Welcome to the new year! Our daughter and family flew back to Minnesota on Sunday. Our first week of January transitioned from our holiday fun to returning to normal. It’s been refreshing to restore a bit of order every day.

I looked through my past January posts and decided I wanted to write something that wouldn’t overwhelm you. If you spend January in reflection and at a slower pace, save my ideas for February.

Your January Guide: Part 1 of 4

Pick and choose from this post what is important to you. I planned this series in a logical order but of course, switch time frames to fit your life. The highlighted items will help you discover what you want to add to your to-do list.

At the bottom of these four posts, I will list some of the topics in the rest of the series so you know what’s coming up.

MPD*

Did you check out the Annual MPD Plan on Workspace that came out yesterday? It’s a calendar plan for every week of the year (the link only works for Cru staff).

I’ll avoid duplicating what is in that document (I was happy to see a task for sending Valentines to widows).

The Annual MPD Plan suggests creating a prayer calendar insert. I’ll be considering this. It’s been decades since we’ve done bookmark-style inserts. Now, half of our donors receive our prayer letters through MailChimp. Please write me if you have found effective ways to help your financial partners know your prayer needs.

I’m sure you’re still working on EOYA* tasks.

• I’ll be finishing up thank you notes and emails this week and next.
• I need to double-check that all donations are accounted for.

Time-constrained

For decades, I have addressed birthday and anniversary cards on the 25th for the next month. Since that was Christmas day, I haven’t addressed January’s cards yet. I’ll do that this week.

Mike and I will make plans for our July travel schedule and flights this month.

Miscellaneous

Things happen.

Yesterday, I was reminded to submit a December reimbursement to clear my staff card.

Today, I learned my BCBS card is not in my wallet and that I need to create a login as a spouse (see Workplace post.)

Keep some wiggle room in your week to handle these unplanned things or put them in your calendar for when you will take care of them. See you next week!

NOTES:

• MPD is Ministry Partner Development
• EOYA is End of Year Ask
• The planned series:
  • Part 1
    • Finish up EOYA tasks
    • Address January greeting cards if you haven’t done so.
  • Part 2
    • Make a year plan for prayer letters. Start your January letter.
    • Start your reimbursement spreadsheet for the year.
    • Start a digital folder for your medical PDF files.
  • Part 3
    • Make financial MPD plans.
    • Make correspondence MPD plans.
    • Finish prayer letter.
  • Part 4
    • Update the Reminder System on the StaffWeb
    • Update thank-you note wording for the year.
    • Create thank-you note story insert.
• Photo by Anna Evans on Unsplash