of the resolutions are concrete and some (like last year’s approach) are more amorphous. Staring down 2017, I have resolutions piling up. Not resolutions, exactly. More like pieces of a plan. I spent 2016 building good habits and I want to make a plan to keep them going. And there are goals rattling around in my brain.

As 2016 came to an end, I captured the goals, listing them. I thought about the timing of the goals, which would happen weekly, monthly, quarterly or simply once or twice over the course of 2017. Taken together, they represent a plan for the year where I’m working towards personal improvement, professional development, cultivation of relationships, and taking care of myself.

I grouped the resolutions by type and by timing. I wanted to be sure I wasn’t trying to do too much every month (or week or quarter) and I also wanted to be sure I wasn’t too focused on one or another area of life.

The results? A balanced plan (I think).

RESOLUTIONS (BY TIMING)

RESOLUTIONS (BY TYPE)

Waiting until the 17th day of the month to write about my plan is a good strategy. By now, lots of people have abandoned their one and only resolution.

I just can’t call them resolutions. This is a plan to get things accomplished in 2017. If I know anything about a plan, though, when you go public, lots of things can foil even the best laid of plans. We plan and g-d laughs.

Even still, I love a plan. I thrive with a plan.

At the end of 2016 in a conversation with my husband and another friend, they remarked that I was Type A. I laughed because in my head Type A = obsessive compulsive. My husband and friend could not believe that I didn’t consider myself Type A.

Turns out Type A = ambitious, high energy and competitive.

I just posted my resolutions sorted two ways on my blog (and color-coded in a Google sheet if I’m being totally honest)–if that’s not Type A, I don’t know what is. Ambitious and high energy are high compliments.

I’m a woman with a plan and I can’t wait to see what 2017 brings my way….