The problem with New Year's Resolutions.

New Year's Resolutions: we all make them at one time or another, very few of us continue them throughout the whole year to reach December 31st thinking "I'm sure glad I stuck to those resolutions!" Most of us are usually trying to figure out how the next time around we're going to make it work. Except that it's not going to work the next time around, not unless you figure out what's not working. 

The problem with New Year's Resolutions is that New Year's Resolutions are only intentions. 

When we say "I want to be healthy" or "I want to work out more" or "I want to be more productive this year" all we're actually doing is setting an intention. That's what we're hoping to gain from the year - and then what? Intentions are great as they orient you in the general direction of where you want to go, but setting this intention doesn't tell you how to get there. Saying "I want to eat less chocolate" and not saying how much less you want to eat, why and how you're going to do that is the equivalent of standing in your bedroom and saying "I want to go to Cannes." That's very nice, but how exactly do you plan on getting there? And actually, why do you want to go to Cannes?

When we make our New Year's Resolutions, we often forget to clarify why we're making the resolutions - what is your overall intention of the year? 

I've read articles that argue that resolutions don't work because we set too many - I'd argue they don't work because they're not tied together with a common purpose. For example, if your overall intention for the year is to graduate in the summer with honours and spend the rest of the year interning in preparation for landing your dream job, your resolutions will be something along the line of:

• I want to study regularly and get started on my assignments ahead of time
• I want to be healthy so that I never miss a day of classes or work when I'm interning
• I want to work out more so I look good and feel comfortable and confident on graduation day and in office clothes

Alternatively, you can set a word for the year that will shape your year. My word for the year is "persistence" so I know that I need to be persistent in everything I choose to do and see it to the end, but this is very little use to me unless I have goals I want to achieve. 

Most New Year's Resolutions also fail because they're never turned into goals. 

Once you've set your New Year's Resolutions - your specific intentions which contribute to your overall intention for the year - it's time to turn them into goals. This is where that little S.M.A.R.T. acronym comes in helpful, because once you have your resolution, which is your intention, you have to turn it into something that is Specific - Measurable - Attainable - Relevant - Time-specific. For example the intention "I want to work out more" becomes "I want to practice 20 minutes of yoga on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays until the 31 March".

Now you have a specific goal and a date in mind that you can thrive towards. I personally prefer to break down my goals into three months chunks, especially as my theme is persistence, because thinking about putting in work every day for 90 or so days feels a lot less overwhelming than thinking about the 300+ days still to go until the new year. It also gives me a date at which I can review what I've done and decide what's working, what isn't and what I can do to stay on track for the next three months. 

So if you're struggling with New Year's Resolutions, double-check that:

• you know what your overall intention for the year is;
• that your resolutions/intentions are orientated towards this overall aim;
• and that you've set S.M.A.R.T. goals towards achieving them. 

Do you set New Year's Resolutions for yourself? What is one challenge you're facing in sticking to them?

Stepping up my organisation game for 2015

I started flirting with organisation at the end of last year. As I mentioned in this post, I was finally putting to good use my Moleskine Weekly Notebook. As someone with a track record for buying planners that I only use for a couple of weeks every couple of months, I was determined to break out of the circle and actually use my planner for planning (and not as a decorative piece or a coaster). I also got into a bullet journalling, which is a way of keeping all your to-do's, thoughts and ideas in one place, and this got me into the habit of creating daily to-do lists and jotting down things.

However, when I delved into the vibrant planner community thanks to the #planneraddict hashtag on Instagram, I really began to see how delving deeper into the world of organistion could have a positive impact on my life. The kikki. K planner that I had first seen in a post over on Amy's blog A Little Boat Sailing (it was the gold hardware - how could I resist gold hardware??), was instantlyadded to my Christmas wishlist as I saw the customisation potential that comes from having a 6-ring binder as opposed to an already bound yearly diary. Plus, I tend to be the kind of person who has to justify the cost of a slightly more expensive item (to myself) through use, so the price of the kikki. K Personal Planner in this gorgeous lilac dictates that it will need to be put to good use. I'm still settling into it, trying to find a system that works for me, and also getting past the "it's too beautiful to write in" phase of owning a pretty stationery. 

