If you’ve been thinking, “I want to get my life together,” maybe because you’re stuck in a rut, and you’re tired of seeing everyone having it going well for them, but you feel like your life sucks at the moment.
You’re overwhelmed and stressed, and it feels like you’re far from the person you want to be (your future self).
Your future self is why you wake up each day trying to give life another shot.
If you’re feeling this way, I promise it’s okay.
Recognizing the need to get your life together is the first step in getting back on track and becoming the person you desire.
I digress!
Most people associate this desire to get their lives together with depressing times, such as after a breakup, health and financial challenges, and other negative feelings.
But if you look at it differently, it’s also a sign that the universe is setting you up for the next level, a new season to become a new you.
I have been down this road. And you don’t have to do this alone.
Hence, I’ve put together this “How to get your life together checklist” to help you take simple yet powerful steps to become your best self.
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you. Kindly read the full disclosure here.
First, What does “Get your life together” mean?
Getting your life together means taking intentional steps to define what’s not working for you, making changes to get back on track, and reorganizing your life so that you can thrive better.
It involves hitting the reset button on your life, getting organized, setting goals, and focusing on the things that matter most to you.
And there’s no age that’s too early or too late to hit the reset button and start over to improve your well-being.
So, if you’re scared about taking this step, know that it’s okay, and your future self will thank you for making this bold decision.
Without further ado, these are steps for getting your life together.
How to Get Your Life Together Checklist
Here are 20 things to do differently to get your life together as soon as possible at any age without being overwhelmed.
1 . Evaluate and Take Stock of Your Life
Before you start making physical adjustments to get your life back together, evaluate your life and take stock of where you’re at.
What’s working for you, what’s not working, who you are now, and be completely honest with yourself.
I recommend getting a journal or a notebook for this and asking yourself these tough but honest questions.
For example, I keep a journal of my goals, and weekly, I do a brain dump to “get everything in my head out” about how I feel about my current situation and habits.
I call myself out on my “BS”—excuse my language.
When evaluating your life, this is not a time to criticize and talk down on yourself but to truly reflect in the most honest way possible.
Searching for ways to get your life together without evaluating your current situation makes the process void of your experience.
This will only lead to creating a checklist based on other people’s experiences.
2. Define the Girl You want to be
After evaluating where you’re at, it’s time to define who you want to be in the next year, five years from now.
What would your future self look like?
Will she buy impulsively, have a wardrobe filled with clutter, and live a life filled with debts, toxic friends, and unhealthy relationships, or is she in the worst shape?
Or Will your future self be stable, happy, love herself wholeheartedly, and confident and achieve her goals daily?
Picture the person you want to become living her best life, and be clear on the type of person you wish to become.
- Who is this person?
- What does this person do for a living?
- What does she eat daily?
- When does your ideal person wake up?
- What type of relationship would this person be?
- How will this person treat herself when faced with unhealthy, toxic relationships?
- Where does she spend time? With whom?
- How would this person approach her goals?
- What kind of clothes and makeup would this person put on?
- What is her self-care routine?
- Is this person confident and self-aware?
These questions will help you know who you hope to become on a stalker level.
When you clearly know who you want to become, you can work your way back and build better habits that help you achieve.
3. List of Areas of Improvement
After following steps one and two of this “get your life together” checklist, you’ll recognize where you are and who you want to be.
The next step is to recognize the areas for improvement.
What is the gap between who you are and your future self?
List goals and improvements you can make for each area of life that will make you happier and more empowered.
By doing this, you’ll have a handy guide to create a plan to get your life together that is yours.
We have 7-12 core areas of life to set goals for balance.
Includes physical, health, emotional, financial, social, educational, career/work, family and relationships, etc
Read this blog post to learn everything about the 12 areas of life and goal ideas to set.
That said, please note that the idea of balancing every area of life can be overwhelming, and in the end, you may give up halfway.
Instead, select one or two core areas of life that will impact you most and work on them.
Choose areas that will make the most significant impact in your life.
Before deciding this, consider where you are and the season of your life.
For example, I’m in the season of wanting to improve my finances.
With a balance in my financial life, I can travel, contribute to social causes, give better in my relationships, maintain my health, etc.
