new year planning
New Year Planning Guide: A One-Page Plan That Holds Up
Build a one-page plan for the year: a theme, one to three priorities written as things to start, if-then plans and check-in dates. Includes a worked example, a copyable template and the research behind each step.
A new year plan is one page that answers four questions: what is this year about, which one to three things get my attention, what will I do and when, and when will I look at it again. You can write it in under an hour, and it works best when the actions are written as things to start, with a stated time and place, and a few dates fixed in advance to read how it is going.
Choose a theme, pick one to three priorities, write each as something you will start rather than stop, attach an if-then plan to each (if this situation happens, then I will do this), and put three or four check-in dates in your calendar. Use the first Monday of each month as a natural restart point. Expect the plan to change, and treat each change as information.
This guide looks forward. If you want the look-back that comes first, the annual review template walks through the year just ended, and the personal review system shows how yearly, quarterly and weekly reviews fit together. Here we start from the end of that review and build the plan.
What the Research Says Before You Plan
Planning advice is full of confident claims. Here is what the sources below actually support, and where they stop.
New starts are real, and they are not only in January. A Wharton team studying the "fresh start effect" reports that "Mondays, as well as holidays and school breaks, were among the most popular times where the researchers observed spikes in aspirational behaviors." In their university gym data, "visits to the gym increased drastically at the start of a new semester, as well as the beginning of a new week, month, year and after a student celebrated a birthday," and they found "the same basic patterns for users pursuing both health-related and non-health-related goals." The same write-up notes that "temporal landmarks may only increase motivation for a short amount of time, that can be enough." The practical reading: a landmark gives you a window to set something up, and the setup has to carry you after the window closes.
Plenty of people make resolutions, and many report some success. In the PLOS ONE experiment on resolutions, U.S. polls showed that 44% of respondents were likely or very likely to make one. In that study, which randomized 1,066 people into three groups, "at a one-year follow-up, 55% of responders considered themselves successful in sustaining their resolutions." Two cautions come from the authors themselves. The sample was self-selected rather than random, and success was each person's own judgment.
Framing as "start" beat framing as "stop". In the same experiment, participants with approach-oriented goals were more successful than those with avoidance-oriented goals, 58.9% against 47.1%. An approach goal names something to do ("walk after lunch"). An avoidance goal names something to not do ("stop sitting all day"). The result is one study with self-reported success, but it gives a cheap, low-risk habit for writing priorities.
More structure did not automatically feel better. The group given extended goal-setting support reported less success than the group given some support. The authors suggest one possible reason: "a specific goal is beneficial because it affords more information about what one is supposed to do to make progress toward one's goal. However, a specific goal also clarifies when one is not doing what one is supposed to do." That is a reason to write specific actions and also to decide in advance how you will read a shortfall. We come back to that in step 6.
If-then plans have solid support, with conditions. The National Cancer Institute's reference page on implementation intentions describes them as "if-then plans that link situational cues (i.e., good opportunities to act, critical moments) with responses that are effective in attaining goals or desired outcomes," and says that "accumulated evidence indicates that if-then plan formation promotes effective management of various problems in goal striving and increases rates of goal attainment." It adds that the effects "are stronger when self-regulatory problems beset goal striving, and when if-then planning is supported by strong, activated goal intentions." So if-then plans help most when you really want the goal and something tends to get in the way. The page also states that it is provided for reference purposes only and may be outdated, so treat it as a clear summary rather than the latest word. The same page notes that a review of health behaviors found "people translated their 'good' intentions into action only 53 percent of the time," which is the gap an if-then plan is meant to narrow.
One more honest note. In a small trial of 59 students described in the PLOS paper, the group asked to form if-then plans was compared with a reflection group and a control group, and "at one month, no significant differences in success were found between the groups". One small trial with one follow-up does not cancel a body of evidence, and it does show that no technique is guaranteed.
| What the sources support | How firmly | What it means for the plan |
|---|---|---|
| Landmarks such as new weeks, months and birthdays coincide with more goal-directed behavior | Observational data, not an experiment | Schedule restart points beyond January 1 |
| Approach-framed resolutions did better than avoidance-framed ones | One large experiment, self-reported success | Write priorities as things to start |
| If-then plans are linked to higher goal attainment | A body of research, with conditions | Give each priority a cue |
| Extra structure can make shortfalls easier to see | The authors' possible explanation | Decide how you will read a shortfall |
The One-Page Plan
The framework has six parts. Each fits in a sentence or two, and together they fit on one page.
