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Good morning. This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Today's tip is to plan your check-in times. If you have set any sort of annual goals, or if life looks different in different seasons for you, you want to set some times during the year to check in on how things are going and to plan the next season.

Setting those times now, early in the year, increases the chances that they happen.

So plenty of people set annual goals, and plenty of people plan their days or

weeks. But a lot of life happens in chunks that are between those sizes. Sarah Hart Unger, my co-host

on the Best of Both Worlds podcast, thinks of her year in quintiles. There is January to

spring break, spring break to summer, summer, and then the beginning of the school year to November

1st. Quintile 5 goes from November 1st to the end of the year. She checks in at the beginning of each

quintile to look at her annual goals and see how things are going. She also plans out things that need to

happen over the next two to three months. Perhaps you might think of your life in some different way.

Many people think of life in quarters,

or maybe it is seasons in general.

Academics often go for trimesters.

But however you think about your time,

it is good to have multiple check-in times during the year.

You will be able to check in on any goals you have set, pivot or set new ones, and plan anything requiring long-range planning.

Now, perhaps you are thinking, yes, Laura, that makes sense, but how do you

know that come the beginning of, say, Q2, you will actually remember to sit down with your list

of annual goals? Well, here's how. Choose check-in dates now. Pull out or pull up your calendar for the year and set times at the beginning of each new season,

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