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What does a fresh start mean to you? To me, it means establishing routines and setting good habits for myself. Routines for the morning, routines for daily activities like cleaning, exercise, and taking care of my health, and routines for bedtime.

Before you get totally overwhelmed and start thinking about how restrictive routines and schedules can be, take a moment to reflect on your life.

Even if you already have routines and schedules in place, are they working?

Are your routines setting you up for success?

Developing and filling up a schedule are the easy parts for me, but I struggle with following through and sticking to my schedule.

I recently broke down and bought a planner. I created a checklist of daily reminders like making my bed, exercise, and getting ready for the next day, but I haven’t always been doing them. At the end of the day, as I reviewed my daily list and looked ahead at the next day, I felt like I let myself down once again.

Having a fresh start means that you can erase past failures and start from scratch. You can choose to use the schedules that you’ve already established, or you can change it up and create a new routine that better fits your life right where you are.

If you find yourself frustrated with your routines or feeling let down by your schedule, it’s time for a change!

As you’re reviewing your schedule, focus on making time for the things that are really important. So much of our life is spent dealing with mundane tasks that we often forget or don’t have enough time left over for the important things. There are some things that need to be done every day, whether you want to or not, but other things, like checking email every five minutes, can wait.

Take an audit of the way that you’re spending your time. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What do you spend the most time on each day?
• Do you find yourself spinning your wheels?
• At the end of the day, have you spent your time on the things that really matter?

Then, take some time and think about what’s really important. What are your priorities?

• How would you like to spend your day?
• How are you actually spending it?
• Is there anything in your life that you could eliminate or at least reduce? For example, I tried to reduce the amount of time looking at my phone by getting a planner and creating a daily routine. That helped some, and it helped to streamline my daily activities. However, I was still running to my phone to check my email every time it beeped. I ended up creating an account with Roll Up, and I now make time to check my email all at once instead of every time I receive a new email.

If you haven’t been spending your time the way that you want, now’s the time to change. Take the time now to prioritize so you can enjoy the things that matter.

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