This area largely influences other areas for me.
This will change when I enter other seasons of life, like building a family, but at the moment, growing my business and improving my finances are at the top of the list.
For the next person, it may be changing jobs, upskilling, starting a new business, or working on your health more seriously, glowing up your physical looks.
You have to figure out what’s IMPORTANT to you. That way, you can determine what area to work on and, eventually, the best goals to help you get your life together.
4. Set New Goals
Now that you know the areas you want to improve to get your life together, the next step is to set goals to become the person you desire.
With this step, you already have an idea of who your future self will be, and all you need to do is walk back to achieve the goals you desire.
Before the new year, I envisioned that my future self this year would be healthy and spend most of her time indoors since I work from home.
She would dress in a way that makes her happy and quit leaving the house without caring about her looks.
She’s making passive income with multiple revenue streams and is spiritually grounded.
Also, in a committed relationship that is non-toxic, peaceful, and makes her safe. She got her first property this year.
After doing this in a journal, setting new goals becomes much easier.
Use the 80 /20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle. This concept suggests that, in many situations, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.
The idea is to focus your energy and resources on the most impactful activities (20%) that generate the most significant results (80%).
To get your life back together, you’ll set and achieve actionable financial, physical, mental, emotional, health, and relationship goals.
Some examples of goals to set;
- If you struggle with self-love, you’ll want to set goals like
- Eat more greens, less carb, and get into portion control
- Walk at least 10000 steps daily or 3 times weekly (depending on your schedule and commitment).
- Invest 1000 dollars monthly each week; you’ll set aside $250.
- Complete an online certification course related to your career within 3 months.
- Meditate for 10 minutes daily before bed for the next month.
Setting goals based on the areas of life you want to improve helps you define your ideal outcome.
These are steps to set goals to Get Your Life Together
Get clear on what you truly want to achieve: Instead of setting ambiguous goals like “be healthier,” make your goals clear and specific.
For example, I’ll exercise three times weekly, and I’ll eat only home-cooked meals.
Make your Goals SMART: Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
A common mistake people make when setting goals is writing down their big goals without a plan to achieve them.
A goal without a plan is a wish.
For instance, if you want to set a smart goal to build $2000 in emergency funds in 6 months, you’ll plan this goal using a smart goal system.
Specific: Instead of saying, build an emergency fund. You’ll specify build $2000 emergency funds in 6 months.
Measurable: I’ll save $334 monthly and track my progress using a savings tracker.
Achievable: Set up automatic savings to ensure I save this money. Use features like safe lock if you use a banking app.
Cut back on unnecessary spending like eating out, unplanned shopping, and recurrent streaming subscriptions.
Relevant: State clearly why achieving that goal will affect your life. I will not have a safety net for rainy days without an emergency fund.
Time-Bound: Complete within 6 months.
This is a rough example. Use it as a guide to set actionable goals that you can follow through to get your life together.
5. Create a Vision Board
When you set goals on paper and don’t have a system for revisiting them, you may often lose track of what’s important.
Having a vision board helps you visualize the person you want to become. It’s also a motivation tool, enabling you to focus your energy and fuel your desire to manifest your desires.
I create vision boards for almost any big goal I want to achieve, in addition to the yearly vision board.
You can create a digital or physical vision board. Go with whatever works for you.
I love to create both physical and digital vision boards.
However, to avoid procrastinating, I recommend you create a digital vision board immediately after setting your goals. You can save it as wallpaper on your phone and computer and even print it.
In my opinion, printing and framing your digital vision board is easier.
You don’t need to worry about searching for old magazines to create the traditional vision board, where you need to glue things together.
I use Canva to create digital vision boards. There, you can find an assortment of vision board templates in Canva.
Get Canva Pro for free for 30 days today!
Quick hack: use vision board quotes and affirmations to make your vision board more powerful.
Want more affirmations to boost your Mindset? Download our free Digital and Printable Affirmation Cards
6. Declutter
One of the most important steps in getting your life is decluttering every aspect.
Removing what’s not necessary is a must.
It involves removing the old things, possessions, habits, and relationships that no longer serve you.