Step 1: Pick a theme
A theme is a short phrase that points the year, such as "steady", "close to people" or "finish things". It is not a goal and cannot be missed or hit. Its job is to settle close calls: when two good options compete, the one that fits the theme wins. If you did a review first, your themes from the look-back are the best raw material.
Step 2: Choose one to three priorities
For each priority, choose the area of life it belongs to. The eight dimensions used across Xenith make a handy checklist, and you do not need a priority in each one. Read down the list and note where you would like something to change, then choose the one to three that matter most. Everything else keeps ticking over without a new target.
| Dimension | A planning question |
|---|---|
| Health | What is one small thing for my body that I want to start, and what do I want to ask a professional about? |
| Mind | What would help me think and feel steadier this year? |
| Relationships | Who do I want to spend more time with, and in what form? |
| Work | What do I want to build or finish, and what do I want less of? |
| Finances | What one thing do I want to understand or set up, and is there anything for a professional? |
| Learning | What do I want to be able to do by the end of the year that I cannot do now? |
| Rest | When and how do I want to recover, in concrete terms? |
| Purpose | What would make the year feel well spent when I look back? |
These are prompts for reflection, not health or financial advice. For anything medical or about money, a professional is the right person to ask. For a fuller look at where you stand across areas, see how to do a life audit and the guide to life dimensions.
Step 3: Rewrite each priority as something to start
Take every priority and ask: what would I be doing if this were going well? Write that. The table shows the move with illustrative examples.
| Avoidance wording | Approach wording |
|---|---|
| Stop checking email first thing | Start the day with my first planned block, then open email at 10:00 |
| Waste less money on takeaway | Cook at home on Tuesday and Thursday evenings |
| Stop being so disconnected from friends | Call or meet one friend each week |
| Don't let learning slide | Spend 30 minutes on one course on Saturday mornings |
| Stop working late | Close my laptop at 18:00 on weekdays |
Not every priority converts cleanly, and that is fine. If you cannot find a start-version, the priority may be too vague to plan yet, and a smaller version may be a better fit.
Step 4: Add an if-then plan to each priority
Use the form from the research: if (situation), then I will (action). The situation should be something that will definitely happen, such as a time, a place or an event, and the action should be small enough to do on a bad day.
| Priority | If | Then |
|---|---|---|
| Call a friend weekly | If it is Sunday and I have finished lunch | Then I will message one friend to arrange a call |
| Learning block | If it is Saturday at 9:00 | Then I will open the course and do one lesson |
| Close the laptop on time | If my 17:45 calendar reminder appears | Then I will write tomorrow's top three and shut down |
If you write daily intentions, the if-then plan tells you what to put in them. The plan supplies the cue and the intention supplies the day.
Step 5: Place your restart points
Because fresh starts happen at many landmarks, put several in your calendar before the year begins instead of relying on one. Choose a mix of the following: the first Monday of each month, your birthday, the start of a season or school term, and the first week back after any long break. At each one, ask a single question: is this plan still the plan I want?
Step 6: Set check-ins, and decide how you will read them
Pick three or four dates and put them in your calendar now, for example the end of each quarter, matched to a quarterly review. Between those, a monthly review can be as short as ten minutes. Before the year starts, decide what a shortfall will mean. The authors of the resolution experiment point out that specific goals also make a gap obvious. So write the rule down in advance: if a planned action did not happen, I will read it as information about the plan (the size, the cue, the timing) and adjust one of those. A plan is a draft that you edit.
A Worked Example
Here is an illustrative plan for a fictional person, Maya, who works in an office three days a week and studies in the evenings. It is invented to show the shape, not a recommendation.
| Part | Maya's page |
|---|---|
| Theme | Steady |
| Priority 1 (Relationships) | Meet or call one friend each week. If it is Sunday after lunch, then I message one friend. |
| Priority 2 (Learning) | Finish one module of my course each month. If it is Saturday at 9:00, then I open the course and do one lesson. |
| Priority 3 (Work) | Leave work on time on office days. If my 17:45 reminder appears, then I write tomorrow's top three and shut down. |
| Left on autopilot | Health, Finances, Rest, Purpose, Mind (no new targets this year) |
| Restart points | First Monday of each month, her birthday in June, the first week back in September |
| Check-ins | End of March, June, September and December, each 30 minutes |
| How I read a shortfall | A gap in the plan means the plan needs a change in size, cue or timing |
Notice what the page leaves out. There are no targets for five of the eight areas, no daily counts and no totals. If something goes well, Maya notes it. If something does not happen, she adjusts the cue.
