One of my favorite things to do between Christmas day and New Year’s is to review the past year and plan for the year to come. My first step in that process this year is to look at my “22 for 22” list.

Gretchen Rubin, one of today’s most influential and thought-provoking observers of happiness and human nature and a highly acclaimed writer says, “It’s helpful to create a prompt—such as a “22 for 22” list—that spurs us to reflect on our lives, and how we might become happier, healthier, more productive, or more creative.” Since list-making is my jam, I tried this out for myself and found the list to be a good source of accountability to stop procrastinating and actually get some larger tasks done. I tried to vary my items to include items referred to by Gretchen, with things to push me forward in health, creativity, relationships, and the practical day-to-day of running a home. This, my inaugural year, finds me having completed 16 and two half items out of the 22. Not too shabby.

Bubba asked how I could possibly have completed two halves and I explained: One item was to get passports for everyone in the family, but we only got KB’s. The process has started for Honey and me to renew ours, but it isn’t done and won’t be in 2022. I consider that a half-done item. I also had “Weekly lunch dates with Jeremy” on the list and we did have a lot of lunches; we did not have 52 weekly lunches. Bubba’s monotone response was that “having lunch every week seems a bit ambitious.” He is right, of course, and that will be taken into account when I plan 23 for 23!

Another observation I made has to do with the space I left blank. Gretchen’s sister joins her weekly on their podcast, Happier, and she is a bit more of a free spirit. She likes to leave one space blank to add an item as time passes and she sees a need arise. That sounded smart to me but looking back I found I didn’t ever write anything in. That’s not to say there’s nothing I did that can go in that spot, but I might just try to fill all 23 spaces for the next year and adapt as I go … like I did with changing “52 Blog Posts” to “Edit a Book.”

I’m excited about creating a new list for the new year and have already begun brainstorming what I might put on it. One item I know is going on there is updating the contacts on my phone! I plan to delete, condense, add photos, etc. and it’s going to be beautiful! I got a head start this month by using a tip learned by @brunchwithbabs: when I received a Christmas card I checked the address in my phone and took a picture of the family photo to add to the contact! Brilliant idea and a great motivator to continue in the days ahead.

What are you hoping to accomplish in 2023? If you are interested in this idea, you can listen to Gretchen and her sister discuss it in more detail in episodes 359 and 407 of Happier.