Ask yourself this question:
- How would the person I’m trying to become (your future self) live?
- What kind of environment would she have?
- What would be in her closets?
- What type of relationship or friendship would she have around her?
- What would be her fashion style, credit, and financial habits?
- Would she buy impulsively or plan her finances?
- Will she subscribe to more than one streaming platform?
When you have a clear vision of who you want to be, it is easier to declutter unnecessary things.
Decluttering helps you reset, refocus, and remove distractions.
When you eliminate unnecessary things that take up space in your life and environment, you invite more clarity, productivity, and peace into your life.
To declutter, start small and work your way through.
Things to declutter when getting your life together:
- Unfollow social media accounts that no longer serve you
- Sort clothes into dispose of, donate, recycle, and Keep
- Declutter your emails and unsubscribe from newsletters you haven’t opened in the last 1 month.
- Sort through your digital files, delete duplicates or outdated documents, and organize them into clear folders.
- Unsubscribe from streaming platforms you rarely use.
- Get rid of things at home that you have multiple of (for example, different brands of makeup — same products).
- Let go of toxic relationships and relationships, negative thoughts and limiting beliefs, anger, regrets, and old goals.
In this blog post, you’ll find things to declutter to simplify your life.
7. Organize your Life
After decluttering and removing unnecessary items to create space for what’s important, it’s time to organize your life.
You should organize your physical environment, home, work, relationships, health, business, and goals, among other things.
For someone like me, I don’t function properly in a cluttered and unorganized environment. First, break down your life into smaller categories to help you tackle each area without feeling overwhelmed.
Categories such as:
- Mind and space
- Time and productivity
- Travel
- Work-life and workspace
- Your digital life
- Finances
- Home and physical environment
- Health and self-care
- Social life and relationships
- Your emails and notifications.
When you break down all areas of your life into categories, organizing each section becomes much easier.
Often, people make the mistake of wanting to organize everything in a day to get their lives together.
Another good way to do this is to do a 30-day challenge, where each day, you pick little tasks from your checklist of things to organize and work your way through it until you wrap up.
In this blog post, read the step-by-step guide to organize your whole life without feeling overwhelmed.
8. Get Your Life Together Financially
Your finances are one of the most important categories of this getting your life together a checklist.
Because the financial area of life affects and quickly ripples into other areas of life.
When you have control of your financial life, you reduce stress and constant money worries, build wealth, and feel more confident about your future.
Being financially stable, it becomes easy to make decisions in other aspects of life and achieve your goals.
To get your financial life together;
- Track your income and expenses. Knowing how you make and spend each cent makes it easier to make financial decisions.
- Be clear on your financial responsibilities and goals. Are you paying off debt, saving, investing, building emergency and retirement funds?
- Use the 50/30/20 rule, where 50% of your income goes toward needs (like rent and utilities), 30% goes to wants (like dining out or entertainment, shopping, and traveling), and you save and invest 20%.
- Cancel unwanted subscriptions.
- For business owners, if you can, go for one-time subscriptions instead of recurring subscriptions.
Also, adjust your money habits to fit the core area of life you’re working on.
9. Build Better Habits & Routines
Your daily habits vote for the kind of person you want to become.
Building better habits and routines is one of my favorite tips in this get your life together checklist.
Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your identity. This is why habits are crucial – James Clear.
Because our habits form our identity, who we are and will ultimately become depends on our daily habits, how we spend our time, and who we spend our time with.
If you discover you’re a procrastinator during your evaluation process while learning how to get your life together.
I know you want to get into action. However, now is not the time to create an overwhelming list of things to do.
Instead, incorporate new habits like making your bed immediately after waking up.
When you make your bed first thing in the morning, it tricks your brain and gives you the satisfaction of getting something done, which will fuel you up to take on other tasks.
Making your bed every morning is correlated with better productivity, a greater sense of well-being, and stronger skills at sticking with a budget.”― Charles Duhigg.
Or use the 5-minute rule, in which you set a timer for 5 minutes to commit to working on a task you’ve been avoiding. After the timer goes off, you can stop if you don’t feel like continuing.
Instead of making tasks look daunting with long to-do lists, use this rule to handle tasks you procrastinate on.
