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The New Year is fast approaching, and it’s up to you, right now, to decide:
Will this year be better than the last?
You’re probably familiar with making New Year’s Resolutions. You’re probably equally familiar with breaking them.
Throw all those yesteryears out the window. This guide is going to show you how to make New Year’s Resolutions that you will actually achieve, and more importantly, it’s going to give you the tools you need to REALLY achieve them this time!
Remember: freedom — and achievement — comes from organization.
The #1 reason why people don’t achieve their resolutions is because their resolutions weren’t really resolutions at all.
It’s no secret around here that I’m big on goal-setting. However, New Year’s Resolutions are a very specific kind of goal.
A New Year’s Resolution has to meet the following criteria:
Forgetting the criteria I just mentioned for a moment, make a list of any and all goals you think you might want to achieve next year. Don’t worry about details; just list as many things as you can think of.
Try to brainstorm at least a goal or two in every area of your life. Don’t just focus on losing weight and quitting smoking. Consider new hobbies, your personal relationships, your reading habits, your educational status, and so on.
In the free printable version, there’s a goal-generating worksheet for you to use.
Out of all your potential goals, choose five. (Six if you must.)
(Keep that goal brainstorming worksheet, though! Maybe you’ll want to embark on a 101 Goals in 1,001 Days adventure…)
Don’t pick five goals from the same topic area. We all want to improve our financial situation, but five resolutions to spend less and earn more ignore the many other important aspects of life.
Referring back to the definition of the perfect New Year’s Resolution, it’s time to transform your five goals into five iron-clad resolutions.
Be creative and try to incorporate two or more goals into a single resolution.
(You can always return to your goal brainstorming worksheet if you wind up whittling your resolutions down in this way.)
For example:
Lousy: “Lose weight”
Better: “Lose 20lbs”
Good: “Weigh 134lbs naked on the morning of December 31″
Awesome: “Run three miles without stopping wearing XXS Aerie sweatpants”
The awesome version of this resolution not only incorporates two common goals — losing weight and exercising more — into one, but it also focuses on one of the real reasons we want to lose weight: to fit into a smaller clothing size. It doesn’t matter what number the scale shows if your pants won’t fit!
Another example:
Lousy: “Save money”
Better: “Save $1,000″
Good: “Have $1,000 in an ING savings account on December 31″
Awesome: “Earn $1,000 in AdSense revenue from a blog, put it in an ING savings account, and don’t spend a penny of it”
A vague resolution is just begging to be crossed off before you stayed true to the original spirit of the goal. You could technically “save $1,000″ from your paycheck on Friday for two days and then spend it all on Monday. The awesome version of this resolution is awesome because it focuses on building a passive income stream, and it specifies that you don’t spend any of the new income.
Repeat this resolution-refining process until you have five perfectly-tuned New Year’s Resolutions!
For each resolution, you’ll need to make as detailed a roadmap as possible guiding you from where you are today to where you’ll need to be in order to declare the resolution a success.
Every step needs to be so basic that your fifth grade niece could read it and have a pretty good grasp of what needs to get done.
You might not be able to map out the latter end of the journey right now. That’s okay. The important thing is that you have at least one action step that you can take RIGHT NOW towards each of your resolutions.
For example, for the goal “Earn $1,000 in AdSense revenue from a blog, put it in an ING savings account, and don’t spend a penny of it,” you’d have to map out a few sub-projects, such as: AdSense; Planning for the Blog; Blog Layout; Blog Content; Blog Marketing; and ING Account.
Right away, you could:
In the free printable version of this guide, there are Next Action worksheets for you to use in your planning efforts. (All these worksheets are GTD-compatible!)
At least once per week, make an appointment with yourself to review your progress towards each of the five resolutions.
Enter this weekly appointment as a recurring event in Google Calendar and set an email or SMS alert to remind yourself.
At this weekly appointment, make sure that you have at least one action item for each of your five resolutions, even if that action item is just to brainstorm ideas.
Search Google to see if there’s already a roadmap for achieving your particular resolution. For example, if you want to start running, the Couch to 5K Running Program will get you running three miles non-stop in just two months, at a steady pace. Your action items, in this case, would be to continually follow the program and move on to the next stage as outlined.
The less ways you have to fail, the easier it will be to succeed. Eliminate distractions and disruptions now, before the New Year begins.
