The Best of 2021

I always enjoy it when people share their favorites - it's a compilation of what really works for people! you'll find a little bit of everything. Here are 21 of my favorites for 2021 as well as a look forward to what I am excited about for 2022:

1. Moments of gratitude: seeing my dad and sister in person again. Thank you science! I think that these past two years have made me realize how precious those relationships are!

2. Streaming Show: Ted Lasso. This AppleTV show remained one of my favorite streaming shows. It’s a feel-good show that really isn’t necessarily about soccer (although it centers around soccer). People are kind to one another and uplift each other and deal with some really difficult things in healthy ways.

3. Network Show: America's Got Talent. I am continually amazed at the talented people who appear on this show, and talent manifests itself in so many forms!

4. Best Lipstick: Buxom Full Force Plumping Lipstick in the color Influencer. I tend to wear lipstick every day, even in the year of Zoom meetings. I love the formula and the color, and I love how it evenly fades.

5. Favorite Podcast: Online Marketing Made Easy. I stopped listening to many podcasts since I no longer commute. I really enjoy this one by Amy Porterfield. She talks about small, online businesses as well as creating online courses to help sustain your business. She always has interesting guests and interesting topics.

6. New Discovery: Happy Planner. I found the Happy Planner systems during the month of December and think it’s a genius concept! I like it because you can move things around and add in your own page layouts. There are some Etsy shops that sell templates that you can print. The flexibility is what makes it so versatile. I have tried different planners and now use a combination of digital and paper.

7. Favorite YouTube Channel: The Organized Money. I found this YouTube channel in December as well, and Alaina uses the Happy Planner system. I’ve been enjoying her approach to how she plans her life, business, finances, learning in her planners. It’s doable. I think she teaches many of the same things that I teach, so I think it’s brilliant how she linked them all together!

8. Best productivity tip: creating routines. There are days when seems like there is more to do than there is time to do it. But I am in the season of life where I have a little more time for me, and I didn’t want to only spend it on watching TV. Routines, specifically my morning routine, have been an amazing way to accomplish what is important to me.

9. Interesting organizing information: Clutter Bug. I always enjoy it when people realize that there is not just one way to do things. Cassandra has created 4 organizational styles and has a quiz to identify your style. She also has a YouTube channel and a show on HGTV called “Hot Mess House”.

10. My favorite blog post: How to Deal with Digital Overload. This was something that I really needed this past year and found the information so interesting that I wanted to share.

11. Most viewed 2021 blog post: How to Say No. I think many of us need this.

12. Blog post with most views in 2021: Canva templates. I wrote this post in 2020 and have this as a pin on Pinterest and had a lot of clicks from this pin. Here's my Pinterest board in case you are interested! https://www.pinterest.com/nicolemsoer.

13. Most useful blog series: Managing Your Energy vs. Managing Your Time, Energy vs. Time: How to Audit Your Energy. Researching this series really helped with what energizes me and when is the best time to work on what.

14. Favorite productivity tool: Pomodoro. I tend to just use the timer part (20 minutes). It helps me when I am trying to manage some negative thoughts around a task I need to do (a.k.a., procrastinating). I still use a timer most days of the week!

15. 2nd favorite productivity tool: phone across the room at night and no phones after 8 PM. I do read on my Kindle, so it’s not all digital. My sleep has improved

16. Best thing I did for me: Farrell's Extreme Body Shaping. I signed up for a 10-week challenge this summer. The term “extreme” never resonated with me, but a friend's results from her own 10-week challenge appealed to me this summer. Turns out the approach isn’t extreme, but what it did for my mental blocks around exercise was extreme 😊.

17. A book that intrigues me: The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter (The Swedish Art of Living & Dying Series). According to the author’s Amazon author information “Margareta Magnusson is, in her own words, aged between 80 and 100.” I helped clean out my parents’ house after my mother passed away and then helped my father downsize from the house to a one-bedroom apartment, so this title speaks to me and is on my list to read this year.

18. Favorite Personal Development book topic: Soundtracks. This book talks about the internal soundtracks that derail our progress in many areas of our life “I’ll never get out of debt.” “I’ve got 10,00 things to do today.” “I’ll always be fat”. “I’m not qualified for this job.” This book gives you tools for recognizing this negative talk as well as taming it and working through it.

19. Favorite professional growth book: The More You Do The Better You Feel by David Parker. This was a powerful book on overcoming procrastination.

20. Favorite App: Growth Day. This personal development app is from Brendon Burchard which is described as a place for “All your habit tracking, journaling, goal planning, courses and life coaching in one place. Because self-improvement should be a way of life.”

21. 2021 – weddings, engagements, graduations, births, gatherings, self-care, jobs, moves. There were some tough things, but there were also some really good things.

For the 22nd item in the list, it's a look forward at things I want to work and improve on for 2022:

• budgeting

• food and exercise for well-aging

• planner systems through all aspects of my life

• intentionality in how I show up daily

• nurturing relationships.

Thank you, dear readers, for reading through this post. I've loved interacting with you and seeing what's important to you, sharing ideas and tips and tricks! I appreciate you! What have been your favorites from 2021? What are your dreams and goals for 2022?