Best Laid Plans

Best Laid Plans #179: 2024 Goals!

January 1, 2024

Today’s episode airs on 1/1/24 – a new day, week, month, quintile, and year!!

On this special day, I share the details of my own annual goal-setting processes this year, and then go through (in detail) my own list of goals for 2024!

These include goals in my 5 chosen domains: PERSONAL / RELATIONSHIPS / HOUSEHOLD / CLINICAL WORK / CREATIVE WORK

On the subject of creative work . . . I would love to see your ideas for 2024 guests and topics — hoping for a great year on the podcast (and the blog)! Post in the comments or send me an email!

Please note: the signup deadline is approaching for Planning By Season, my yearlong seasonal planning course. Registration will close by the morning of 1/4/24 as the first session begins that day!
Find details here.

Contact Info:
Voice questions: https://www.speakpipe.com/bestlaidplans
Info on Best Laid Plans at Home: theshubox.com/courses
Send me a text or voice memo – (305) 697-7189
Sign up for my newsletter: https://theshubox.com/newsletter
YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@BestLaidPlansVideo

Episode Sponsors:
Jenni Kayne: Find your forever pieces at jennikayne.com. Our listeners get 15% off your first order when you use code PLANS at checkout.

Green Chef: The #1 meal kit for eating well. Go to greenchef.com/60plans and use code 60plans to get 60% off, plus 20% off your next two months!!

16 Comments

  • Reply Elisabeth January 1, 2024 at 1:11 pm

    It feels so weird to NOT have goals for 2024. I’m a bit unmoored by the idea, but also energized. We shall see how this year goes, but it makes me extra excited to follow along with my IRL and internet friends who are setting goals.

    Happy New Year, Sarah!

    • Reply Sarah Hart-Unger January 1, 2024 at 5:24 pm

      I am excited for your year of Shmita!!! Will definitely be following along!! Happy New Year Elisabeth!

  • Reply Lisa’s Yarns January 1, 2024 at 1:21 pm

    Happy new year! I also like that the new year starts on a Monday! We took down Christmas decorations and have been cleaning and decluttering this morning.

    I am doing quarterly goals this year. For Q1 I want to complete most of the January cure that Apartment Therapy hosts each January and then I want to go on one day with my husband. I’ve already booked the sitter for it so am excited!

    • Reply Sarah Hart-Unger January 1, 2024 at 5:24 pm

      I want to hear about this Apartment Therapy cure!! Please include details on your blog 🙂 :)!!

  • Reply Nneka January 1, 2024 at 1:50 pm

    Happy New Year! Need some advice about what to do with a five-year planner. DH gifted me a monogrammed five-year planner. There are monthly calendar pages with a 2-page lined notes section for each year. I could use it to track DS’s school closures and other important dates, but unsure what else to use it for. Any other thoughts? Thanks!

  • Reply Nneka January 1, 2024 at 3:15 pm

    Happy New Year! Need some advice about what to do with a five-year planner my DH gifted me. There are monthly calendar pages with a 2-page lined notes section for each year. I could use it to track our son’s school closures (he’s in 3K) and hopefully, family trips, but unsure what else to do with it? Thanks for any advice!

    • Reply Sarah Hart-Unger January 1, 2024 at 5:23 pm

      Usually 5 year planners are for memory keeping and storing highlights rather than forward planning!! Have you thought about putting a quote or memory a day? You don’t have to add something every day but over time you can create quite a cool portrait of life evolving!

  • Reply Kelsey January 2, 2024 at 11:03 am

    I really enjoyed this episode (no surprise!). I might borrow your monthly one-on-one quality time with kids goal. I love that this is low pressure but I think you are right that aiming to do this at least once per month is doable but makes a difference. I’m finding that one on one time seems especially important for my tween boys and giving myself a specific goal is a way that I make sure to prioritize it.

    I would also love to hear more about your family meetings and how they work/or will work. This is also one of my goals for the year! I am still percolating what format they will take. I’m imagining these won’t be of super interest to my boys so I want to think of ways to make them matter to them but also to keep them short but effective. The point will be establishing the habit not necessarily making them super meaningful, that will follow from keeping up the routine over time. I’m also thinking that at this point we won’t include Maeve and having that realization helped me feel they would be more feasible. She can join when she’s 5 (or so…)!

    • Reply Emily G. January 5, 2024 at 9:10 am

      Ditto wanting to hear more about how you do your family meetings – both the seasonal ones and the weekly ones. We’re trying to start this habit but, like Kelsey, trying to figure out way to make it less of a chore/more engaging for my 13 yo kid. Love to hear from anyone about the structure and content of these types of meetings!

  • Reply Olivia January 4, 2024 at 8:03 am

    Hi Sarah! As always, I loved the podcast!

    For your goal of improving clinic flow, you should try to reach out to your hospital’s Continuous Improvement/Performance Improvement/Lean/etc. group. I work on that team in a different institution and we always LOVE getting projects that are brought forward by front-line workers!

    • Reply Sarah Hart-Unger January 4, 2024 at 9:06 am

      I did a LEAN Six Sigma course once and am interested in getting to the next level! You’re right, I should totally engage with this team in some way.

  • Reply Kelsi January 8, 2024 at 4:29 pm

    This was a great episode- thank you for sharing your goals/goal making process. My brain still doesn’t quite grasp this whole process, but I am putting more effort into systematically picking Year -> Month -> Week goals.

    I’m super curious about your media consumption journey. I have some unhealthy habits around this, especially in the last few months, and if I do nothing about it, I imagine my mental health will suffer a LOT in 2024. I would love to share how you get your news. Luckily Twitter has been sort of ruined, and that has helped that habit, but I still get my fix from other places in a hyper-vigilant way. I’m being more mindful, and I catch myself in moments of ‘why did I need to know about this congressional drama’, and will disconnect. But it’s my biggest tech-related challenge.

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