It’s funny how the start of the year is supposed to feel like a rest and reset but we often just end up running around like a headless chicken for a month and a half before everything settles (look at us, posting a start of year blog in February). Adding to the confusion is the metric ton of emails you’re getting from every website you’ve ever signed up for trying to sell you every product under the sun, or the people you follow posting about their big wins barely two months into 2022.

The start of the year is a time to reset, but the cacophony of distractions that we get from every angle can make it difficult to do just that. So now that we’re approaching a somewhat normal timeline, we’ve compiled 4 top tips that we think will help you clear the rest of that clutter and help you make 2022 that little bit extra productive.

1. Be diligent with your inbox.

Let’s face it, we all have them. Newsletters we signed up to 5 years ago that we never open. Companies that we wanted to follow at the time, but aren’t that interesting to us anymore. Emails that we’re always saying we’ll unsubscribe from but somehow we never muster up the time or energy to do so.

Well now is that time; have a look through your inbox and find all those emails that you normally ignore. Assess whether they’re really necessary or useful to you, or if you can hop off their mailing list.

If you have a few newsletters that you do want to keep but don’t look at all the time, it may be worth making a separate email address for your newsletters or to move them into a dedicated folder. The idea is that you want to stop them from cluttering up your main inbox and getting in the way of the emails that you really need to look at.

2. Run your own race.

It’s easy to compare yourself to everyone else when we’re all so connected to each other via social media. People will want to share their wins, and rightly so. All wins are worth celebrating, but recognising when other people’s wins are demotivating, rather than motivating, you is important.

This is not to say that you ignore everyone completely, rather work out a time or a good head space to be checking your socials with. Maybe the best time is after a day’s work, where you’ve accomplished something big for you and your project. Maybe it’s on the weekends only, or every second afternoon. Work out the time and mood that’s best for you in order to avoid the rat race.

3. Set goals - but not just any goals.

Speaking of social media, it can be easy to fall into the trap of setting goals and wins for yourself that are purely for the likes and the shares. We can all admit we’ve posted some things that were for slightly more selfish reasons, and sometimes it’s good to scratch that itch. But it’s a dangerous game to play for your long term goals, especially as the pressure mounts to make each win bigger than the last.

Think of what the goal is doing for you and your projects first, before you think about the ‘like-ability’ of it. Don’t get pulled into the endless cycle of subconsciously trying to one-up everyone else, instead keep your triumphs meaningful by planning your goals, creating milestones and then celebrating once each of those landmarks are reached. In the end, there’s nothing more satisfying than posting about getting a big win that you’ve worked hard for.

4. Pause before you dive into the new year.

Everyone always thinks, after the sluggishness of the year end, that you have to hit the new year running, no brakes in sight. The reality is, while you may feel really motivated for that first month or so, the grind catches up to everyone and you may end up completely burning out sooner than you expected.

Things like “self-care” and “mindfulness” are talked about a lot, no more than the past two years, and can sound a bit cliche or selfish. But they don’t have to be grand gestures, even just a few minutes away from your work to think and reset if you’re struggling. It might be going to bed early to catch up on missed sleep, or using up leave to actually get away and reset. At the time it might seem like laziness, but it’s really about taking care of yourself and knowing your boundaries.

You definitely don’t want to overdo breaks, but make time to shut off, focus on yourself and be intentional with the limited amount of time you have in the week.

The key to all of this is consistency. What are you looking forward to most this year? What do you most want to achieve? And then finally think of what steps you can take to get there. It’s not easy starting the year, but hopefully by taking these four points into account we can help your 2022 start smoothly.