. Its Time to Put Last Year Away

When it’s the third week in January, if you’re like me, you have finally gotten your Christmas tree and decorations put away, you have settled into a semi-normal routine for the new year, and yet you feel unsettled about having completely finished up the old year in order to surge ahead into the commitments and challenges of the new year.

So, sometime this week, take a minute and make sure you are really done with last year.  How?

1)  Take down and file or discard all last year’s calendars, both in your home and at your work place.  Replace them with new current calendars.  This means the wall calendar, the planner calendars, and those small ones you keep here and there to conveniently check on the date.

2)  Put an updated checkbook register in your wallet with the current year’s calendar.  Because its a reference point so often when you are out and about, its both embarrassing and frustrating to have old information.  Many banks will gladly mail you a current checkbook register if yours has grown outdated.

3)  Prepare a new current year’s Tax File folder and place it in your home office desk so you have a convenient place to put all this kind of paperwork throughout the new year.  Do the same at your office (if you work outside the home) so you can have a temporary “home” for those personal documents which need saving but come into your hands when you’re not at home.

4)  Ask yourself where you might like to have another calendar or two in your life!  When I did that mental exercise, I found I was really missing a small calendar right at my computer console to give me a feel for future dates.  I also wanted to have one on my frig so when I was cooking and thinking I could refer to it easily.  I also placed one near each phone in our home.  I can’t believe how many times I am in need of correct dates while I am conversing.

Good luck!  The new year is well on its way.  Make sure you have wrapped up all of last year so this year will be the best yet!

Find more helpful ideas in “House of Order” Handbook.