After the full and exciting holiday season, it can be easy to feel the effects of burnout and the winter blues as a new year begins. School, organization, and planning start to slide when the opposite is what is really needed. You don’t have to succumb to the burnout this year!

Here are 7 ways to re-energize and get the new year off to a great start.

Give yourself permission to not jump full force back into a schedule the week after New Year’s. Start school slowly and plan in a way that will ensure a slower pace for the first week of the new year.

Schedule a little time each week to sit down with your planner and intentionally plot the new week. Do this Saturday or Sunday night before you go to bed or first thing Monday morning as you are spending time with the Lord before the day begins. Let your planner and schedule work for you instead of enslaving you.

Change something up for the winter instead of simply returning to the same schedule and routine, even if it is just one little thing. Rearrange the school day schedule. Choose a new weekly activity to replace an old one. Introduce a new game.

Winter is the perfect time for field trips! Keep a wishlist of destinations in your planner. At the beginning of each month, pick two or more destinations from the list and plan your field trips dates.

If you notice signs of lethargy, boredom, attention problems, or agitation in your children, consider that they might just be struggling like you are. Discuss together what might spice up the school day.

It is often easier than we think to fit a normal, five-day school week into four days, even if your state law requires five days of school. Spend four days focusing on the essentials like math and language arts. Then, spend the fifth day enjoying electives, educational extracurricular activities, and field trips.

Instead of only evaluating your schedule, planner, and homeschool as the school year draws to a close, start the calendar year with the same evaluation. Go ahead and consider what is and is not working, and make tweaks and changes as needed to breathe new life into your days.

Some personalities love the challenge of tweaking a school schedule while others prefer to find other ways to stay motivated. Take our Planner Personality Quiz to discover what your planner personality strengths are.