If it's time-based (one year of XXX) it makes it very easy to remember.
I don't disagree with your notion, but I think a lot of people reflect on themselves and what they'd like to accomplish when the year is ending, set their goals, and it perpetuates itself.
> If it's not important, you'll probably fail in the commitment.
As anecdotal evidence against this, my 2013 resolutions[1] were both unimportant and resounding successes. The trick, I think, is that they were just different ways of doing things I already did, not new things to do every day. They required some willpower but no planning or time, and they were difficult to ignore or forget about.
That is a fairly limiting description, though, and I did stumble onto it by chance. It will inform my future resolutions, though. I probably won't decide to "write a little every day" because it's too easy a promise to break. On the other hand, something like "no using the tablet in bed before dinner" will probably work.
1: use my non-dominant hand for everything, and always stand under the shower when I turn it on.
Someone always has to say this, but it's a little bit tired.
A new year is not entirely "arbitrary". Sure – from the point of view of geology or global history, it's irrelevant. But it provides a very obvious psychological "clean slate" – a fresh start and obvious break. It usually provides a little holiday, some time spent with family, and an opportunity for reflection.
Yes, most resolutions fail. But people aren't perfect, and if we were all able to commit wholly to self-improvements at the drop of a hat, the world would probably be a much better place. Since we can't, I don't really see the harm in a little psychological boost once a year.
Making something a resolution to change something at New Year is giving yourself permission to fail. Everyone breaks their New Year resolutions, so why shouldn't you?
The fact is, if we can resolve to change at the beginning of January then we can commit to self-improvement at the drop of a hat (assuming the 'drop of a hat' means a time when we have the necessary resources, time, inclination, etc). The date makes absolutely no difference at all. Why not a birthday resolution, or easter, or mid-summer (surely a far better time if you're going to be more active or eat more healthily)? I have no data, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see people who resolve to do things at times of the year other than New Year are much, much more successful than anyone who'll make a change next week. Their reasons (a choice rather than a tradition) will be more inclined to success.
Personally, I make a plan before Jan 1st of what I want to achieve the following year in burst of 4, starting from January 1st.
I've found this to be a lot more motivating, since the finish date is relatively close... Three months isn't a long time and being able to say you've succeeded feels great!
I have a similar resolution. I find that I excessively judge others internally (even though I don't voice it) and that places irrational pressure on myself. I judge because of various reasons, but I think mainly to make myself feel that I'm better. This illusion ended when I realised I'm not actually that good at anything. I wonder if I am the only one.
Got to try and get back on the Paleo wagon, or at least move in the right direction. Good time of year too - the lunch time street food market near our office isn't back until February, and that's often my weakness!
For six months I exercised three times per week with a personal trainer at set appointments to make sure I would go. Lots of weight lifting. That provided the fastest results. I also improved my diet though my sweet tooth remains. I've been far more sedentary (though still getting some light exercise, walking around the neighborhood, going up and down a 7 story parking structure) and have been able to maintain my weight which is a good sign.
I'm probably going to try the same thing again since it worked so well a year ago. I'm 20b away from my High School weight but a bit leaner.
In support of point 1, point 2 should be "learn more maths". Use of the abbreviated, antiquated adjective 'mathematic' as a plural is a peculiarity of American English and is probably not something you want to emulate. Have fun :)
I believe the grandparent's comment was a bit misleading if not wrong. (http://xkcd.com/386/ ..)
In most dialects of English (notably British English), the short form of the subject is "maths". In North American English, it is "math". In all dialects, the full form is "mathematics". In all dialects, both the short and full forms are singular and accept singular verbs. For example, "mathematics IS the study of numbers and patterns".
If you like to tailor to your audience, you may consider using "maths" for a British audience and "math" for an American audience.
Ah I forgot, I will skip this New Year party (I will sit at home and learn instead of drinking). I will party next year but only if I manage to keep my resolutions.
Stop caring about unwanted git commit messages ("merge with branch" because I merge/rebase something old or "oops typo" because I didn't amend previous commit to add an extra change in it) because in the end, it's the current state of `master` which is important. To me.
Also, stop biting my nails. I've got myself a simple little manicure set (the little scissors and a nail file) and whenever I'm on the phone, I gently grind & shape a couple nails.
Bonus: typing feels much better with smooth nails than with awful bitten fingers.
I've never had that problem myself, and I don't know if you've already tried it, but I've heard of people using bitter nail polish. It seems like a clever way to change that habit.
I don't want to trick myself into not doing something. I'd feel stupid. Plus, I don't want extra hassle of putting something onto my nails. I bite my nails just because I've never really worried about it, but now I feel like I should stop and I don't want any "lure" to achieve this :)
I will be doing my new years resolutions in bursts of 4 (quarters), as I feel this motivates me to keep going and it doesn't feel like such a long time. Plus being able to tell yourself you've done something earlier than you were supposed to feels GREAT! I usually review my goals on the last weekend before the end of the quarter and review what I have (or haven't) achieved and carry it over to the next quarter and add new goals. Plus, It's a lot harder to fail something 4 times compared to 1.
Quarter 1: Jan-Mar
* Get down to 12% body fat (lose ~10kg) - easily doable on keto diet, already lost 11kg last 2 months.
* Sleep earlier
* Spend my weekends more meaningfully instead of just sitting around at home. Explore London while I'm still here and before I move to SF.
