Setting Goals — New Year’s Resolutions, part 2 of 2
We’re down to the last two weeks of the year! Last week, I shared part 1 of the ritual that I’m using to set New Year’s Resolutions for 2021. In it, I walked through how you can create more time in your day to bulletproof yourself against times when things get busy, so that you don’t have to sacrifice your resolution. This week, we’ll dive into how you can set better resolutions that lead to action.
As a quick aside, I will be taking the rest of the year off to relax and spend time with my family, so this is my last post for 2020. Look out for an exciting new launch coming in January!
Let’s jump into setting better resolutions.
What are resolutions?
Resolutions are goals. If your resolution is not set up as a goal, then you’re just daydreaming.
When can I set resolutions?
This story is about setting New Year’s Resolutions, but honestly, there’s nothing magical about the New Year. For many, it’s simply a convenient external trigger that acts as a reminder to reflect and set goals. Birthdays, the beginning of a school year, or rainy Sundays can all be good times to set resolutions too. Whenever things change that affect your values, beliefs, or balance, you may want to re-examine your resolutions.
What should my resolutions be about?
Resolutions can cover any aspect of your life — including, but not limited to, personal relationships, professional skills, achievements, and fitness levels. Your resolutions should align to what’s important to you. If your top priority in 2021 is health and wellness, then more of your resolutions should reflect health and wellness than other priorities. A good check to ensure alignment is to write down what’s important to you first, then brainstorm a list of resolutions, and finally compare how well the resolutions match what’s important to you.
How many resolutions should I set?
A good rule of thumb is to have no more than 5–7 resolutions. If you can’t easily remember what all of your resolutions are, then you have set too many and need to prioritize the most important ones. And just because a resolution is deprioritized in the moment doesn’t mean that it’s lost forever. You can always pick it up mid-year, after you have achieved another resolution or decided to reprioritize what’s important.
How can I set a better resolution?
Let’s say that I wanted to set a resolution: “to learn about artificial intelligence.” This is a nice thought, but a really bad resolution. It’s so open-ended that there are many ways to interpret this statement.
Like goals, resolutions should be SMART:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Actionable
- Relevant
- Time Bound
A better version of this resolution could be:
“I want to learn about algorithmic bias in artificial intelligence so that I can make adjustments to my training data by the end of Q1.”
or
“I want to build a feature that uses artificial intelligence by the end of Q1.”
Both of these examples result in learning about AI, but in very different ways.
Take the feature example. It’s specific because it’s focused on learning through building. It’s measurable because it will be clear if I have achieved it or not, based on whether I have built a feature by Q1. It’s actionable because there’s a lot of information — from articles to open source code — that will help me. (See my post about how Mike Lee learns by building for inspiration.) It’s relevant because building the feature will force me to learn more about AI than just by reading about it. It’s time bound because I want to accomplish it within Q1.
According to Inc., only 8% of people achieve the resolutions that they set. Don’t make the familiar mistake of setting your resolutions as empty promises without an action plan. Prepare yourself by eliminating busyness to create time for your resolutions, and then follow these steps to set your resolutions:
- Write down what’s important to you and set this list aside
- Brainstorm a list of resolutions
- Prioritize the top 5–7 resolutions
- Double check that the prioritized resolutions match what’s important to you
- Execute against your action plans and revisit your resolutions when needed
As we wrap up this year, I’d love to hear from you about what stories have been useful for you and how I can help you reach your goals. Look out for an exciting new launch coming in January, and I’ll catch you in 2021!
I write about once a week about topics like product management, design thinking, becoming a better leader, and personal branding. By subscribing to my newsletter, you’ll get these insights emailed right to your inbox every time I post. As an added bonus, if you subscribe to my newsletter by the end of the month, I’ll send you a surprise holiday gift to kickstart your year.
