Dec. 29, 2020

Planning 2021 - 7 Simple For Your Work and Family

#017 - 2020 May have taken us by surprise, but now we can use that experience to better plan our 2021. At least we can try our best to plan ahead.

In this episode, we share our top 7 tips for planning the new year from your improving work-from-home environment, preparing gifts and cards ahead, and even your family downtime.

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Transcript
Daniel Norton:

So we're finally getting the chance to put a pin in 2020. And start a fresh new year. And I think a lot of us have had to put temporary fixes on different things. Because, hey, we didn't know what to expect. We didn't know what was coming. But now that 2020 is behind us or about to be, depending on when you're listening to this, we can actually put a plan in place to be more productive to spend more time with our family and actually enjoy the year.

Amanda Norton:

So in this episode, we're going to give you our top seven tips for planning 2021. Let's get started.

Bumper:

Welcome to working home parents helping you find stability between client calls, and potty training. Because we're all figuring this out as we go. And now your hosts Amanda and Dan Norton.

Daniel Norton:

Well, welcome to Episode 17. It's the last episode of the year.

Amanda Norton:

Yeah, I can't believe it. My goodness. We've been at this for like, three months. It feels like forever, though. Yeah, since September. Yeah.

Daniel Norton:

So yeah, it's crazy how the time flies. And thank you so much for listening to us. Throughout these months and weeks, forever, however long you've been listening to us, we really appreciate you and this has been this has been really fun for us. Yeah, it's cool that we get to have conversations. And, you know, a different quarter for 2020 that I'd say quarter one and two special. So it is a cool thing. So you know if that's something that you're thinking about for your 2021 is potentially starting a podcast. I think it's great. Yeah, I think it's a great and fun. Yeah, just having conversations getting to talk to other guests. Yeah. And I think that's been cool, especially as parents that we get to kind of talk about things we're concerned about and hear from people and learn others stories, yes, or get to hear from other guests experts. So I hope this has been helpful for you as much as it has been for us and conversations we've been able to have. Awesome. And

Amanda Norton:

this episode I'm super excited about because I am a type A personality. You're a Type B, but planning is like in my genetic makeup. I don't know what it is about planning that gets me so excited. But I love it. So I'm really excited. This is this was so easy to put together because this is what I do already. Right? Not

Daniel Norton:

not as easy for me because I'm proud of planner. Right? I have a lot of, you know, ambitions, yes. And a lot of ideas and a lot of things. That's why I think I'm more of like the creative entrepreneur. Yep. But this is where I need you because I need to be able to actually get things on paper so they get done. Right. Which is exciting about 2021.

Amanda Norton:

Yep. And I help you out a lot with sticky notes around your desk. So sticky notes. Yep. So number one is look ahead at your calendar, mark the calendar with birthdays, conferences, camps, school schedules, mark it all ahead of you know, in January, start planning ahead, start writing it all down so that when you are looking at the month, the month before, you have an idea of what cards you need to get what gifts you need to get what what's coming up, maybe some some things for your kids school, you

Daniel Norton:

have to bake something or whatever it is, start looking ahead and mark down all of the activities or everything that's going to be taking place. Yeah, you like to use like a physical calendar. Yes. And I'll always use a digital because as much as I think a physical calendar is, is good. And I do actually have like a whiteboard, one that I use for some client stuff. I like to use the digital calendar because I could just put it in and set it and forget it. And it goes every single year. In fact, I put reminders of people's birthdays like important ones that I need to like, Oh, I should text this person, or I need to get a gift for this person. I'll put it where I'll get a reminder on the calendar like a week before. And then it'll surprise me because I'll be like, Oh no, is it actually their birthday today? And then it's like, no next week, but if you go through and put it in on your calendar, if you haven't actually done that to your digital calendars on your phones, I use the I cow the apple calendar. But a lot of people use the Google one too, because you could share family calendars. We do that. Yeah, with the apple calendar is I do a couple of shared calendars with Amanda and this way. You know, something comes up, it'll come up for both of us and whether that's an important occasion, or birthdays, anniversaries, any different things that we need to you know Remember, especially for me, because I wouldn't remember. Yeah, I know, it's kind of what Facebook's for, I guess. Yeah. Having it on your actual calendar in case people, you know, decide to leave Facebook, since that tends to happen a lot. Now,

Amanda Norton:

that's so true. So true out of sight, out of mind with those birthdays on Facebook. So number two is buying all the cards ahead and writing them out, have them in order by dates and stamped. So if you have some family members that live out of state, and you always send them a birthday card, have it ready, so that the week of their birthday, you just mail it. And it's a great tool, because honestly, those birthdays they come and then you're like, Oh, I should have probably mailed it before their birthday. So they got it on their birthday. My grandmother's so good at that she always sends out birthday cards, like even like, like, three weeks before the birthday. I'll never I hope I could pick that up from her. I really do I really want to be that way.

