Hello and welcome to best laid plans. This is Sarah Hardunger, and this is a podcast where we talk all things planning and planning adjacent.

As we record this, it is mid-January, which is an interesting time and planning season.

So today I'm going to talk to you a little bit about my own experience heading into the new year so

far, which is going to include maybe a little bit of a pep talk if by now you're already

feeling a little bit tired or pep talk if by now you're already feeling a little bit tired

or overwhelmed or even disappointed in yourself for not holding up to the standards you had

thought maybe the new year would have in store for you. So I'm going to first admit that I am

already kind of tired. I set a lot of goals. I actually had on my blog a whole

series of different goals I had in different realms of life. I did eight full posts, one on goals

about my kids, one on goals about the home, fitness goals, et cetera. And I was really excited.

I had a lot of New Year energy, even though I did not

have a very restful winter break because both my husband and I were working for most of it.

But I was excited and positive about the new year, and I still am, and I dove in with my many planners

and trackers, and I fit in the workouts, and I continued the habits and I dove in with my many planners and trackers and I fit in the workouts and I continued the

habits and we're only, I don't know, two and a half weeks into the year and I'm already

finding that I'm kind of tired. So actually today I gave myself the permission to just go ahead and sleep until the

late hour of 6.20 a.m. because that's about the latest I can get up and still have about

15 minutes to myself before I have to get the kids up for school. And I did not work out.

I did not fill out my daily planning page because mostly what I had today was a series of meetings and appointments and those are all on my weekly page so I knew I wasn't going to lose track of those. And I didn't do some of the other habits that I like to do most days, such as my headspace and reading and things like that. And of course, part of me was

like, oh, it's a brand new year. You had all these cool goals and things that you were tracking.

And now there's going to be holes in your calendar. But really, I actually think it's a good thing.

And in fact, it's a good thing that it's happening now because I have said before that I am not a huge fan of streaks.

...