If you want to get your life together today, you need to start acting like the person you want to become.
So, how will you identify the habits that will help you get your life together and become a better version of yourself?
First, make a list of good habits that this person you want to become will possess and bad habits you need to let go of to become that person.
For example, let’s assume you want to be an online business owner who is productive, practices self-care, and is in her soft feminine era.
She slays her goals and lives intentionally without seeking validation from others.
Habits this person would possess would be.
- Goes to bed early and gets at least hours of sleep
- She’ll have a super healthy morning routine for self-care
- She has a good financial education, saves and invests money
- Sets healthy boundaries and says no when needed.
- She’s confident and self-aware.
- Pays attention to her appearance
- Plan and stick to her to-do list, and make sure to get tasks done.
After listing the habits your future self would possess, you’ll also evaluate yourself and list the bad habits you need to quit to become this person.
Possible bad habits you may possess.
- Stop going to bed late, and also quit not having a night routine.
- Avoid touching your phone first thing in the morning, and quit mindless scrolling on social media
- Quit comparing yourself to others
- Being a procrastinator with an endless to-do list
- Quit unhealthy and unmindful eating
- Lacks self-confidence and quit victim mentality.
One common mistake people make when building new habits is trying to change too many things at once.
Instead, start with habits requiring minimum effort but more significant impact, like using the 80/20 rule, but this time for habits.
Also, start small, focus on consistency, and make your habit easy to achieve.
And in all, be kind and gracious to yourself.
10. Appearance
How would your future self dress? One rule I apply when buying new clothing is, “If I’m not wearing it in 1–5 years, don’t buy it.”
If you habitually shop for trendy outfits, your closets will overflow with clothes you don’t wear.
Imagine if you invested a bit of that money in something else.
Build a capsule wardrobe that matches your aesthetics instead of buying trendy outfits that go out of season.
I love elegant, feminine, chic, and old-money outfits because that is how I envisioned my future self to dress.
Your appearance is essential to becoming confident and walking into the room with your shoulders high.
Kindly note that this is not about being superficial. It’s about taking intentional steps to become your best self.
- Go for elegant, clean makeup looks.
- Wear clothes and colors that are perfect for you. I mean clothes that complement your body, not work against it.
- Take your manicure and pedicure seriously, and Keep your nails clean. It’s okay if you don’t like wearing artificial nails.
- Avoid going around with messy hair.
- Take supplements for your skin.
- Drink lots of water.
11. Fix Your Posture
Fixing your posture may be different from the things you expect to read on a how to get your life together checklist.
Your posture affects your self-confidence, appearance, and, most importantly, your health.
If you work from home, you need to be intentional about your posture, especially when sitting for a long time.
I struggled with this once I started using Momentum Dash to track the time I spend and take short breaks.
12. Get in Shape and Invest in Your Wellness
Who is this person you’re trying to become? How would this person look? Is this person a size 10? Size 14?
Will this person take her fitness, health, and well-being seriously? Would she go to the gym, do yoga, etc.?
Remember how we listed the areas of life you want to work on. If fitness is one of the areas you want to improve to get your life together, then consider fitness goals like:
- Take 10,000 steps daily
- Go to the gym at least 3x daily
- Use portion control to help you stick to a daily calorie intake.
- Eat high-protein meals and fewer carbs
- Join wellness communities and programs.
- Do yoga
- Practice mindfulness and calmness daily.
- Get 8 hours of sleep
- Journal daily: I swear by journaling.
- Go for therapy if needed.
13. Build Better Nutrition
Taking your nutrition seriously as a woman is one lesson I’ve learned (thank God, not painfully).
What you eat affects your hormones. I’ve seen this play out with my menstruation, even mood, etc.
Your nutrition is essential, and you can’t wholly your life together without organizing and creating better and healthier eating habits and nutrition.
To get your nutrition together, first, create a meal plan, go grocery shopping, and prep your meals weekly.
Prepping and planning meals weekly helps you eat more home-cooked meals and less fast food.
Eat more vegetables (the rainbow).
Also, speak with your dietician about what meals will help you achieve your nutrition and health goals faster.
