A new year and a clean slate. Even though you can and should restart, plan and organise at any time of the year, January is the perfect time to get organised for a fresh year ahead! A new year brings an exciting feeling of new beginnings, endless possibilities and a refreshed state of mind to take on new challenges. There are so many ways to get organised for 2023. Below we share some organisational and planning tips. Plus, we chat with founder of SOPHIE Belinda Cannon on her tips to being organised moving into a new year.

Organisational Tips and Tricks

Reflect on the Year that Was

- To know where you’re going, it’s a good idea to see where you’ve been. Take a look at 2022 and note down some of your favourite moments, achievements, what went well, and maybe what didn’t go so well. Listing these can help to acknowledge your achievements, and spark ideas for some goals for 2023.

Set Yourself Some Goals for 2023

- Goal setting helps you stay focused on what you want to prioritise this year and can help keep you on track and a sense of purpose in every day life.

- It helps to separate your goals into categories such as professional, personal and health and wellbeing. This means you won’t feel overwhelmed by a varying array of different kinds of goals.

- It’s also helpful not to set yourself too many, it’s good to be realistic and you’ll feel more successful and motivated when you have a streamlined set of objectives you are working towards. I certainly won't be setting the goal of completing an Iron Man, but if the shoe fits.

Pick 3 Key Words for 2023

- These words can be a simple and fun way to encapsulate how you want 2023 to be for you. They can be inspired by your goals, and give you a quick refocus when you feel like you need it

- For example, they could be: Family, Ambition, Reinvigoration

Find Organisational Tools that Work for You

- These days there are many online apps, software, gadgets and stationary to help you keep you on track to your goals.

- Sometimes nothing beats a good notebook or diary. Here are some of our picks below:

Q+A with Founder of SOPHIE Belinda Cannon

Do you set yourself goals for a new year? How do you like to formulate your goals?

My New Year starts in February when the kids are back at school! As far as personal goals go, I don’t write anything down but I consciously think about things I want to work on. From a business perspective, we start planning in February for our new financial year commencing 1st April. We recently started doing this together as a team, when I didn’t have a full team & with covid being a key challenge to manage for so long, planning and goal setting were more about actively managing change.

Do you have any top tips for staying organised and on top of tasks?

Know your limits & be realistic - don’t take on too much. Employ people that LOVE organising things - when you have stock like we do, you really need things well organised. I am naturally very driven and committed to achieving things.  A good plan is something, but a waste of time if it’s not executed well. Break it down and share the tasks with your people, regroup on them. 

As far as home life goes, we have a weekly calendar we update every Sunday so we know who has what on each day. It’s pretty full! 

Do you have any routines that help you be productive?

I do a bootcamp twice a week at 6am and that’s so good for starting the day well. Other than that, it’s a smoothie and coffee after the kids are out the door. Nights are about ensuring all the kids' stuff is fully ready for the next day, uniforms laid out, PE gear sorted - to feel organised in the morning. I absolutely LOVE bed, so a little podcast most nights is what I enjoy.

Do you ever feel guilty about not being able to do everything, or days where you just can’t seem to get things done? How do you manage this?

I don’t have a lot of guilt anymore, however I did when my kids were younger. The school day is short and I cram a lot into a day. I am always looking at the next thing & improving the business, so I can get frustrated and wish I had more time for work. I’m lucky as I really do have the best team, they’re experts in what they do so things keep going when I’m with my kids.

As a busy mum and business owner, can you share any insights on how you manage to keep up with mum duties, and business owner duties?

As a business owner, I can pop out to see the kids doing school things, I’m grateful for that. The cost of that is that it does take me away from work. I’m on email after hours a little, but until a year ago I did every single social post and social media reply which I no longer do. Delegating things is the only way to manage your time & I’m getting better. As I said, a strong team is the best.

SOPHIE is available to shop in store at Flo + Frankie and Father Rabbit in Newmarket.