Every year around this time I do my best to refocus and reorganize for the New Year.  The New Year is a chance to start over with a clean slate.  A time to set goals, and strive towards finishing all those bullet points on your to-do list that you’ve been putting off.  My belief is that you can’t be successful in the New Year unless you get all of your ducks in a row.  So, here’s a few things I’ve been doing to prep for a successful 2012!  What are you doing to get motivated?

• Every New Year I go through my email and clean out the junk mail.  It only takes a second to unsubscribe to those pesky emails.  Plus, if you’re anything like me it’ll help your wallet.  I’m easily persuaded by those online stores advertising their good deals.
• Organizing my files.  I’m very good at organizing my picture files, but not so great at streamlining my regular files.  I’m taking some extra time to create files by months and years so I can easily find past invoices, receipts, and other random documents.  My hope is that this will make taxes a little less stressful.  This goes for my hard copy files too!
• Create a mail station.  Snail mail tends to pile up, and it drives me crazy!  So I made a simple filing system where I usually sort through my mail.  Here I have a place to put my bills and items that need filing.  The mail has a spot, it’s out of the way, and I know exactly where to find these items when I’m ready to address them.
• Create a master calendar.  My boyfriend and I are not always the best about communicating upcoming events on the calendar.  So, last week I made a dry erase calendar where we can both add our events and things to-do, so we are both aware of our schedule.
  

  Dry Erase Calendar

Each year I try to take a few more small steps towards becoming more organized.  It’s all about baby steps!  Don’t bite off more than you can handle, and you’ll make your way towards being more organized and less stress.  What are your tips?