If you’re going to start exercising, make sure all your workout clothes are clean. Fix the zipper on your windbreaker. Stop storing file boxes on the gym equipment in the basement.
If you’re going to eat better and/or lose weight, go through your kitchen now and get rid of all the empty calories. Donate what you can to a local soup kitchen or give it to the neighbors.
If you’re going to be more productive, cancel your cable television subscription. Clean off your computer desktop (and your computer desk).
The worst thing you can do — and we all do it — is to try to beat yourself into submission when embarking on a new goal.
Remember: the entire point of a New Year’s Resolution is to make next year BETTER than last year. If you become your own personal slave-driver, you might achieve your goal, but you’ll have missed the entire point.
If you’re starting an exercise regime, invest in some new, comfortable, well-fitting workout clothes. (Or at least a GOOD pair of sneakers.) If nothing else, buy a box of pleasant-smelling dryer sheets to wash your workout gear in so it perks you up when you put it on.
If you’re going to be eating healthier, don’t stock up on celery and rice cakes — take time to find filling, delicious foods to replace your cravings for the bad stuff.
If you’re going to work long hours, spend some time turning your bathroom and/or bedroom into a sanctuary (heavy curtains, candles, warm smells, clean/soft sheets and towels, warm lighting, etc.) so you can really relax when you have the chance. Get a library card and check out a couple books you’ve been meaning to read so you have the means to unwind. Subscribe to a trashy tabloid so you can zone out when you’re overworked and need a break.
Bottom line: treat yourself gently! You’ll thank yourself for it later.
“People often say motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily.” — Zig Ziglar
No matter how revved up you are now to see your goals to fruition, chances are that at some point (and probably a lot sooner than you think), your motivation is going to wane and you’re going to be tempted to give up.
Luckily for you, you planned ahead for that!
Surround yourself with motivation and reminders wherever possible. (In moderation, negative reinforcers can also help, but they should be mostly positive.)
Subscribe to motivational blogs and podcasts. Tape up pictures of people and things that reflect your end goals. Keep a motivational quotation journal. Post motivational stories and quotations on the fridge, on the front door, and in your office.
The best place to put a motivational reminder (or two, or three) is by your alarm clock. Not only will it help you to wake up [faster], but it will start your day off on the right foot!
There you have it! Follow this plan, and 2008 is guaranteed to be your best year yet!
Remember to download the free printable version so you can access the bonus worksheets by scrolling back up to the top of this page.
If you want some one-on-one help with your resolutions, drop me a line at marina (at) sufficientthrust (dot) com or Tweet me (@MarinaMartin).
Be sure to check out the Blogosphere’s New Year’s Resolutions Series:
What are your New Year’s Resolutions? I’d love to hear in the comments!
If they don’t still live in the same town they grew up in, many people at least have the luxury of “going home” for holidays and visits where they can run into old school friends at the grocery store and hear the latest details of the star high school quarterback’s minimum wage job and fourth illegitimate child.
I, on the other hand, went to boarding school, and with the sole exception of New York City, no two of my friends live in remotely the same place. This made keeping up and keeping track a challenge from the day I left — a challenge that I’m sure many others experienced a few years later upon college graduations.
Enter Facebook. It was the perfect place to keep track of everyone’s latest location, job, relationship status, and cell phone number, without having to experience the pain that comes with looking at or listening to a MySpace profile. (It was especially perfect in the early months when they let you export your contacts’ information as a CSV file! Oh, those were the days…)
Over time, Facebook grew, and in stark opposition to the rest of the planet, my daily page views shrunk as the total number of users went up. I was friends with one, two, then ten people I wasn’t *really* friends with. I questioned whether or not to post certain things in my profile or put up certain photographs. Worse, I noticed that people were including less and less personal contact information in their profiles — and what good is it to know you live in Manhattan if I have no way of reaching you besides your Wall when I’m in the city for an afternoon?
Then, there were the Facebook apps that grew plants and hatched eggs. Let’s not even talk about those.
A year ago, I installed a browser plugin to block my access to Facebook during certain hours so it wouldn’t hinder my productivity. Last week, I realized that since upgrading to Leopard, I hadn’t even bothered to make a Facebook shortcut in Firefox.
Does any of this sound familiar to you?
Last night, I had an epiphany, and I am once again a happy Facebook user.
Create a Second Facebook Account
I now have one personal account, and one professional account.
