Passion Planner and the new year

I've been using a Passion Planner for 2 years now. One of the things I really, really like about the Passion Planner is that it helps you to consider your long term plans and then break them down into manageable monthly and weekly goals. I like that. A. Lot. I've evolved in the ways I use my planner over the time I've been using it. I've used it where I've tried to schedule everything in advance:

I would sit down every Sunday night and plan out my week. I would block out my work schedule (yellow). Then fill in my planned workouts (pink) and schedule some dissertation time (blue). As other things came up I would write them in. This worked out okay, but I found that scheduling anything but the most basic events for a full week was difficult at best. Things come up. Schedules change. Work runs late, etc. So then I decided to not schedule everything, but allow the week to be more fluid and just track what happened. This is what that looks like: 

Instead of filling the whole week in on Sunday, I would fill in each day after it happened. I would fill in any appointments or events I had, but the rest of the day would just fill in as it went. That worked okay, but I found that I wasn't planning things so nothing really got done. 

Hmmmm....what to do, what to do....

Then I saw a friend of my post their resolutions for 2017. And I stopped. The past couple of years I have not set any goals or plans for the year like I used to. Yes, last year I had big plans and managed to orchestrate a trans-pacific move, but that was something so big it could not be ignored. Plus it literally consumed every waking moment that I had for the entire 6 months of the move. I'm talking about the little things. The personal goals. The workout/activity goals. Those things that get lost in the day to day shuffle of life. Plus my dissertation. I need to get that finished. And I love to make plans and face new starts and new beginnings. I love it. It is a chance to change the direction of my life or things in my life. I need to do this. Plus, my passion planner is built for things like this. Absolutely built for them. 

Now I'm faced with a dilemma. I currently have an academic planner because that is how my life runs, from July to July.  So do I get a January - December one for my personal life and a July to July for my school. Considering I already have 2, one for home and one for work, So I just ordered the one I wanted in pink, for the calendar year of 2017. I'm going to use it to track my plans and goals for the year. 

So what are my plans and goals for the year of 2017?  Good question. That will take a little thought, but I know for sure I want to:

• get back to being very active
• establish a practice of meditation
• establish a regular practice of yoga
• run again
• do races
• lose weight
• finish my dissertation
• save money
• be happy

This may seem like a lot of things, but the first 6 things are actually all related, so it is really only 4 things. I can totally do this, I just need to have a plan and stick to it. 

Okay, I need to get pumped and excited about the new year to make this thing work. I also need to flesh out my plans and goals so that I can develop a solid game plan with clear goals and dates and everything.