Start Those Mental Health Resolutions With These Tips

Start Those Mental Health Resolutions With These Tips

I love these quick tips for this week before the new year from Whole 30 founder Melissa Urban. For me, I love the “15 minute” idea in between reflecting and planning for the new year.

“We’re in this weird in-between space where it feels like normal routines and obligations don’t exist, and everything is a problem for "New Year You." I’m scheduling reminders to myself for basically all work tasks ("I’ll deal with this next year"), my meal planning has gone out the window, and I haven’t been at all interested in cleaning, laundry, or grocery shopping.

However, if I don’t do some proactive planning now, Future Melissa is going to be screwed—we’re talking the biggest case of the Sunday Scaries EVER. She’s going to show up for work on January 2nd with a pile of work tasks she’d punted at the end of last year, a bare fridge with no plans for meals, a kid dragging his feet into the rhythm of getting ready for school, and a seriously bad mood when having to face all of it at once.  

Of course, I’d never do that to Future Melissa. Here are some things I’m doing now to help me avoid the New Year Sunday Scaries while still honoring the season and giving myself some well-deserved time off.

Keep a notebook handy. Any time I think of a work task that can’t be accomplished this week—the approval I need for my ad copy, a meeting I need to schedule, the content idea I need to run past the team—I write it down. The brain loves a plan, and walking into the new year with a list of things to do versus a vague but impending sense of doom will make a huge difference.

Do small things now. It’s tempting to leave all of it until the new year, but I’ve got a plan for getting small things off my plate. That email I forgot to send? I’ll draft it and schedule it for next week. The paperwork I have to sign for our 401K? I’ll sign it, scan it, and set a reminder to mail it in on Monday. The newsletter idea I just had? I’ll write the bones of it now, so it’s mostly there when I’m back next week. My rule of thumb for this week—if it can be handled in 15 minutes or under, just do it.

Build in margins. There will be pressure to fill my first days back with all of the meetings/calls we didn’t have at the end of December, but I’m purposefully building in time for me to plan and work that week. I’ve blocked off time every day for email and writing, and the Monday morning we’re back has a firm 2-hour hold for email review and creating a plan for the week.

Say no to YOLO. It can feel so easy to YOLO your way through this week on all counts. Working out? I’ll start again Monday. Going to bed at a reasonable hour? I’ll catch up on the weekend. Working my Food Freedom plan? It’s the holidays, let’s not think about that. I know, however, that letting it all go at the same time is going to leave me feeling like poop when Monday hits—tired, cranky, bloated, and lacking motivation to do any part of my normal routine. So I’m going to YOLO responsibly.

I’m prioritizing sleep. I know from experience that missing sleep is the first step in the wheels coming off my bus, so even though there may be lots of opportunities to stay up late, I’m going to prioritize a relatively consistent sleep schedule.

I AM going to enjoy this week, and take lots of time away from work and responsibilities to relax with my husband. But I’m also going to work smarter (not harder) and make the plans that I know will count the most when Monday inevitably rolls around…. because it WILL roll around, and I’d like my Sunday night to feel just as cozy and relaxed as every other night this week.

Happy week-before-New-Year.”