The New Year is just around the corner. I am more excited about 2024 than I’ve ever been about a new year before because I decided to go into full Scanner mode. Embrace everything. Do everything! Not at once, though. So with the help of a couple of webinars, I made a plan and a few posters, which I’m sharing with you today. Let’s get started!
Planner or Pantser?
Pantser is a term I learned from writing. Many writers consider themselves to be either planners, meaning they write lengthy outlines and character descriptions before they start with the actual story, or pantsers, who sit down, type and see what comes out. When I write I am a planner. Unless I have a great idea, in which case I might just sit down and quickly type out a dialogue.
When it comes to being a Scanner though, I find planning very difficult. I was raised to be “responsible” and to “finish things”, which means that plans feel like obligations to me. Ever since I learned that I am a Scanner and that losing interest in a subject is not just normal but also ok, I have been practising pantsing. And I love it.
Even though this is a post about planning your 2024, it’s also mainly about how to make that plan as flexible as possible because my goal is to help you be as much you as you can possibly be!
Prep: List your priorities
Before you jump into the year you might want to write a list with your priorities first. If it turns into a three-page list with all the cool stuff you’ve always wanted to do, see and try, that’s fine! Just read through it again and pick the things you feel most excited about.
Choose things from different areas, for example business ideas you are excited about but also a few new hobbies you want to try, skills you want to learn, places you want to go to, etc. Copy the shorter list into a new file or onto a new piece of paper. You can keep the long list if you want to – or not. You’ll always be able to re-write a version of it anyway.
The year
Get yourself an overview of the year. Get something rough without dates, like the image above. If you want to use my poster, you can download an A3-sized printable pdf here. I had mine laminated and am using whiteboard markers in different colours to write on it. Each colour represents one of my businesses or interests. If I change my mind or need to revise my plan, I can just wipe off the writing with a tissue.
Only write your businesses and creative endeavours into the yearly plan. We’ll get to the fun stuff in a bit. Start with the items that have deadlines. For example, if you booked an editor for February, you want to write the title of your book at the top of the January square. If you have a project deadline at one of your jobs in September, write the project name into the fields in the months before. If you have your own business and you’re preparing an offer you want to share for Black Friday, the business name or the offer title goes at the top of the months before November.
Think through your year as best as you can and add the other business and creative items on your list. If you notice that you feel overwhelmed or begin to panic because it seems impossible to get so much done, remove one or more items. The main emotion you want to have when you look at this poster is excitement!
The Menu of the Month
The idea for the Menu of the Month was inspired by Dana Wilde, the bestselling author of Train Your Brain. I am in her Positive Mindset for Entrepreneurs Club [Affiliate Link], where we often chat about different mindset techniques. Some people prefer to turn their favourite techniques into habits. Others, like Dana, use what she calls a “menu”: A list of techniques she likes. When she wants to shift her mindset, Dana picks the technique that’s best for that particulat day and how she feels.
In the past, I tried planning systems for the month, the week and even the day. They tended to be more or less fancy versions of to-do lists. Eventually, I realised that “to-do” does not work for me. So I had a “done” list. Every day, I wrote down what I’d done during the day. This felt much better but I lost sight of long-term projects.
The Menu of the Month is my way of getting around to-do lists. I printed the poster in A3 and also had it laminated. Get your own poster here. Then I filled in January and divided the space below into three subcategories: create, tech/admin and what I hope will happen in January. Using the same colours I picked for the yearly poster, I filled in the tasks I want to get done. In the top left corner I also add year-long projects.
Plan flexibility
So for January, one of the items under “create” is writing this blog post and sharing it with my newsletter subscribers. Under tech/admin I have “downloadable templates” for this post. And in the top left corner I wrote “create 26” quote graphics for the newsletter. (The count was at 52 yesterday, but I was very productive and knocked half of them out of the park. It was really satisfying to wipe out the number and write the new one in!)
I don’t have a menu for December but just looking at the one for January got me so excited that I dove right in. What I love about it is that I can just pick what I feel like doing right now! Some days I am bursting with creativity. On others I want to putter about a bit. No problem! I’ll just pick an item from the tech/admin list, no matter which project. Enough flexibility to keep me very happy, while I also chip away at long-term projects.
I hung up all three posters on my wall where I can see them every day. I don’t have to read through the list. Just knowing that the items are there helps my brain focus. I might spend a day doing admin, but in the background I’m also composing the next bit of content.
Seeing the year layed out also calms me down. Last year, my brain would rabbit away to look at an old project, worrying when I’d get around to it. Or I’d work on the project and feel bad because there were so many other things I wanted to do. Not anymore. Now I have work on my next novel scheduled for April so I don’t need to worry about it right now. I can focus on just this month. Flexibility and planning.
Plan for fun
Did you notice that I said three posters? Yes! Now I am getting to the fun stuff. I have a second monthly menu with January at the top, also A3 and laminated. The subcategories I used on this one are “Learn”, “Do”, and “Something New”. I have a trip to a nearby island on my “do” list and a new hobby under “Something New”. “Learn” has the skills I want to practice in January. And because this is the fun poster (and I can wipe it clean any time) I topped it off with a smily.
Planning fun is just as important as the “work” part so this poster hangs on the other side of my poster for the year. What do you want to do next month? If my categories work for you, use them. If they don’t, make up your own categories and remember that nothing is set in stone. It’s not even set in printer’s ink! You can change your mind any time. Just get a tissue and write a new version.
We’re scanners. We want to do everything. And I, for one, am so ready to start in 2024. What about you?