I spent some time this morning working through my own seasonal planning process. I use the workbooks I designed!
Today is actually the official Planning By Season session (at noon) so I figured that would make it a great time to think through my own Q5.
Here are the goals I came up with:
CELEBRATE
- Really try to be present and not stress over minutia for family celebrations (from Tgiving to family Hanukkah party)
- Host or at least SCHEDULE a low-key neighborhood hang (wine + cheese or something to that effect)
- Organize fun celebrations for both J’s birthday and G’s birthday
HOME
- Singular organizing goal: EVERYONE’S CLOSETS. Okay, maybe not so singular. But this is the one area I’d like to declutter and organize in Q5. I want everyone to only have clothes that a) fit and b) they actually wear.
PREPARE
- Have fun setting up 2026 planner stack! (and, record video, as is tradition)
- Give myself enough space to thoughtfully plan my annual goals — honestly, I can even use my own recordings if needed! I definitely cannot plan all that well WHILE also guiding others and need to ensure I have space to do the same for myself
- Block off one half-day each season in 2026 for seasonal planning days
CONNECT
- 2 date nights each month. FINALLY I got with the program and scheduled two for November already (I did it right after I did my usual monthly work-focused planning, sending Josh the calendar and asking him to choose one weekday and one weekend)
- Plan a future 1:1 2-3 day trip with Josh
- Spend some extra solo time with A
PROJECTS
- Try morning pages! Play with the concepts from The Artist’s Way without being purist about them.
- Pilot a listening project I am thinking about for next year — I’d like to see how it work, first.
Interestingly, not many are inspired by my Annual Goals — most of those are either complete, or I’ve decided to move on! The closet organization was inspired by my organizing goal, though. I absolutely WILL NOT have the decluttered house of my dreams by the end of 2025, but I might be able to give myself partial credit if I get through all of the closets.
I am very much looking forward to this season!!! SO many fun things, lots of time away from work, just 4 nights of call, MONTANA, my book launch, Thanksgiving, ALLLL the year-end fun . . . let’s do this Quintile 5!
13 Comments
For the annual goals you move on from, do you actively decide to let the goal/resolution go or does it naturally kind of fade from the priority list as the year goes on? For me, it’s the latter which I’m fine with but I wonder if there’s a more intentional way to do it. Looking forward to NaBloPoMo!
Let me know if need any help with the very worthy and essential closet goal ;)! I find I need to go through the kids’ clothes every season. The only section that gets neglected and out of control sometimes is the dress clothes that are hung up and tend to move between kids for longer.
I’m looking forward to reflection/celebration season as well. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday so I am excited for that. Plus it coincides with my younger son’s bday (his is 12/3, but very close to Thanksgiving). So we’ll celebrate him on Thanksgiving. I’m going to make fall-shaped sugar cookies and the kids will decorate them with their cousins. We also have the annual viewing of The Grinch at our Children’s Theater later this month which is probably my fave thing we do! But our youngest decided he’s afraid of the Grinch so it will just be P and me this year.
I went through the boys drawers a few weekends ago. I have several bins of clothes from Kae’s boys so I moved a lot of P’s clothes to W’s drawers and restocked P’s drawers. Now he feels like he has all these new clothes. And I send Kae pics of the boys in her sons’ clothing which makes her happy!
I do think it’ll be better to use the workbooks you designed, Dr. Sarah Hart-Unger.
While not many of your Q5 goals are inspired by your Annual Goals, I’ll still considered them an example of layered planning.
We are also currently on the ball with date night scheduling– it makes such a difference!
It sure sounds like you are very organized and energetic. Best of luck on all your goals!
Yes, I LOVE this time of year! Right now I’m in the middle of your podcast about holiday planning, and it’s great. I’m going to take her advice and do a “brain dump” of all the have to’s/want to’s, and then go through and circle or eliminate things. I’m definitely starting holiday prep early this year, so I’m not frantic in December.
Curious how you decided you need to spend more time with A? Something I struggle with (dividing one on one time between the kids)
i feel like it’s always someone! and the kid that needs the most rotates every couple of months . but to sum it up i would say . . . . .teen stuff!!
Hi Shu. Wow, your organizational system is impressive. I’m make my to do list daily or weekly and feel accomplished when I cross something off of it. I’m discussing with my husband how to handle Christmas gifts this year. Our closets don’t need anything. I’d prefer to do time away or a trip to the city to see a play together or something that would free me up from all the shopping. (I buy almost every single gift, every year). Our boy room has rotated our older guys through it and the castoff clothing is making me crazy. No one claims whatever is left in there, and it’s hard to know whose stuff it really is. Reg is the youngest boy and he’s a freshman in college. I swear the older boys ‘gift’ him clothes they’re done with but he doesn’t always recognize those things as his. I’ve tried laying all of it on the floor and taking photos and sending in a group chat: Can I donate this?
Here’s hoping your closet chore is simpler and streamlined. I just swapped our two young girls’ seasonal clothes. It’s not my favorite, but I make them drag everything out of their closet and their drawer and we start fresh. Always nice when that’s done.
i like those fun projects! I am starting one too, reading 10 min of portuguese book in AM. let’s see if I can keep it up and finish one book before end of 2025.
Thank you for this reminder to schedule a date night with my husband! We actually have a parenting-free evening coming up, and I dropped the ball on planning something new and fun for the last time we had one. This time it’s going to happen!
oooh parenting free night! that would probably never happen for us randomly w 3 kids – that sounds amazing!