Been hustling this season more than you’d like? You’ll love these tips on optimizing your year-end – the week after Christmas. Don’t worry – it’s not about doing MORE! These intentional tasks will help you rest up, regroup for coming year, remove burdening junk, and refresh yourself for an empowered start to the New Year.

Most folks experience the seasonal crush this time of year and drown in overwhelm. (If that’s you; it’s not too late to get my FREE Ending Holiday OVERwhelm ebook to avoid the common mistakes of the season!)

But, even if we have succeeded in enjoying our holiday season, by the time the living room is covered with torn wrapping paper on Dec. 25^th, most folks just shut down and hunker down.

So, how can we approach the time we have left in the year in an orderly, useful way?

At Restoring Order, we love to meet with our clients the week between Christmas and New Years to help them wrap things up, de-decorate, and get a fresh start for the New Year. They love the boost and I think you will too….

So, pour some coffee or tea, because in this blog, I’m sharing how you, too, can end-a-year and start-a-year well.

Optimize Your Year-End

This week, sandwiched between two major holidays is a BIG opportunity. But it’s one that not everyone takes. It’s a week that could be optimized or underutilized. It could be a winner or a flop.

I call it REset Week.

Don’t you hate it when vacation days slip by, and at the end of it, you wonder what happened, and you feel neither rested or productive? Or, when you’re so busy on your “off” time that you feel like you need a “vacation from your vacation”? You don’t have to let either of these vacation let-downs happen to you!

It is time to embrace RESET WEEK!

I recommend integrating a blend of intentional rest and intentional action during this week that twinkles with possibility.

I’m going to unpack 4 “RE”storing things you can do for yourself during REset week:

• Rest
• Regroup
• Remove
• Refresh

The place to start your REset action plan is with…absolutely nothing.

That’s right, REset Week offers you a chance to REST….

REst

Many of us think of this week as a hibernating time. And it is!

Science confirms that rest and play are critical to the human brain and body.

For us “achievers,” that can be tough, because rest feels so UNPRODUCTIVE. But it’s necessary.

It actually took me 10 years of 20 in business to figure out that the first four letters of RESToring Order are REST!

That’s because REST is the start to ordering your life!

What do I mean by that?

Slowing down gives you the mental space to unspool your chaotic mind. Our brains need time to decompress.

It reminds us that the world does not – in fact- depend on us. Rest allows us to hop off the hamster wheel of pressure.

Rest acknowledges our need to look UP for support, instead of myopically down at what’s in front of us, drawing down our own depleting resources.

Entering into rest is different from just “taking time off.” Resting is giving yourself permission to let peace enter YOU!

Resting is the place to start restoring.

Here are some practical ways to begin resting during your REset Week:  

• Stay in your jammies all day
• Abandon your alarms
• Putter around the house
• Visit friends
• Nap

And if you want MORE than physical rest – real, true mental and spiritual rest, you can have that, too!

Here are some things I do to replace stress and constant motion with peace:

• Prayer and thanksgiving
• Asking for peace; trading in any striving
• Speaking out Truth over my life
• Listening and journaling
• Getting outside and putting my feet in the ground
• Taking deep breaths and exhales and telling my body to come into rest

Ok, now that you have settled down a bit from the holiday hustle, you may feel up to some “reduction therapy.”

I’m not talking about liposuction; I’m talking about decluttering and decumulating in your home!

REmove

Since the holiday rush too often ADDS stuff to our life; REset Week is a great time to REMOVE stuff from your life!

In my own office and in the home offices of our clients, we use REset Week to pull the current year’s annual files and make the next year’s files. We annualize the current year’s files for taxes, and get prepared for the coming year’s paperwork.

While you’re pruning your files, you might as well tackle any paper piles and projects. It feels good to start each year without the deadwood of old paperwork hanging around!

Here are just a few things you can remove from your home to simplify and get organized for the new year:

• Last year’s files
• The holiday decorations and lights
• Expired food and leftovers from the fridge and clean it all out
• Outgrown or unworn clothes – get out the donation bags!
• Extraneous STUFF – don’t forget hand-me-down goods can bless someone else!

Perhaps more important than shedding STUFF, we can shed unhelpful or toxic:

• Overcommitment
• Thoughts and patterns of belief
• Relationships
• Activities

Speaking from my own experience, this level of shedding requires self-reflection, prayer and letting go. But the payoff of REMOVING unhelpful and toxic junk from your mind and life is FREEDOM!

If you can remove toxic historic, emotional, and spiritual junk, an amazing thing happens: it’s way easier to let the physical stuff go, too!

Letting go is therapeutic and cleans out the past. Getting your game on for the next chapter of life is next…

REgroup

Now that you’ve done some internal and external “housekeeping,” do something to regroup and set a new trajectory.

Your “something” doesn’t have to be big, but it’s a signal that you’re serious. Taking action puts things in motion!

Here are some simple things you can do to “queue your song” and get things moving…

• Buy a new calendar and begin populating it with your priorities (and don’t miss our free worksheet to help you identify your priorities: Roadmap to Priority-Based Living!)
• Consider your daily rhythms and determine where adjustments are needed. If you need help fixing your daily routines, check out my video on that subject!
• Start a new To Do list – determine whether a paper version or electronic version would be more helpful for you. I use my phone “lists” for brain dumps and ideas but a paper pad for my action items.
• Update your contacts with holiday greetings – save your holiday envelopes and add any address updates
• Make a photo album of the year – this is a great way to see all you have to be thankful for!

Regrouping may include these practical steps to get a run on the next year, but it also may simply mean giving yourself time to THINK.

I am a people person, and one sign that I’m overtaxed is when I want to be alone. If I suddenly feel pressed in by people, or encroached upon, it is a white flag that my soul is waving to me. It’s telling me to step back and REGROUP for myself; to make space and time to think and process and be alone.

Set Time Aside Each Day

One of the best things I’ve done this year to regroup is to set aside time every morning by myself to read, pray, journal and give thanks. I actually hide out in my bedroom for a half hour or an hour with my hot morning tea – delivered by my husband – and start my day with just me and my Maker.

Beyond REset Week, make a point to regroup both internally and externally. Start paying attention to the signals your body or soul are sending you. Be willing to set aside time for YOU.

And finally, my last encouragement to you to make the most of your REset Week is to REfresh yourself!

REfresh

Doesn’t this fruit bowl and hot drink look dreamy? I just want to savor them now!

Our rat race pace often sacrifices the human need for nurture.

All of us need refreshing, not just once a year, but continuously!

We need nutritional, relational, and bodily nurture, yet all-too-often we are going so toxically fast that we ignore all these areas of need until there is a crash.

Include in your REset Week some refreshing:

• Get a facial
• Fill your fridge with whole food
• Have a play date with friends and truly PLAY – dance, hike, enjoy boardgames and laughter. Laughter is medically proven to HEAL and repair!
• Invest the time to make as many meals as you can that nurture and nourish. Invite someone who could use some refreshing to enjoy with you!
• Take a hot bath, or better yet set a weekly date with yourself and the bubbles!
• Start a detox to make this your healthiest year ever

I hope these simple “RE” ideas to rest, remove, regroup, and refresh have inspired you to support yourself and your life for the year ahead.

Let’s all give thanks for the year behind us and the year before us; we are blessed beyond measure!

Our family sends our Christmas and New Year’s love to you and yours!

Yours in friendship,

Vicki and Trevor Norris

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