Today begins the last day of the year.  That gives us 21 days to wrap up our wishes for 2009 (excluding the weekends and holidays and not counting extra days off if you’re planning to take that time).  So here is 30 minutes worth taking, to assess your most important needs to better shape this last month, and close the end of year to-do’s.  I’ll be doing this myself…hope it helps you too.

1.  What are the most important projects I want to get done?  (List up to 10, prioritize them.  See if there is action you can take on these to complete, complete half and schedule the balance for the new year, or delegate).

2.  Who are the people I most want to communicate with and what do I want to share with them? (Schedule others in your pilot or planner for conversations at a later time or delete them from your call list.)

3.  What negotiations, offers or deals do I want to close?  (You may decide you’re not interested afterall, but if you are, don’t let this holiday month slip by without step-by-step communication and followup. You may think others have too much on their plates at this time, but your alertness to the offer will keep you uppermost in their minds when they’re ready to decide).

4.  What health needs do I have to attend to?  (If you haven’t taken a day for that annual physical or dental checkup, now is a  good time.  Others are cramming these in too so you may only to get to schedule appointments, but surprisingly many folks put these off or cancel their appointments, so you’re likely to get in now.)

5.  What are the things I had wanted to learn?  (Decide if you can begin some part of this learning today or determine if rescheduling is authentic or it’s better to let it go.)

6. What items still need to be organized/prioritized?  (If you’ve been waiting to get to that pile of papers, magazines or mail, including old emails, now might be a time to deal with it, recyle it, or toss out?since it’s likely outdated anyway.)

7.  What places or activities did I want to participate in?  (Is it a necessary excursion or activity to fit it in now or will it add more pressure, when staying home would be preferable?)

8.  What do I intend to purchase?  (Whether it’s for you or others, decide if the cost warrants the expense at this time.  If it’s holiday shopping you’re doing that has to get done, then be sure to give yourself ample time to do it stress free).

9.  What am I needing to repair, discard or give away to others? (If you’ve been keeping a project on the backburner intending to get to it, you might now reassess it to decide if you really are going to get to it this year. If not, do you want to drag it into another year? Maybe you have a broken pencil sharpener and you can trash it or give it away and get another. Or maybe you have books you’ve been meaning to sell on ebay or Amazon, while donating them to the library is quicker and you wouldn’t have made much profit for your time spent selling them anyway.)

10.  What’s remaining on my plate that I can now revisit and decide to move forward on or not? Now is the time to shake everything lose from it’s hiding place and determine whether you’ll attend to it in these last few days of the year, carry it into the new year or let it go. 

You have the power to determine your priorities and saying no, letting something go or rolling up your sleeves and quickly addressing something is never as hard as it first feels.  Like sanding paint off a wall before you can repaint it, you might feel the temporary nuisance of dealing with it, but you’ll feel much relieved when you have a fresh wall to paint on come January.

Tags: 10 key questions, end of year, important projects, main items to attend to, priorities

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 7:00 am and is filed under Career Tips, Personal and Professional Growth, Time Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.