Daniel Norton:

Yeah, for me, it's like, you know, the cards are always something that I get super, super last minute. Yes, when I do it. So it's helpful when you have like a bunch of these already purchased. So looking at the year, especially this year, you know, we didn't expect any of this the beginning of 2020, of course. So you just like, I'll just do have a normal year. But if for any reason, things get closed down, or lockdown or whatever, we don't know, maybe what 2020 one's gonna hold, but at least we can anticipate there's a possibility, depending where you locally live, how things will get shut down. So it's kind of nice to get that stuff done and ahead. But plus, in our working from home scenarios, the less things we have to worry about the better because then that just gives us more time to enjoy the downtime. And not being like now I got to rush out to the store and buy this card. And then I got to go mail it out and do all this having that all kind of done now at the beginning of the year, or at least scheduling in each month, when you want to get those things done. So maybe it all can get done quarter one. Yeah. You know, writing them out is actually a great idea. I might, I hadn't actually really thought about that until we were talking about it that it's like, wow, if we could just write it all out. Of course, you want to make sure if there's anything time sensitive in there. That's true. It's gonna be but I think for most birthday cards, or it's just like Happy birthday, here's a gift card, you know? Right. You know, that's something else you can Yeah, there.

Amanda Norton:

Definitely. And I know for me, the reason why this was important for me to mention it as a tip was because when the Dollar Tree, my favorite store, as we all know, when they were closed, I was devastated. Because Yeah, we had birthdays coming up during the pandemic, and we weren't going to be seeing a lot of people. So what as soon as Dollar Tree opened up, I ran there. And you actually told me, why don't you just get a bunch of cards, you know, whose birthday is coming up over the next few months. And I was like, That's such a great idea. So literally, I was all stocked up with cards for the next six months. So I think I'm gonna do it for 12 months. This year. I think I'm gonna do it.

Daniel Norton:

Yeah, I think someone in our local zealotry probably got the virus so they just shut the whole store for and we just kept going. It was just like temporarily closed, there was no like, open date. And so it's kind of what we anticipate any store happening to. That's even happened with our local Starbucks have lunch. So yes, that's kind of sad. You get into the drive thru and no one's there. You're like, waiting, and then no one responds because they don't have a sign. And that's like, temporarily closed. Okay. Yeah. But yeah, that really is what kind of spurred it on. And I think that's actually a great thing. I wish we would have thought about that no years prior, that it would save so much time, especially that cards are cheap. So it's like, hey, bunch, whole bunch, I mean, not cheap anywhere, but like $1 tree dollar, you go, I'll buy the expensive cards, because I just don't look at the price.

Amanda Norton:

I know you're so bad with that. Number three is know your job pattern. So know how you get your work done. Schedule your days off on the least busiest days of the month. So I know we've talked about this in the podcast before having those long weekends. So like a three day weekend, a four day weekend, a five day weekend. So whatever it is, know your job pattern so that you can plan ahead and start telling your co workers for coverage or telling your boss like this is one I'm going to be taking off. And it's exciting because you have something to look forward to. It's fine. And you get to have some more downtime with your family and not think about work because work is in your home and just cover up that corner wherever it is. And have a fun weekend or even go out somewhere socially distance and spend a day out with your family. Yeah, we've

