Starting the New Year Right!
Welcome to January 2020. It’s a New Year and a NEW DECADE — welcome to the roaring 20s.
January is seen by many as an opportunity for a fresh new start. Crisp clean diary pages give the sense of potential. “This year I’m going to be so much more productive…” is the mantra for many on the first day back to work.
Which is why the US-based National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals have named January the “Get Organized month” and we’re jumping on-board.
Here are our tips to get your January off on a more industrious foot (and of course, three minutes longer to procrastinate a little on your first day back in the office…)
KELLY RANSON
I work from home on occasion, so it’s really important for me to have a good, solid structure to my day. I already have a routine in place but going into 2020 I am going to make sure I have some new habits pre and post work. In the morning (over a strong coffee) I am going to take 15 minutes to really plan the hours of my day — dedicating time to emails, projects, research and of course, writing. I will endeavour to end my ‘working day’ with a gym class — it ensures I switch off at a certain time and maintain a healthy work life balance.
LUCY THOMAS
It is so easy to become overwhelmed by social posts — what to post, on which platform and when?! Take a moment, and download Hootsuite — a sharing dashboard that we use here at 52eight3 HQ! While there are other platforms out there, Hootsuite allows you to schedule Twitter, Facebook, Instagram feed and Linkedin posts all in one place — with some pretty nifty editing tools too! Free at entry level, it is the ideal way to start organising your social posts for 2020.
Kick start January by organising your content — and don’t forget those #Hashtag holidays to include in your posts — take a look at https://sproutsocial.com/insights/hashtag-holidays/ for some of the key tags for 2020…
LUCY SAXTON
CLICK, SWIPE, STEP AWAY FROM THE PHONE!
Guaranteed, come New Year’s Day there will be ten million posts on Instagram or Facebook with the masses proclaiming they’re taking a, ‘social media detox’ (*oh the irony of posting this statement online!) You can set your watch by this, along with all the #boydonegood hashtags ALL over Christmas! But hey, newsflash, the Insta masses are definitely on to something and I’ll be joining them with a semi social detox this year myself. Why is this a good idea? Simple. According to research from RescueTime, an app that monitors phone use, people generally spend an average of three hours and 15 minutes on their phones every day… top users spend 4 and a half hours. YIKES… I’m definitely guilty of being a top end user. Yes, I use my phone and social media for work purposes but in this new decade I’ll be spending much less time mindlessly scrolling through my best friend’s cousin’s boyfriend’s auntie’s Greece holiday pics from Summer 2017, right before bed, and way more time being present and using ALL of that time (28 hours a week! ARGH) doing something productive, like starting a new book or making future plans. Click swipe… PUT THAT PHONE DOWN!!!
KATIE MORHEN
There’s nothing like a Manic Monday to really set your week off with feeling unproductive, negative tone making you feel like you’re on the back foot before the week has even begun! That’s why I’m embracing Sacred Mondays by clearing my diary of any meetings every Monday. This allows me to kick off the week by tackling significant tasks and projects giving me a huge sense of achievement which will propel me into the week — such an empowering feeling.