Copy-and-Fill Template
Paste this into any notes app and fill in the brackets.
THEME for the year: [one short phrase]
PRIORITY 1 [dimension]: [what I will start]
If [situation], then I will [small action].
PRIORITY 2 [dimension]: [what I will start]
If [situation], then I will [small action].
PRIORITY 3 [dimension]: [what I will start]
If [situation], then I will [small action].
LEFT ON AUTOPILOT: [areas with no new targets]
RESTART POINTS: [dates]
CHECK-INS: [three or four dates]
HOW I READ A SHORTFALL: It is information about the plan.
I will adjust one of: size, cue, timing.
Common Planning Problems
| Situation | What to try |
|---|---|
| The list has grown past three priorities | Pick the one that matters most and park the rest in a "maybe later" list for the next check-in |
| A priority has no obvious first step | Shrink it until the first step takes ten minutes or less |
| The cue never seems to occur | Change the "if" to something that definitely happens, such as a fixed time |
| Motivation is high now and uncertain later | Use the energy to set up cues and calendar dates, because a landmark's lift can be brief |
| The plan stopped fitting | Revise it at the next restart point; revising is part of the method |
Using Xenith for This
The plan itself fits on a page, and Xenith can hold the pieces. Daily Intentions lets you write dated intentions, tag each to a life dimension and set recurring ones, which suits the actions in your if-then plans. Life Dimensions keeps your weekly 1 to 10 ratings and shows a four-week trend per dimension. The ratings are your own read, not a measurement. The free Wheel of Life tool takes a couple of minutes if you want a snapshot before choosing priorities, and the Reflection Journal is a place for the check-in notes. None of it is required to plan well.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should I make a new year plan?
Any time from the first week of December to the end of January works. The research on fresh starts suggests that other dates, such as the first Monday of a month or a birthday, can also work, so a late start is not a problem. Pick a date, write it down and begin.
How many priorities should a new year plan have?
One to three is a workable range. That is a practical suggestion, not a research finding. Each priority needs its own if-then plans and check-in dates, so a long list quickly becomes more than you can look at.
Are New Year's resolutions worth making?
The evidence says they can be. In a large experiment, 55% of responders felt successful with their resolutions at one year, though participants chose to sign up and judged their own success. Resolutions are more useful when they are written as things to start, with a plan for when and where.
What is the difference between a goal and an if-then plan?
A goal says what you want. An if-then plan says when and where you will act on it, in the form: if this situation happens, then I will do this action. The goal gives direction and the plan gives a starting cue.
What if my plan stops fitting by March?
Change the plan. A check-in date exists so you can read what happened and adjust the priority, the size of the step or the cue. A plan that changes in March is working as intended, and a revised plan is still your plan.
Do I need an app to plan the year?
No. A single page and a calendar are enough. An app helps when you want daily intentions, weekly ratings or a journal in one place, and Xenith offers those, but the plan itself fits on paper.
Put it into practice in Xenith
Keep reading
Annual Review Template: How to Review Your Year and Plan the Next
Instead of a list of resolutions, an annual review looks at what the year actually held. Here is a process, questions for each area of life, and a way to turn it into a plan for the first quarter.
Personal Review System: Weekly, Quarterly and Yearly Reviews That Fit Together
One big yearly reset is easy to skip and hard to act on. Three short layers, each with its own question, work better together. Here is what each layer is for and how to set them up.
Quarterly Review Template: Questions for Your Next 90 Days
Ninety days is long enough to see change and short enough to adjust. This template gives you the questions, the order and a schedule for a quarterly review you can finish in about 90 minutes.
Monthly Review Template: 30 Minutes to Look Back and Plan the Next Month
A monthly review sits between the weekly check-in and the quarterly review. Here is a 30-minute template with questions for each life area and a plan for next month.
Personal OKRs: How to Set Objectives and Key Results Across Your Life
OKRs were built for companies, but the structure works for a person if you keep it small. Here is how to write personal objectives and key results, with examples across the eight life dimensions.
How to Do a Life Audit: A Simple 7-Step Process
A step-by-step life audit you can do in one sitting: review each area of your life honestly, find the gap between where you are and where you want to be, and pick one thing to change.