Conquer 2023 - here's how Dropbox can help you kickstart your year

[Graham]

Now that the dust has settled on the holidays, it’s time to start thinking about the year ahead. We’re big fans of January here on the Dropbox Community Forum, it’s a great time for change, new beginnings, thinking big and getting excited for the upcoming year!

We’re sure most of you already have some sort of New Year’s plans in place — whether it’s a simple resolution, a big lifetime event, goals that you’ve set, or a plan for full global domination. Whatever way you plan to grab 2023 by the horns, we’re pretty sure you’ll be able to use Dropbox to help keep your plans organized and on-track. Here are a few ways you could kickstart your year with Dropbox.

Get more organized in work

Personally, I want to try to organize my work day a little better and keep on top of all of my to-dos with military precision this year. I’ll be using Dropbox Paper to help me with this. Every week, I’ll create a new grid, with a column for every day of the week. Each of these columns will then have 3 rows, one for morning, one for afternoon and one for evening. Here, I’ll be making lists of everything I’ll be working on throughout the day and arranging it, depending on priority, into different days and times. This will allow me to organize my weekly workflow and make sure I keep on top of everything, from the mundane daily tasks to the big important projects.

Below my weekly grid, I’ll have 2 lists, my to-dos and my deadlines. The to-dos will be for actions I take away from meetings or anything else that pops up that’s not in my normal workflow and could otherwise go under the radar. My deadlines will be for anything at all that’s time dependent, whether it’s attending a meeting, submitting a report or finishing up a project. Then, at the end of the week, I can collapse it down and move onto the next week, leaving me with a pretty substantial record of what I’ve been working on at any given time.

Moving house

Moving house is a pretty stressful experience at the best of times, add a really competitive rental market and record high rent prices (like we’re currently experiencing here in Dublin) into the mix and it gets even worse. One way to try and make this a little easier is by renting a property with a couple of housemates, but to do this takes a lot of cooperation and synchronization. 

If you see a house you want, you need to be ready to move on it straight away and there are a lot of documents you need to have at hand to help get ahead of the competition. You’ll need passports, payslips, references, contact details and anything else a landlord may ask for. A shared folder on Dropbox means that you and all your potential housemates can have all of these things saved in one place, with easy access, so you’re always ready to make the first move after a property viewing. You can see more of how @Amy, our very own Community legend, used Dropbox when moving a couple of years ago here.

Get your study on

If you’re a student or planning to return to education in 2023, having all your files, study notes and assignments saved in a secure and accessible place is really important. It will make your student life a whole lot easier if you know you can pull up a document, save some notes or get a reading done on the go, no matter whether you have your PC, laptop, tablet or phone. 

Group projects are another challenging part of life as a student. With shared Paper docs you can make sure your entire team have access to the exact same information at all times, so there’s no excuse for the lazy one, and there’s always one. Document history will even ensure you never need to worry about anyone “accidentally” deleting their work. Find out more about how our very own @Alex used Dropbox in school here.

Plan a trip

For me, part of the beauty of January is planning a trip. Whether it’s a short city break or a longer trip somewhere sunny (we don’t see too much of the sun in Dublin), I always organize a trip away at the start of the year. It gives me something to look forward to and can be great motivation for some of the other goals I set myself. There are a million ways to use Dropbox when planning a trip, whether it’s a list of what to pack, making an itinerary or documenting all the photos you take, you can do it all with Dropbox.

If you’re planning a trip with a group, a shared Paper doc is an ideal way to make sure everyone has all the information they need. Flight times, hotel name, restaurant recommendations, anything that’s important, simply add it to the doc and everyone will be able to find it when they need it. You’ll enjoy yourself a lot more, when you know everyone’s on the same page. See how Dropbox’s @Susan meticulously plans her trips here. 

Whatever your plans for the year ahead may be, we really hope you get everything done and smash your goals. If you plan to use Dropbox to help, or if you’ve found it helpful with any plans you’ve made before, we’d love to hear about them so please let us know below!

[Amy]

Love this @Graham! Totally agree, and I am a firm believer in the power of a fresh notebook to match a fresh outlook, and Paper can really help to keep me accountable on that! While a new notebook might end up sitting on a shelf by February (please don't judge), tags and dates within a Paper doc mean I actually stick with my new intentions, and don't end up with resolution remorse.  

[OscarPolk]

Thanks for sharing your ideas with us.

[Graham]

HI @OscarPolk,

Thanks for visiting the Dropbox Community and for your response. I'm really glad you liked the suggestions I made. Do you think you will be using any of them to help kickstart your 2023? Or, do you have any tips of your own that you would like to share with us?

Thanks again, and have a great day!

Graham

[josephhogan009]

Thanks for the info.

[Graham]

Hi @josephhogan009,

Welcome to the Dropbox Community. You're very welcome. I hope you've had a great start to 2023. If you found any of the points in the thread helpful when making plans, or if you've got a couple of your own tips that you would like to share, we'd love to hear them!

Thanks, and have a great day.

Graham