To accompany my planner and to guide my endeavour in getting more organised, I also picked up the Epic Blog One Year Editorial Planner created by byRegina. It's a planner and workbook combined to help you get on top of your organisation game when it comes to your blog. Her website is also packed with useful content, so I should really make a note to consult it more often!

On a whim I also picked up 'Your Best Year 2015' by Lisa Jacobs which is a productivity workbook and creative business planner. I really wasn't sure what to expect and was a little worried that it would be more geared to creative entrepreneurs who sell products, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it is more about guiding you to setting your goals, and providing goal and planner pages that allow you to constantly keep your goals in mind. It's easy to get bogged down with the ideal of productivity and begin to struggle with mounting to-do lists and never-ending tasks when you lose sight of what your end-game is - this helps stop that.

I will probably have more in-depths reviews of my planning systems in the coming months when I've gotten enough use to figure out what I like and don't like about each of these - definitely let me know if it's something you'd be interested in. How are you getting organised this year?

An Alternative To New Year's Resolutions

Happy belated 2015! I hope you have had a wonderful start to the new year, and if you've made a resolutions at the start of the year, I hope you're holding strong - we're only twelve days in! If you're finding that resolutions just aren't your thing and you can feel the same pattern beginning to emerge, then perhaps it's time to consider an alternative to making a list of intentions such as  'get healthier' 'work out more' 'eat less junk' 'be less lazy' 'do more xyz' which in themselves are great, but they tend not to last long (for a whole host of reasons that will be the subject of another post), and come November you regret the gym membership you never used, the junk food that is still a dear friend to and lament all the bad habits have yet to be broken, and the good habits that have yet to be taken up. 

I am no stranger to failed resolutions, so this year, instead of having new year's resolutions, I am going to have a word for the year.

I first got the idea from Vienna of myplanner who created a wonderful worksheet to help guide you in creating your goals that she guides you through in her video. What struck me the most was the section in which she asks you to choose a word for 2015 that describes how you plan  approach the year, and to explain why you chose that particular word.

The word I chose for 2015 is: PERSISTENCE. 

I already had this word in mind from reading Napoleon Hill's 'Think and Grow Rich' at the end of last year, where the word is a recurring theme throughout his teachings, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that there was a reason this word resonated so much with me: I am one of those people who has no problem throwing themselves into a new venture but has great difficulty seeing it through to the end, as my dozens of unfinished stories, projects and ambitions can attest to. Though I can roll my sleeves up and get through a tough time, I am more inclined to back away when things get rough and go back to find the easier route rather than continuing along the road less travelled. 

Basically, I have a problem with seeing things through to the end, and if all the goals I have for 2015 (and beyond) are to be accomplished, I need to have persistence in all my actions. 

Picking a word for the year is a great alternative to New Year's Resolutions because: 

• there is only one word that you need to remember. For whatever goal you set, whether it's big or small, your one word shapes how you're going to execute it, acting as a guideline. Though it is important to regularly review your goals to see what progress you're making, in the moment of doing something, all you really need to remember is your word. 
• it provides you with the necessary 'why' behind your actions. Motivation is hard to come by sometimes, especially when the alarm goes off, it's dark and the cold world beyond your duvet doesn't appear particularly inviting. The past couple of days when I've woken up and the last thing I want to do is roll out my yoga mat, I remember that this is the year of persistence. I set myself the goal of exercising every day this month, so that's what I'll do. I don't need any other reasons or motivators: I set myself a goal, I am going to persist to the end, and out of bed I roll.
• it can shape who you are. Usually you'll pick a word that describes a trait that you're lacking in or that you hope to improve on, so that at the end of the year, instead of having a list of things you've ticked off, you now have a character trait that you've worked on and developed throughout the year that is relevant to all your goals, to every aspect of your life, that you can carry with you into the next year as you tackle a fresh set of challenges.

If you struggle with sticking to resolutions, then this is definitely an approach worth considering. Then again, there's nothing that says that you have to do any resolution setting at all if you're perfectly happy with the way things are, or if you're not ready to change. Change in your own time, not because it's a particular date, and explore all your options to see what fits you best.

Did you set resolutions this year? What do you think of just setting one word for the year?