Daniel Norton:

mentioned it in some of our other episodes before when we're talking about just the challenges or maybe the benefits of working from home. And I really do believe You know, yes, if you're able to, and especially if you're in a state that, you know, doesn't really have much risk of shutting down, then planning those like long week or two week vacations are great. But because of our experience over this year, it does seem that it might be a little better, especially those of us that are working from home to plan more extended weekends. Because it's a one, it's a little less risky in the sense that what if everything gets canceled, and now I've spent that entire week, you know, of taking time off and planning something that maybe potentially doesn't happen. But instead being able to plan and be able to look forward to maybe once a month, you have like a four day weekend, or longer. And you just get to do that more often than and instead of spending it all in, you know, one bulk time. It it gets it kind of gets through the grind of being in the same four walls every single day, dealing with the same issues, whether it's work or with your kids and with your kids school and the zoom not working and all of that just being able to just put all that stuff down and look forward to those shorter times where even if it's a staycation kind of weekend, or you just do something locally, doing that more often gives you something exciting to look forward to. So planning kind of that out each quarter, or at least this first quarter of those those times and then maybe you'll be able to afford it when the summer comes or the fall. If things are looking more up to be able to do something more extravagant. Yeah. Or at least be willing to the the willing of is this gonna cancel? Even if it's not you that's worried, you know, some of these vacation spots, you never know what they might have? What they might have to shut down or not?

Amanda Norton:

Right, exactly. Number four is, if you're working from home permanently now, how will you set up your permanent space? How will you rearrange things maybe to give you a fresh new look where you're working to to keep you motivated? Or, you know, maybe you need a new desk, because man, your kitchen table is not holding up. And it's just, it's crossing the boundary of I sit here to eat, I sit here to work, I basically live in this chair, you know, whatever it is. So how can you give your space a fresh start to motivate you to keep you engaged with work and keep you more productive?

Daniel Norton:

Yeah, I think that's important, especially those that were, you know, got thrust into working from home in a temporary sense, that maybe now is more more permanent, or at least another year, or at least a few more months, that it's worth considering how can this environment change, even if that means like just painting the walls, different color, you know, I mean, I know that's a big thing, maybe it's a long weekend, and you just paint you the room that you are in just to be more bright, more vibrant, more, you know, something that'll be more exciting for you to work in, and potentially be more permanent, right? Because I know there are some especially parents were like, we're trying to like deal their kids and we've got to work and it's just like throwing the laptop down on like the kitchen counter. And making this the workspace because this is just where it has to be for now. Potentially looking into how can I make this more permanent, so at least, you know, I know I'm gonna mean more permanently home or home more times than not, you know, especially if you're in a hybrid we call hybrid school, then there's like hybrid working to that you can have somewhat of a more permanent space so that you feel a little more productive.

Amanda Norton:

So number five is for the holiday season. Start getting ideas for what gifts people need, what people want, maybe something they mentioned, even while you were giving them their their gifts this this holiday season, or they noticed that somebody else got something that they liked and they were interested in. So you're like, Okay, just make that mental note or put it on your your any list app, which is my favorite. So put it on that list so that by this year coming up, you're starting to look out for sales, you're starting to think of maybe something else to add to the gift and you can start looking out and start purchasing, purchasing it early.

Daniel Norton:

Um, yeah, I think that's good. And that goes along with like the cards and setting up your calendar. And maybe we should have made this earlier in the episode. But you know, the idea to is right now is the perfect time where someone may have said, Oh, I really liked that gift. This is something you had told me is like if someone heard I really liked that gift, maybe you know, now is a good time to say All right, let me look at these January sales. Yeah, buy it now for them either for their birthday or, you know, Christmas holiday, whatever it is that you you get gifts for. And you know, it'll be something that they're excited about. Sure, maybe they'll buy it for themselves over a year but it's a good time to look out or at least Remember, oh yeah, this person had said that and you drop that note down. I think that's good. And you can even put it in your calendar where you put their birthday, like a little reminder. What to do. I've done that with, with cakes for you, or you mentioned like, Oh, I want this like rainbow layer cake from this particular store or something. And and I put it down in there as a reminder, so that I remember every year Oh, this is the cake that you were you wanted. This year, I

Amanda Norton:

want the gelato cake. Okay, Joe.

Daniel Norton:

Yeah, a local small business, which again, shop small business, if you can, especially right now, we have a local gelato place, which is like, you know, an ice cream, ice cream kind of store, the Italian ice cream. And they had these, like custom cakes that they were making that look really awesome. Yeah. And they're just like a local small business. So it'd be cool to support them.

Amanda Norton:

Yeah, that will be on my birthday list for this year.

Daniel Norton:

Yeah, I gotta put that on the calendar, yes.

