Somehow January has come and now is almost gone. Are you feeling on top of your goals or is overwhelm starting to settle in?

The other day I realized that although I had ideas for what I wanted to do in the coming year I hadn’t sat down to plan anything. I knew I wanted this year to be a little freer than in the past. I knew I wanted to have time and space to learn new things and to develop and grow as an artist without the constraints of rigid goals and to-dos. But I soon realized that if I didn’t have a framework for my learning I would drift aimlessly. Without some goals and to-dos I might not accomplish anything at all.

Sound familiar?

It’s all too easy to jump into a new year filled with excitement and intentions and forget how much work (and planning) it will take to realize our goals. Partway through January we might begin to feel discouraged when we see we haven’t accomplished much (yet).

In her weekly email last Sunday, my friend Ruby shared her feelings of overwhelm and urged her readers to take “deep breaths and carve time for pure enjoyment”.

What does it mean to “carve time”? I see it simply as a matter of planning.

I’ve been watching online classes while eating lunch this month. I noticed Bonnie Christine has a new class on Skillshare and the other day I watched it with my soup. Your Roadmap to Surface Design: A Step by Step Framework to Crafting Your Career might sound super specific to pattern design, but I think many of the ideas that Bonnie shares in the class are useful for anyone with creative business dreams. To me her words were a good reminder of the importance of planning and focus.

I know how important planning is. In the past I’ve been very specific when setting goals and scheduling my year. And I know that without focus it’s all too easy to fritter away our time with unimportant tasks.

And so, armed with a renewed sense of purpose and excitement I sat down this week to plan out my year.

It feels good to be clear about what I want to accomplish and how I’m going to do it.

What about you?

If you’re feeling a bit of overwhelm or a lack of direction, take some deep breaths and then spend some time planning out your year. Go slowly, give yourself space and enjoy the process.

Even if you don’t have dreams of a creative business, you can benefit from a little planning and scheduling. Want to sew more of your clothes? Want to begin a yoga practice? Want to grow a successful garden? Want to travel to Florence? Want to learn how to dance? None of these things will happen unless you plan for them, unless you schedule them, unless you carve time for them.

Get your ideas down on paper. Write lists. Scribble deadlines on your calendar. Having things written down always helps me.

In case you need a little direction with your planning, I’ve created a couple worksheets I’d like to share. This general goal planning sheet and year at a glance planning sheet are a good place to start. I originally created them a few years ago (and shared them on my blog back then, too).

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts. What are you dreaming about for 2019? What would you like to accomplish? What would you like to learn? Need a cheerleader? I know all about Big Dreams and slowly bringing them to reality.