A gentle and strong start to the new year. 3 tips

Thinking about what's important to me for the new year just before New Year's Eve is too hectic for me. I prefer to start the new year gently. I do this in three steps.

Reduce possessions - more space in the new year

No matter how minimalist you live - somehow you always accumulate new things. You receive things as gifts or buy one or two things yourself. And then there's Christmas...

I want to start the new year with as little unnecessary stuff as possible, so I'm already taking the time to reduce.

• Clothing
• Decoration
• Books (my biggest challenge)
• Letters I have received
• Note in the office
• Documents
• Odds and ends

It helps me to set myself a goal.

I started back in November and my goal is to have 500 fewer items in my home - on my boat - by the end of the year.

That's a rather modest figure by my standards - last winter I actually increased my property by 2000 items reduced.

I confess: on New Year's Eve I was still missing about 70 to reach my goal, so I quickly sorted out a few more slides.

500 less - that's about 10 items a day. Pots. Shirts, cards, bed linen, books ...

I write this down to motivate myself and enjoy the growing list and the increasing space. I'm currently at around 170 items, but there's still time.

If 500 seems too much for you, then choose 100 or 200 as your target: you'll be amazed at what comes together: broken items, crockery, leaflets, magazines and much more.

In the office, I resolve to lighten my filing and hanging files by 10 papers a day. It doesn't always work, but I'm making progress there too.

Tidy up digitally - more clarity in the new year

There are three areas in which I tidy up digitally

• Delete files
• Organise files
• Reduce newsletter

One after the other

• Delete and organise files

Even though computers seem to have an infinite amount of storage space, it makes sense to organise it so that you spend less time searching.

For example, we have many intermediate stages in projects - there were around 12 versions of the 2019 calendar before it finally went to print. You don't have to keep them all. Not all the pictures you take are worth keeping forever either.

I also think it makes sense to limit the daily volume here - e.g. 20 minutes per day to tidy up digitally. Or delete 50 files - after 20 days that adds up quite a bit.

I also delete contacts from my mobile phone. If I can no longer remember who the Andreas or the Sabine is in my address book, then I delete the contact.

• Organise files

Deciding is exhausting - that's why sometimes you just don't make any decisions, but put the stuff somewhere.

I admit: even though I always make a point of filing things in the right place, I don't always do it. Sometimes it's too much of a hassle for me to decide, so I just put files on my desk. That's where they accumulate.

Moving things to the right place can be challenging. I also recommend doing it in stages because it's really tiring for the brain. But it creates clarity. And maybe it will motivate me to put things in the right place in future.

• Unsubscribe newsletter

I find it exciting what people do and like to subscribe to their newsletters. Some I don't find interesting, others I do. But even the exciting newsletters occasionally end up in my inbox more than I can and want to read.

That's why December is my farewell month. If I receive a newsletter in December and I know that it's one of the ones I'm not likely to read, I unsubscribe straight away. Goodbye.

Collecting ideas for the new year

I like to mark periods of time. Every year I set myself Professional and personal goals, that I would like to achieve. Here I often use the Zurich Resource Model to help me achieve my personal goals.

Some people can sit down and think about it step by step: What is important to me? What do I want to do? However, I am a person who is more of a brooder: Ideas grow inside me. At some point, I know: I want to do that.

That's why I'm already starting to collect ideas. For example

• Publish an online course on a platform such as Udemy or Teachable
• Visit Ireland or Iceland or Ethiopia
• Helping in a refugee camp
• Plant a tree every month
• Beautify my „garden“ - the wild piece of land on the way to my ship
• Finalising the solar system on the ship

On 28. 12. I will then reveal in my Shaping the future webinar and other strategies on how to plan and set goals for the new year so that you can achieve them. Find out how you can be part of it here

I hope that these tips will help you to gently prepare for the new year. What are your tips and strategies? What helps you?

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