End of the Year Checklist

Is anyone else having a hard time believing that another year is drawing to a close?  I feel like the older that I get the faster that time seems to go by!

A few years ago I got myself into the routine of using the week between Christmas and New Years to wrap up the old year and begin to plan ahead for the year to come.

In this time I have an unofficial checklist of sorts that I always follow.  I wanted to share that list of tasks with you today in hopes that it gives you an idea or two that you can use to end this year on a strong note and start next year on the right foot.

My end of the year checklist:

• Writing thank you notes for Christmas gifts as well as helping my children write their own thank you notes as well.
• Organizing all of our pictures (digital or print) from the year so that I can access them easily in the future.
• Sitting down to write down new goals for the next year.  I divide my goals into the following categories:  Personal, Professional, Family, Fitness, Financial, and Household Projects.
• Evaluate my current work schedule and make needed changes for the upcoming year.
• Organize financial paperwork from the year to make tax preparation easy next month.
• I store all of our household owner’s manuals in a 3 ring binder with each in a clear plastic sheet protector.  At the end of each year I go through to make sure that none of them need to be pulled out for something that we no longer own or use.
• Clean and purge my closet of clothes that I am not using or wearing to donate to others.
• Go through my address book and double check that my contacts are current.
• Choose my focus word for the upcoming year and make a poster for my office about it.  (See old post about this)
• Our family makes a to do list for the upcoming year, a list of things that we want to try to get done the next year.  These items can be fun places to visit, recipes to try, crafts to make, games to play, or projects that we want to work on.  It is a fun way for us to look forward to a new year together.
• Replace kid’s school supplies that have been worn out the first half of the school year.

These are some of the things that I will be doing this week to wrap up this year and prepare for the next.  I hope that some of these will challenge and inspire you as you begin to transition this week also!