2016 gave no fucks. from the loss of greats like prince and gwen ifil to donald trump’s presidency, i’m ready for this year to kick rocks. no better way to usher out the old and welcome the new than by making time to set yearly goals.
i started my goal setting with a plain sketchbook from barnes & noble. it’s unlined like i like it and 8×11, good for my big handwriting. the only drawback to its size is there’s no way i’ll even get half way through it this year. no worries though, it’ll be cool to use for several years and compare notes. 
here’s how i’m using my journal to plan for 2017:
- monthly goals and measures: i divided 12 pages into monthly goals and measures. for example, a measure for my goal of blogging consistently is to create at least two posts per week.
- quotes: i started with words from gabrielle bernstein’s spirit junkie. it’s a great book with teachings from the course in miracles and challenges us to live beyond fear. i’ll add motivational quotes, cut outs and notes throughout the year.
- gratitude tracker: each month i plan to write what i’m grateful for, most likely referencing my happiness planner from this post with pumeli.
- savings and debt tracker: for the first time, i’m categorizing my saving with hopes that it’ll motivate me to be more disciplined with spending. i created a graph to see the growth and a chart to track my savings and credit card debt.
- monthly goal tracker: each month, i’ll write thoughts about my goals, savings plan, blog analytics and notes. it’s like a daily journal captured in a month snapshot.
- blog ideas: i’m always brainstorming on random slips of paper for blog posts. now i have several pages in my journal to write post titles/ideas and track analytics. this will probably be my most used set of pages since my goal is to make politics & fashion as reflective of my audience’s interests as possible.
- books: this is a page to track the books i read during the year. i love reading, so my goal of finishing at least 12 books shouldn’t be hard.
although some of the sketches are rough, i’m pretty proud of my journal. i created it all by hand using just a ruler and colored pens. if you’re interested in doing something similar, search you tube for “bullet journals” and “2017 planner setup” for inspiration. i’ll also update the blog quarterly to share my progress.
sending you into 2017 with lots of love, peace and prosperity!