Amanda Norton:

But also, in the season of giving and everything, have some extra gifts aside because you don't know if you're going to need them. So if there's a neighbor, if there's a, you know, a friend or somebody that you didn't think about getting a gift for and they pop up and they have a gift for you, they have a card for you. And you just want to give them something back, have those extra gifts stored somewhere so that you can just take it out and and be ready to give it and that's that's helped us this year, you know, those little extra gifts and surprise people and people surprise us. So we just have something prepared. That's been really helpful.

Daniel Norton:

Yeah, that's it's good all year round, but especially at the end of the year. So it's good planning it now. Because maybe you find something that's unique, that you could get a few of that are not expensive, but at least they're the backup stuff that you grab now so that, you know when that random person pops up, you don't have to feel awkward, like, Oh, I don't have a gift for you. And then you got to go rush out and get it. Yeah, I think right. I think the big theme that we're kind of getting at is kind of getting all this stuff ahead. So you don't ever have to rush out and get anything. Yeah. because everything's already as stressful as it is, why do we need to add to like, rush out and have to get some things when we can kind of just get ourselves ahead of it. Yeah, be relaxed, and be able to enjoy more time than not,

Amanda Norton:

it was so fun, like this past year, just really trying to get at least one gift a month for somebody. Just checking off that list is so satisfying. And it's not all a big expense. Oh no. So

Daniel Norton:

you could spread that's what the big thing with the year is like, if if it's a struggle financially for you like it is for many people this year. And everyone's got a different scenario in different, different budget. But if you could budget in a little bit over each month, I mean, think about one gift a month, that's as 12 gifts. So if you have to give to 12 people, you just do one a month instead of 12 all in at once in one month, even though and the sales are not always that the best. Like we always say sales are the best at like Black Friday and all that stuff. Actually sales are probably better in like January because they're trying to get rid of stock. Yeah. So it's like taking advantage of those things and spending then so you know, and then even pre wrap it. Yeah, you might forget what it is now. Yes, but, you know, it's something to something good to consider. I guess it's just really on our minds. Yeah,

Amanda Norton:

I know. Number six is. Okay, so my favorite thing to do is Shutterfly, I love to get the grandparents a copy of a Shutterfly calendar of pictures of our son pictures of family members and everything. And it's great. It's It's a wonderful gift, it's meaningful. And Dan, you actually taught me something that was a great idea. He said, You know, you spend so much time in making these calendars. I mean, literally, it could take me like an hour or two, it's doing just one. And it's a lot of organizing, it's a lot of preparing preparation, finding all the pictures you want. And you said why don't you upload those pictures every single month and just like put it on the calendar instead of you know, wasting time at the end of the night doing all these calendars and everything late and taking hours to put it together looking up photos from all throughout the year and trying to coordinate them Why don't you just upload them right away and put them on the calendar and I thought that was a great idea that really is smart and helpful and so be prepared for me to take over your laptop Yeah, every month once a month

Daniel Norton:

and I think that works because like they're usually around the same kind of calendars. Yeah, so if you were to start one in January we've got the pictures from December

Unknown:

yes

Daniel Norton:

right the Christmas photos that we took and everything and can fill that out and then at the end of January be able to put in some January photos for the January spot but then it's that's only what maybe 10 minutes yeah night and if 10 minutes once a month and now you You get to make these nice little memory calendars. So even if it's for yourself, or even just organizing albums, you know, organize that month, the photos from that month, and just do a few and so that you could look back every year be like, Oh, well, there's all those photos from that month and put them together, you know, in those things, and again, we go back to the gift giving because it does make a good gift. But I think even for yourself, yeah, it's a nice thing to have for the following year. If you do photo calendars,

Amanda Norton:

yes, number seven is pick a word of the year, instead of picking a resolution goal, picking a word that is the theme for this upcoming year.

Daniel Norton:

