Starting 2025 Structured

Happy New Year to all our long-term users and Structured newbies! 💫

The start of every new year is associated with major changes and new beginnings. On the one hand, the turn of the year reminds us to finally get to grips with things that we have been putting off for ages or to get rid of bad habits. On the other hand, these expectations for change and self-optimization can exert pressure and stress so that we either plan too much we cannot achieve or even freeze up being unable to adjust at all.

Structured can help you to collect and schedule your New Year's resolutions to ensure that you don't lose sight of them and can plan realistically to actually achieve the goals you have set. In this blog post, we want to give you some tips on how to set yourself short-term and long-term goals so that your New Year's resolutions are not thrown overboard after just one week.

Write Down and Structure your Goals

The first step to structuring your goals for 2025 is to sit down in a cozy and calm surrounding, maybe sipping a cup of tea, and think about 2024: What made you happy that you would like to continue doing? Are there things you wanted to tryin 2024 but didn't manage to do? What were you dissatisfied with that you would like to change? Take a pen and paper and write down those thoughts as they come.

Once you’re finished, try to bring those goals and plans into an order: What do you want to change most urgently, such as quitting smoking or starting to exercise more? What can wait for a while, like taking a pottery course or cleaning out the garage? Which goals are one-off, which take longer? Create an inbox task for each individual goal. This way, your resolutions won't get lost, and you can integrate them into your timeline at any time.

Plan Your Goals

Now, that you have laid out your goals, it’s time to make plans on how to realistically achieve them. Try to plan the easy tasks first: For example, if you plan to call your grandma weekly, create a weekly recurring task, reminding you to call her. Do you want to get rid of some worn out clothes? Create an all-day task on one of those boring Sundays in January. Checking these off will make you feel awesome! ✅

For long-term goals, it makes sense to start early: If you’re aiming to accomplish a half-marathon, you probably need some training, regardless of whether you are an advanced runner or a newbie. Simply tell the Structured AI when the half-marathon takes place and that you need a training schedule. The Structured AI will come up with a plan, that helps you stay on track, even if you miss a training session – no worries, no one can tell! Remember to also plan rest days. You not only deserve it, you’ll need it. 😴

Some goals are not done within a day or two, but are also not super urgent. You have been tired of your bathroom tiles for quite a while and missing some coziness while taking a bath? This has been the case for a few months, or even years, so you can wait with this project for a few more weeks. Part of achieving your goals is planning realistically. Instead of trying to squeeze in all New Year's resolutions in the first week of January, plan ahead. It might be even nicer to have a little spring-cleaning project, so why not postpone your bathroom makeover to April? Create an all-day task on April 1, reminding you of your project. This is not an April Fool! 🛁

Stay on Track, While Being Kind to Yourself

We all have been there: Two weeks into January and all those plans are already forgotten, or you even made it through January, maybe February, and the resolutions start to fade. This is normal, as it takes time to build up new habits. However, we have some ideas and tips on how to postpone giving up.

Create an all-day task, recurring at the end of each month, asking you whether you are still following your New Year's resolutions. Use the respective Structured AI prompt, to create it within seconds and add notifications. Check, whether you have accomplished some of your goals, by opening your inbox, looking at your laid out goals. Even if you did not accomplish even one, there is a new month ahead, enabling a fresh start.

Maybe you even realize, even after carefully planning and selecting your goals, there was still too much on the list. In that case, you might want to check out the Energy Monitor. The Energy Monitor will help you to get an understanding of how much you can actually accomplish in a day. For menstruating people, plans sometimes clash depending on your menstrual cycle phase. The Cycle Seasons feature will help you to keep track of your menstrual cycle phase and how to take advantage of this knowledge.

Don’t feel pressured if you wake up on January 1, feeling hungover from partying a little too much and even breaking one of your New Year's resolutions on the first day. Let us tell you a little secret: You can start all over again at any time, even tomorrow.