I’m aware that I could restrict access to certain content within my profile to certain user groups, which I thought was my original concern. However, once I created a professional profile, I realized that I was using it in an entirely different way than I was using my earlier profile.
As an efficiency consultant, I hate clutter, and I prefer to only receive information pertinent to my needs. My professional connections don’t need to know about the dinner and drinks I’m having with my old high school friends, and my old high school friends aren’t going to run into me at any of the 10 Upcoming events I’ll be at in Seattle. Now that I have two profiles, I can display relevant information to each of the two groups, and only relevant information.
Some key differences:
Personal Profile
Professional Profile
So, if Facebook has lost some of its luster for you, try starting fresh with a new professional profile and leaving the growing plants for your friends, who will love you anyway.
TIP: Set your privacy settings for your personal account so that it doesn’t show up in search results. If a personal friend initiates a friend request to your professional account, simply ignore that request and initiate a new friend request from your private personal account. This will eliminate confusion *and* won’t broadcast to the world that you really have two separate profiles!
Add me on Facebook!
How do you use Facebook? I’d love to hear in the comments!
The best way to start off a New Year on the right foot is to already be standing on the right foot in the first place!
Use the impending new year as motivation to finally get those dreaded tasks OFF your to do list for good. Do you really want to start 2008 with a messy kitchen? With a discombobulated harddrive? With that overdue project even more overdue? Of course not!
So start NOW and make it a contest with yourself — how much can you accomplish before the New Year even begins?
At the end of this week I’ll be publishing a free “Ultimate New Year’s Resolutions Guide” to make sure that 2008 is *the* year that you finally achieve all of those resolutions you never quite completed in years past.
Until then, get cracking!
The best networking advice I’ve ever received was from my high school college advisor.
He said: “Always send Christmas cards.”
Given how infrequently we receive anything that’s not a bill in the mail these days, holiday cards are really memorable. The younger you are, the less likely your same-age peers are to send cards, making you stand out even more.
(To-date, I have *never* received a physical holiday card in the mail from a peer. I continue to receive many from my male friends’ mothers, however.)
Holiday cards are also the perfect excuse to catch up with old acquaintances, teachers, co-workers, etc. and make sure they have your latest contact information and basic demographics. (Got married, had a kid, moved to Ethiopia, etc.)
ALWAYS write a personal message inside the card, and make it equally about you and about the recipient. End your card with a question and an invitation for them to contact you.
For example:
[Their Name],
[Generic pre-printed holiday message.]
The cats and I are back in Portland, OR for awhile, at least until a new adventure presents itself. Business is keeping me really busy, but I get to do what I love, so I can’t complain!
Where has post-college life found you? Have you seen anyone from high school lately?
If you’re ever out my way, please give me a ring! I’d love to see you.
Happy Holidays!
Marina
marina@marinamartin.com
It’s never too early to start writing those cards — break the task up by writing a set number per week between now and mid-December.
Preparing for sending holiday cards is also a great way to update your current address book. Scour your Facebook profiles, alumni magazines, and make some calls if you need to in order to track everyone on your list down.
If you can’t find an old classmate’s current address, and you know where their parent or other relative lives, mail the card there with a request for them to let you know their current whereabouts.
Let me guess. When you walk in your front door, there’s a living room with a couch, a television, a coffee table, and maybe a couple of side tables and armchairs.
Then there’s your bedroom. Bed, two nightstands, dresser (or two or three), mirror …
Kitchen: a table with some chairs around it.
Am I close?
You, my friend, are trapped by convention and don’t even know it.
About three years ago, in desperate need of a change of pace, I sold almost everything I owned and wandered around the country for six months living on friends’ couches. (I’m a nomad at heart.) One night I found myself in Portland, and decided to stay there.
Since I was still traveling 90% of the time (my cat sitter was only half-joking that I put her through college), my new apartment came together very slowly. When I was home for a few days at a time, I needed the area to work best for me. With a clean palette to work on, I was intrigued when I finally took a step back and saw how I had come to use the space versus how I would have set it up traditionally.
For example:
For comparison’s sake, I keep a second (studio) apartment in Utah. This apartment has a table with four chairs (stools, actually), an armchair, a nightstand with built-in light, a futon, and a garment rack.
Which do you think is easier to keep clean: a small studio or a large two-bedroom?
Answer: the two-bedroom, by far, precisely because I don’t have unnecessary furniture cluttering it up.
