GrapeSeed Designs

Today is my birthday.

I’ve always felt a little weird about birthdays. They feel like they’re supposed to be this big social thing, but that’s never quite worked out well.

And forget about me ever trying to plan anything! Usually my birthdays are quiet unless someone else does the inviting.

I like the idea of using your birthday as a sort of reflection on the year past and consideration of the year ahead, but with my day so close to new year’s, that’s felt a little redundant.

So today I just turned off the alarms (though my new foster dog let me know when she thought it was time to get up). I don’t plan to do a whole lot of work — I’ll probably spend a fair amount of time today reading. And I’ll kind of just take the day as it comes.

What about you? Do you celebrate you birthday any special way?

•
•
•

Since I’ve been talking a lot about planning for the year ahead, I figured I’d share a little of my tools.

I’ve been an avid user for right at 2 years now. It initially started as a way to track (and then fine-tune) some chronic health issues. But my weekly spreads have been a great way to stay productive with both work and life.

Now that I’m focusing on quarterly planning in 2021, it made sense to set up this spread.

I have two businesses to run (on top of client work), so you can see both here. One is this account, GrapeSeed Designs. The other is a coworking community (and eventually space — for added delays in opening 🙄) .cowork.

My quarterly focus for each business is at the top, along with the goals I want to reach and habits I want to build.

Below that is a monthly breakdown of which projects (or focus) will move the needle closer to my goal.

It’s important to make sure I’m not overloading between the two businesses (lol — we’ll see how that works out), so the pages are reflections of each other to keep monthly tasks together in the center.

Then from there, each month is broken down to a weekly focus.

Now, one business lends itself more to a rigid weekly plan, and the other doesn’t. (Mostly because one is in a launch phase and the other is not.) So those monthly tasks are more modular and can swap as needed. That side is more of a to-do list than scheduled tasks.

Then I’m also building in white space. Because sh*t happens 🤷‍♀️ So (at least until I get used to this format) the last space each month will be left blank.

I’m also writing tasks and intentions beyond the first month in pencil. I’ll revisit each month to assess progress and plan the next few weeks.

What tools are you using to stay organized as we kick off 2021?

•
•
•