Groundhog Day Resolutions

Tips and Techniques [1401.29]

Groundhog Day Resolutions

David Seah is a blogger and visual designer whose productivity tools and forms (especially his compact calendar) have interested me for a while. But I only recently discovered David has a different take on yearly goal setting.

Instead of making New Year's resolutions on 1/1, his idea is to set aside the last half of December and the entire month of January for catching up on any backlog from the previous year, enjoying and recovering from the holiday season, and reflection. By the time February rolls around, you are mentally recharged, back into the flow of things, and ready to make your Groundhog Day resolutions. Monthly review days are scheduled on the nth day of the nth month. Here is a summary from David's primer:

Calendar

Feb 2    Kick off!     Pick your resolutions and goals.
Mar 3    Review #1     First fruits of your labor!
Apr 4    Review #2     Any progress, however small, is good!
May 5    Review #3     Adjust goals if they have changed.
Jun 6    Review #4     Count your wins, not your losses.
Jul 7    Review #5     Mid-year review! Break for summer.
Aug 8    Review #6     Share with friends and family.
Sep 9    Review #7     Are your results paying off yet?
Oct 10   Review #8     Pick the best chances for success and go!
Nov 11   Review #9     Final push! Stay the course!
Dec 12   Final Review  Final Review Day

What are your resolutions for this year?
What do you desire to be "better" this year?
How can you count what is "better"? More or less of what?
What actions can you take to improve the count in your favor?
Do at least one of those actions every month.
Review according to the schedule above, in a dedicated notebook.

I seem to do all right setting and reviewing goals on an as needed basis, but I'm always interested in self improvement, so I'm going to give this a shot. New Year's resolutions, and indeed most Januarys, tend to be fiasco-prone for me; it's somewhat comforting to know I'm not alone!