Aside from the actual sticker price, factor in all the hidden costs of furniture – the time it takes to clean, walking around the couch instead of walking directly across the room (the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, after all), replacing or tightening a screw, laundering covers, removing stains, spraying Febreze, wondering if the curtains match the bedskirt…
My biggest gripe against furniture is having to vacuum around it. With three long-haired cats, I vacuum every other day. Back when I had an apartment full of furniture (and five long-haired cats), facing the prospect of moving the sofa, tables, chairs, etc. to get underneath them was daunting, and usually meant the task was put off until I couldn’t stand it anymore. All for a set of living room tables I never even put anything on!
Is your furniture helping you or hindering you?
In sum, why furniture is more evil than Google:
Disclaimer: I make decent money. I am not slovenly and I clean up well for cocktail parties. I have (really amazing) friends. Sharing that you don’t have furniture is not a cool thing to do. People make assumptions about you. Funny how furniture can be a source of social anxiety.
I’ve now upgraded to a two-story, three-bedroom unit, and I still have no furniture. (I really wanted skylights. Portland thunderstorms + skylights = Marina’s personal heaven.) I may very well cave in and buy a mattress and a couch after moving to the new unit. But when I do, at least I’ll be aware of what it’s costing me.
You’ve got a new goal. (Or maybe 101 new goals!) This time, you’re really going to do it, too … only you’re going to start tomorrow.
Or the next day.
Or the day after that.
The simple answer to this dilemma is to simply start now, as in right this minute.
However, I strongly believe in getting off on the right foot, and sometimes starting on a “special” day can be the difference between actually getting going and waiting for yet another tomorrow that never comes.
To help, I’m going to keep track of “The Next Great Start Date” right here on Sufficient Thrust. If you need to pick a date to get going on a goal, stop by and see when the Next Great Date is!
Great Dates for change include:
Of course, personal milestones – birthdays, anniversaries, marriages, deaths, births, moves – are also excellent times for positive personal change. (I just can’t track all of your birthdays for you!)
Have you ever enjoyed standing in line at the post office so much that you didn’t want it to be your turn at the counter?
With 423 feeds in my Google Reader, I’ve never been more abreast of both current events and news related to my special interests than I am now. I also find it effortless to strike up interesting conversations with almost anyone, and I spend less than an hour a day doing it.
Here are some ideas to help you turn an RSS addiction into an RSS asset:
Categorize. Group similar RSS feeds together. On busier days, I can skip (or very quickly skim) entire low-priority groups like “raw foodists” and “beauty” without missing anything under “blogging.”
Keep Your Favorites Separate. I keep a few select RSS feeds in a “favorites” folder so if I’m pressed for time, I’m sure not to skip over the gems. My current favorites include: Ben Casnocha, Dave Seah, Guy Kawasaki, Lifehack.org, Lifehacker, Petri Project, Ririan Project, Seth Godin, Signal v. Noise, and Today is That Day.
More Blogs Doesn’t Mean More Reading. If you subscribe to Ars Technica, Gizmodo, and Engadget, chances are that a lot of the same material will be covered by each blog. After you read about something once, you can skip over similar posts on the other blogs in a fraction of a second. (This also gives you the advantage of reading the same news as early as possible and ignoring later reports.)
Skim, Skim, Star. In following with the previous tip, look for similarities across posts to decide which ones to skip and which ones to at least look at. Reading the post title and/or looking at the associated graphic can be all you need to tell if you’re already familiar with the content.
Don’t Read Every Word. You’ll be amazed by how just quickly scanning multiple articles from a number of blogs on the same topic will lead to your remembering key facts and stories.
Come across a long post you really want to digest? Star it, print it, save it, tickle it, or delicious it, but get it out of your main feeds.
Only Subscribe to Full Feeds. You may be the next F. Scott Fitzgerald (one of my favorite authors), but I am busy, and your content isn’t so unique that I can’t read it elsewhere. (Yes, this means you, Freakonomics!) If I had to click-through each post in my feed, it would literally take all day.
Learn Keyboard Shortcuts. Just manually clicking on the star on posts of interest in Google Reader will add many minutes to your feed-reading time. Take the time to memorize the Google Reader shortcuts or the shortcuts for your favorite reader.
If you’re not using del.icio.us to keep you on top of your game, you’re missing out. Below, find my 22 most indispensable tags:
What tags am I missing? Feel free to share in the comments!