Yes it is the beginning of the month already. Here is a sneak peek of the ‘Monthly Nudge’ newsletter heading out to over 13k people on Monday to, you know, keep the important stuff on your To Do list at the top of the pile.

So, how is your list from last month looking? Time to dig it up, check those boxes and get ‘er done. You can do it!

A few updates: Get Your Shit Together will be leading a talk at South by Southwest in Austin on March 12 called The Tangled Web we Leave: Digital Life After Death. It is a huge honor to be invited. I am incredibly excited to be talking about everything from Digital Power of Attorney to should you tweet after you die just because you can? Interesting stuff that impacts us all. I’ll be uploading pictures and highlights all week on the Get Your Shit Together facebook page.

Your March Monthly Nudge Action Items:
-Review your items from last month on your Checklist.
-Check off your completed items. Congratulations, isn’t it satisfying?
-It is tax time soon, so in March review your Money situation and make goals to get your biggest hopes (or worries) taken care of. What are yours? Getting credit cards paid off? Saving More? Finally getting Life Insurance? Make it happen.
-Make a pact with friends! Share via the links above and do it together!

Thank you so much and good luck with your To Do list. You can do it! Keep us posted with your progress and thoughts on here on the blog. I really love hearing from you!

One of the things I’ve learned after a LOT of years project managing things; everyone loves a little reminder, a deadline helps, and sometimes a gentle nudge is the extra kick in the pants y’all need to get ‘er done. So, if you sign up for the email subscription (on the home page) I will direct a nice little push your way around the first of the month to help keep your ‘eye on the prize’ with the important stuff. Oh, and don’t forget to add us to your address book in case of overzealous spam filters.

The February Monthly Nudge highlights:

Welcome to the first ‘Monthly Nudge’ Newsletter. Another way to make sure you are keeping the items on your Get Your Shit Together To Do list at the top of your pile. These will arrive in the beginning of the month for as long as you stay subscribed. A lot has happened since we launched a month go, check out action items, news and notes below. And thanks so much for subscribing, onwards and upwards!

Your Monthly Nudge Action Items: I will check back on your progress!

1) Pull out your Checklist, or get a new Checklist here.
2) Check off your completed items. Congratulations, isn’t it satisfying?
3) Confirm which item(s) you will complete by Valentine’s Day (nothing says ‘I Love You’ like finishing your living will) & make a specific goal for the end of the month.
4) Make a pact with friends and do it together. Share via the links below and invite them!

A huge thank you to CBS for inviting Get Your Shit Together to NYC to share the story with your audience. Gayle and Nora were incredibly warm, thoughtful and welcoming hosts. A very special shout out goes to David Huppert, the most excellent Producer, ever.Thank you so much.

If you missed it, watch the interview that aired Wednesday morning on CBS This Morning.

Pictures from NYC are on our facebook page.

News and Notes:
* Get Your Shit Together will be in Austin for South by Southwest next month. More soon!
* If you missed the additional Digital Power of Attorney interview on CBS News, watch it here.
* More great news to be announced shortly on the Get Your Shit Together Blog. Keep checking back.

Thanks everyone and very best of luck on your February To Do list. You can do it! — Chanel

Just a little 2 weeks ago I announced the launch of a small website, my personal project, through a facebook post to my friends and family. What has happened since then has been overwhelming, to say the least.

That story got shared by friends, who shared with their other friends, and so on, and so on, and so on.

I had hoped The Get Your Shit Together project would be a way for me to get some helpful information I learned back to the friends and family that supported me during a very dark time. That they might avoid some of the unnecessary suffering I went through. And just maybe they would share it with others they know and love.

But, it seems this story, and the content of the site, has struck a chord with many, many people. And just perhaps this is a conversation we want (and need) to have as families and communities. Sharing my ‘get real’ moment was incredibly liberating for me, and from the hundreds of emails you have sent me, and thousands of shares to those you care about, seems to be something we are all ready for. A quick glance at just the ‘numbers’ reassures that we are not alone during our hardest times, that this is the ‘great-leveler’ that impacts all of us:

-The pages of the site have been seen over 575,000 times.
-More than 94,000 of you have downloaded the checklist document.
-Almost 10,000 subscribed to the GYST email newsletter to get a ‘gentle nudge’ each month to keep us on track.

But really, it has been shared by you, via emails to your family and posted to the wall of your facebook page to ripple out even further, to places like Boing Boing, Lifehacker, and ABCnews.com. So thank YOU for getting your own shit together so we can all be healthier and happier people and families.

So, since all of you are in, I am in too, so let’s see what kind of crazy ass-kickery we can really pull off.

Over half of Americans don’t have wills, so I was with the majority group of people when the will I needed was drafted, but not finalized. Thanks to AOL DailyFinance for covering the GYST story and encouraging us to learn from others’ mistakes. While I didn’t defer to my late husband on *all* of the family financial affairs, there were certainly a number of things he knew that I didn’t. Basic stuff like phone and computer passwords, but also big stuff like our policies and 401k accounts, things that really, really sucked tracking down. So, maybe we can learn from others’ mistakes, in this case, mine. Read “Don’t Make My Estate Planning Mistakes“.

Wow. Just Wow. This little site went live last Monday night, since then we have seen hundreds and hundreds of shares on Facebook and had the hugest opportunity to get the word out thanks to Ron Lieber’s NYT article. In the last week I have gotten hundreds and hundreds of emails and stories from all over. I hope you will share some of these incredible and inspirational words from you all here on the blog for all to see and I’ll be posting more ideas, tips and bits here as well. Thank you, everyone, I am so honored. So GYST peeps, how are you getting your shit together?