* Learn advanced Git.
* Learn more Objective C/iOS development.
* Start a blog
Quarter 2: Apr-Jun
* 10% body fat
* Learn to swim and become a pro at it (follow gym programme)
* Learn basic French (Michel Thomas audio course) and reward myself with a weekend in Paris
* Try out Shotokan karate (complete 8 lesson course)
* Learn something tech (depends on interests at the time), perhaps Lisp.
Quarter 3: Jul-Sep
* Learn something tech (depends on interests at the time)
* Learn something non-tech (depends on interests at the
time)
Quarter 4: Oct - Dec
* Learn something tech (depends on interests at the time)
* Learn something non-tech (depends on interests at the time)
47 comments
[ 13.3 ms ] story [ 111 ms ] threadI don't disagree with your notion, but I think a lot of people reflect on themselves and what they'd like to accomplish when the year is ending, set their goals, and it perpetuates itself.
As anecdotal evidence against this, my 2013 resolutions[1] were both unimportant and resounding successes. The trick, I think, is that they were just different ways of doing things I already did, not new things to do every day. They required some willpower but no planning or time, and they were difficult to ignore or forget about.
That is a fairly limiting description, though, and I did stumble onto it by chance. It will inform my future resolutions, though. I probably won't decide to "write a little every day" because it's too easy a promise to break. On the other hand, something like "no using the tablet in bed before dinner" will probably work.
1: use my non-dominant hand for everything, and always stand under the shower when I turn it on.
A new year is not entirely "arbitrary". Sure – from the point of view of geology or global history, it's irrelevant. But it provides a very obvious psychological "clean slate" – a fresh start and obvious break. It usually provides a little holiday, some time spent with family, and an opportunity for reflection.
Yes, most resolutions fail. But people aren't perfect, and if we were all able to commit wholly to self-improvements at the drop of a hat, the world would probably be a much better place. Since we can't, I don't really see the harm in a little psychological boost once a year.
The fact is, if we can resolve to change at the beginning of January then we can commit to self-improvement at the drop of a hat (assuming the 'drop of a hat' means a time when we have the necessary resources, time, inclination, etc). The date makes absolutely no difference at all. Why not a birthday resolution, or easter, or mid-summer (surely a far better time if you're going to be more active or eat more healthily)? I have no data, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see people who resolve to do things at times of the year other than New Year are much, much more successful than anyone who'll make a change next week. Their reasons (a choice rather than a tradition) will be more inclined to success.
I've found this to be a lot more motivating, since the finish date is relatively close... Three months isn't a long time and being able to say you've succeeded feels great!
Learn Python.
Actually put my homepage on the internet (wow, wouldn't that be something!)
I'm probably going to try the same thing again since it worked so well a year ago. I'm 20b away from my High School weight but a bit leaner.
* Improve my english
* Learn math - I have graduated only high school and I have been scared of math my whole life. Time to change it!
* Learn as much as I can about data mining. - After reading http://guidetodatamining.com, I found it really interesting.
* Learn Python.
* Improve work/fun time management.
In most dialects of English (notably British English), the short form of the subject is "maths". In North American English, it is "math". In all dialects, the full form is "mathematics". In all dialects, both the short and full forms are singular and accept singular verbs. For example, "mathematics IS the study of numbers and patterns".
If you like to tailor to your audience, you may consider using "maths" for a British audience and "math" for an American audience.
Bonus: typing feels much better with smooth nails than with awful bitten fingers.
* Do more for others. In that vein, I'm contributing to a local co-working setup by helping people with Product Design.
* On a bigger experiment, I'm planning a Product Design Tour[1] of Silicon Valley.
1. http://design-tour.brajeshwar.com/
...and to try and resist the urge to answer every question with a bad joke.
http://iamprogrammer.net/gag/4
* Don't judge others
* write and publish : I have two short stories and few blogs articles that my wife finds interesting, maybe others would be interested as well.
* get fit : I used to be MA instructor, but because of my (now-closed) start-up, I let it slide. 100 push-ups, 1 hours run, -10 pounds, etc.
* double my income : I don't really care about the money per se, but this keeps me away from doing things nobody cares about.
* learn & use monads & monads transformer (haskell)
* master the javascript ecosystem.
* publish my 3d procedural modeler.
* move to another city.
[] Learn any functional language (I tried to learn Haskell, now I'm looking at Clojure);
Quarter 1: Jan-Mar
* Get down to 12% body fat (lose ~10kg) - easily doable on keto diet, already lost 11kg last 2 months.
* Sleep earlier
* Spend my weekends more meaningfully instead of just sitting around at home. Explore London while I'm still here and before I move to SF.
* Learn advanced Git.
* Learn more Objective C/iOS development.
* Start a blog
Quarter 2: Apr-Jun
* 10% body fat
* Learn to swim and become a pro at it (follow gym programme)
* Learn basic French (Michel Thomas audio course) and reward myself with a weekend in Paris
* Try out Shotokan karate (complete 8 lesson course)
* Learn something tech (depends on interests at the time), perhaps Lisp.
Quarter 3: Jul-Sep
* Learn something tech (depends on interests at the time)
* Learn something non-tech (depends on interests at the time)
Quarter 4: Oct - Dec
* Learn something tech (depends on interests at the time)
* Learn something non-tech (depends on interests at the time)