So you want to talk about Yeah, this is something that I got from a good friend of mine and someone I've had the privilege of working with Mario Armstrong. And he's a two time Emmy Award winner for his show, never settle, show. And he has got an excellent podcast, I wake up and level up. And I remember two years ago, after I had met him back in 2018, and built relationship with them. I was listening to his podcast because he was like a daily podcast, I believe, then it might still be. And he talks about instead of a new year's resolution, pick one word for the year that kind of permeates everything that you do in life, right. And of course, he's talking business and entrepreneurship, but he's also talking like family and all that. So if you pick one word, it's easy to remember then some kind of resolution that you do for like the first three weeks of January, and then you forget and you fail, and you don't go back to it. Right. But one word, so I started doing that in 2019, I actually still have the sticky notes on my desks what I do at like, New Year's Eve, after the ball drops, we, you know, manda goes to bed with Aiden and I'm usually up for another hour or two, because just just my pattern with my working, I'll sit down and think about Okay, how was this year? Or what do I need to improve on what could be that one word that kind of improves that everywhere in my life. So 2019 I picked persist, right persistence in the in the idea that I was persisting, that I wanted to build an online business, to make my way out of my job that I had been in for a long time, and just persisting with everything, like as a father. And that means that you're, you know, able to get through it's it's different than endurance, where endurance is just enduring something that's a struggle, persisting is enduring things, no matter what the the difficulty, right, so even the easy stuff, it's easy to get off track, but it's like persisting even when it's easy to not get off track. And versus to go through there. And that was a year where I was like, starting to go to conferences, I was starting to get and build my business starting to take some risks. And then 2020. For me, the word that I picked was consistency, consistent, right? What a year to pick consistent, right? One of the least consistent years ever. Mm hmm. But it kind of was something true for me, because in the sense of I was consistent in the fact that I am going to, you know, try to build out where I'm consistent throughout the year. And with my job before, there was no consistency, right? Things are all over the place. I'm working one day, I'm working early mornings, the next day, I'm working late nights, and commuting to the city and different things like it was just all over the place. And finally, this year, almost this kind of thing brought on consistency to me, because I was able to build up my online business and be able to do do work so that I can potentially have a consistent schedule, it's not been super consistent in the sense that I'm working, I'm still working weird hours, because I can't work while man is working and vice versa. But I am working on making 2021 where I get up every day at 5am. Because now our son's going to be in school five days a week. Hopefully it keeps going Yes, throughout this time, please and, and build up the consistency. So I'm actually keeping those words, they're both still on my desk with the years but they're still going to be part of what I do. I'm just going to pick the third word, the new word that's going to be the driving force for everything. I don't know what that is yet, because I leave that really for taking all this week to really contemplate and pick it on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. Technically,

Amanda Norton:

yeah, that is so cool. I have to pick a word to because that's such a great idea. Because the resolution goal with losing weight is just so generic, I want to do something that's really meaningful.

Daniel Norton:

It's not just a work goal. It's everything right? It's been consistent for me with you know, working out being consistent with as a husband and as a father and all the things right so it's not just in one area. That's what kind of is nice about picking one word, it's like making it a word that can be all the different categories for you that are really important. And when you could do that, then it's a lot easier in that moment to be like Alright, well I need to do this workout for this not just because of this resolution that I feel like I failed my but it's because of this word that's going to drive me throughout all that time.

Amanda Norton:

Yeah. Really cool. Well, that's all our tips right now. And I love that we end it with such a cool note on picking of word that is going to be the theme that's going to drive your new year 2021. There's lots of things to celebrate for this year from this year, we had a lot of cool things happen in our families, but also some tough times. And we want to plan ahead, so those stressful situations would be a little bit easier to handle. So and we just don't know what the new year will bring us. We pray that it brings us more joy and more exciting things. But we also want to be wise and preparation if things shut down, and we kind of are home a lot more again. So we just want to give you guys some tips and hope it's been helpful for you. And if there's any tips that you have, that you want to share with us, please reach out to us on our website.

Daniel Norton:

Yeah, working home parents calm, there's a little button you could see on the right side of the website looks like a little microphone. Press that and leave us a voice message we would love to hear from you like what are your tips for planning 2021. And if I could leave you with one word for the last podcast of this year, it would be gratitude. You know, we are grateful and thankful for you. Being a listener of our show, especially being one of the first listeners to our show, working home parents, and we are so grateful for you. Just the fact that you downloaded this episode to your podcast player and took the time to listen. And we do hope that this podcast has been a blessing for you. Yeah, even if this is the first episode that you've listened to. So please let us know. And we'd love to hear from you on the website. We would love to hear your voice and potentially even have you featured on one of these podcast episodes in the new year. We are so thankful for you and look if you haven't already. Remember to hit subscribe on your favorite podcast player this way every week on Tuesday, you will get our episode delivered right to you. And if you wanted to get transcriptions for this episode, you could have heard of working home parents.com slash 17 that's where you can find transcriptions and show notes for this that's working home parents.com slash 17. Thanks so much for listening. We look forward to chatting with you on our next episode.

Bumper:

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