Lately, I’ve been implementing the Japanese “Hara Hachi Bun Me” rule: I eat until I’m about 80% full, instead of eating until I become bloated.
14. Self Care
You can’t truly get your life together if you’re running empty on Self-care and self-love.
First, the courage to recognize that something in your life needs fixing comes from self-awareness.
To become fully self-aware, you must first accept yourself wholeheartedly, understand that you’re a work in progress, and unconditionally fall in love with yourself.
Although self-care is one area of life that gets much attention online, how many people intentionally do good things for their souls, void of societal pressure?
You don’t need high-end skincare products. It’s about consistently showing up for yourself in ways that keep you feeling good and grounded.
For self-care, I highly recommend having a morning and evening routine — this is life-changing.
Most people prefer having a morning routine over an evening routine, but both are as important.
Your morning routine affects your day, while your evening routine affects how you sleep, when you wake up, and how you wake up.
Your routine doesn’t have to be complex.
However, for both morning and evening routines, include at least one activity that brings you joy in life.
Create a self-care menu for your daily self-care needs.
Find new hobbies, go on solo dates, and love yourself wholeheartedly.
15. Have a 360 Mindset Makeover
Building a healthy mindset is not optional if you want to get your life together.
What do you think? How do you see yourself? What are your beliefs? Do you have limiting beliefs that prevent you from becoming the person you desire? Limiting beliefs such as;
- I am never enough
- I can’t do anything right
- I’m not as intelligent as “this person.”
- Constantly comparing yourself to others
- Always playing the victim in every situation
- Feeling unworthy and undeserving
- Your life is full of sorrow and less sunshine.
Constantly thinking and feeling like a victim of circumstance will only lead to more depressing thoughts.
Cultivating a positive mindset and seeing yourself as the person you want to become is an important step in achieving your life goals.
You need to feel, act, and think like this person.
You’re powerful and can change your life. You’re worthy and capable of doing anything you set your mind to.
Start taking responsibility for your actions and letting go of the victim mindset.
Build a gratitude mindset.
16. Change your Environment
Most people often downplay the importance of our environment
when getting their lives together.
However, your physical environment goes a long way in influencing the type of person you become.
Your environment determines the type of energy you have around you.
If you want to attract more positive energy into your life, you need to incorporate little things that bring warmth and give you a sense of meaning and belonging.
How would this person you want to become live? What would their room look like? Cluttered, organized, minimalist, vibrant? Will this person keep houseplants? Own a home garden?
I thrive in a calm, peaceful, and organized environment.
This helps me focus on myself and connect with my creative side. I would never function properly in a rowdy, toxic environment.
It is important to note that your environment influences your habits, and you should organize and design it to work for you, not against you.
If you want to drink more water, fill water bottles and place them randomly around your apartment where you’d typically use them daily.
Keep a bottle of water at the bedside, the dining table, the workspace, the kitchen, and the dining table in the parlor, and even there, you’ll find yourself inking more water.
In the same way, if you have to go to the kitchen every time you need to drink water, you’ll drink less water daily.
“You don’t need willpower whenever you’re trying to change your behavior. You need discipline to design an environment where willpower isn’t necessary.” — James Clear.
17. Get Your Relationship and Social Life Together
The people you have around you can help you become the person you desire or can also attract negative energy, pushing you back into a rut.
One of the steps I mentioned in this How to get your life together checklist is decluttering — decluttering relationships no longer serve you.
Whether platonic, romantic, or friendship, if it always causes you heartaches and problems and makes you feel insecure, unloved, unworthy, and constantly doubting yourself, then it’s time to let go.
For example, if you have a friend whose only interest whenever you’re together is gossiping, you may need to keep that person at arm’s length.
Build thriving relationships with people who have similar goals and drive aspirations as you.
People who possess high-vibration energy are like walking rays of sunshine.
In the end, I hope you find your own person (people) and understand that you deserve a healthy relationship that is assuring, preserving, secure, and warm and that helps you become the girl you desire to be.
Be sure you’re in a relationship with others from a place of peace and not need or insecurities.
If you’re heartbroken, insecure, or jealous, instead of building new friendships, get your life together and work on yourself before bringing someone new into your life.
Set aside time to create memories with the people who matter most. Be clear on boundaries; don’t force things when they’re not working.
18. Set Boundaries
Boundaries don’t make relationships with others difficult.
In fact, boundaries make your relationship with others and even yourself healthier.
Set boundaries and understand that you don’t need to show up everywhere every time.
And it’s totally okay to say, “No, I can’t. This won’t be possible today. Oh, there’s no space for this in my schedule.”
If you’re a people-pleaser, start learning how to prioritize yourself. Otherwise, you’ll end up overwhelmed and overworked, showing up for everyone but yourself.
A typical pattern is always showing up for events and parties where you receive late invites.
Sometimes, there are 30 minutes to the event, and you’ll drop all your planned activities, knowing that this could affect your goals.
As a recovered people-pleaser, take it from me: there’s so much freedom and peace in saying No.
If you struggle with saying, this should be the first habit to unlearn when using this checklist.
19. Be Self Aware and Have a System for Assessing Yourself
Become self-aware and know yourself on a stalker level.
To become self-aware, you need to be honest with yourself.
What truly matters to you? What are your core values? Who triggers you? What makes you work harder, and what makes you abandon your goals?
The worst form of deceit is self-deceit — lying to yourself about everything, including your current situation.
Becoming a better version of yourself is impossible when you’re not entirely honest with yourself.
If you do everything on this “how to get your life together” checklist, you’ll change your life and make self-improvements before you realize it.
However, to see consistent change and avoid relapse to who you were, you need to create systems for tracking, self-assessment, and accountability.
Assuming you organize your home while getting your life together, you’ll have an unorganized apartment again if you don’t put things back in place after using them before the end of the day.
Conversely, if you don’t learn to turn down offers not serving you, you’ll soon return to feeling overwhelmed and hopelessly people-pleasing again.
Use simple self-evaluation tools like journaling; you can include this in your morning or night routine to evaluate yourself.
Another helpful tip is consistently practicing weekly reflection, monthly reset routines, and quarterly and yearly life audits.
Create a reward system and give yourself a treat every time you hit to achieve your goals.
20. Upskill and Invest in Personal Development
What skills can help you achieve goals for the areas of life you want to improve? What skills would your future self possess?
At the beginning of this blog post on getting your life together, one of the first steps is being clear on the person you want to become.
Now, define where you’re at and what would help you get there.
For example, will this person be living outside their country of birth? What language would be important? Other areas include career, life, family, and relationships.
What areas of your life need a little work and upskilling? Then, invest in those areas.
It could even involve talking to a therapist about your mental health, getting into a caching program to learn about strategies to grow your business, or attending wellness retreats.
Create time in your daily routine to learn something new. It could be reading one chapter of a book or listening to a podcast on the go.
The goal is to learn new skills that will help you become better.
Intentionally investing in self-improvement helps you become a more capable, confident, and fulfilled version of yourself.
Every skill you learn and habit you cultivate brings you closer to the person you want to become.
Final Thoughts on Getting Your Life Together Checklist
Take it slow and steady, whether you want to get your life together because it’s part of your new resolutions, you’re overwhelmed and need a fresh start, or you want to reinvent yourself.
Be honest with yourself and honor your needs.
You know what your heart yearns for.
Also, it helps build a more positive mindset when approaching difficult situations.
Focus on small actions that have a more significant impact.
You don’t have to do all these in a month; you can set a six-month goal to get your entire life together.
I hope you do more things that vote for the kind of person your future self would be so proud of.
Read More of My Best Self Growth Tips to Get your Life Together
- How to Be That Girl this Year (Ultimate Guide + Free Checklist)
- 100 Best Manifestation Journal Prompts to Attract Your Dream Life
- How to Wake Up Early at 5 Am Every Day and Not Feel Tired (Step by Steps)
- 15 Best Steps on How to Journal for Self Growth & Better Yourself
- 12 Areas of Life Balance and Goals to Optimize Yours for Growth
- What is Lucky Girl Syndrome: 70 Lucky Girl Syndrome Affirmations
- 30 Clear Signs Of High Vibration Persons (What to Look for)
- How to Level Up in Life:19 Easy Steps for Leveling up this year
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