First of all, i love planning! And i also belive in ‘victory loves preparation’ mantra. When it comes to new years planning i like to think that, at the end of the list, an enhanced version of me is awaiting! 🤩 Of course, building the list is important but execution and lessons learnt from each year are key. 🥁🥁🥁
My new year resolution approach has been ongoing for the last 5 years (or maybe more), always takes place in December and comes in 2 steps:
- first is an assessment on the current year resolution list;
- second is evaluating (in draft to start with) what is not checked on the current list and still valid to consider on the next year’s list, plus the new gems, the brilliant new ideas 🤩
- I used to keep a third step of gathering the friends, building our individual list and then verbalizing the content so that new or better ideas are born. But since i’ve been married and had a baby, the cruel reality kicked in and i am a bit on my own temporarily. Anyways, not a show-stopper. 🤓
So the first step happens quite fast as i’m doing some simple math of computing the % result. Usually my middle score is 70% achieved but i’ve been on less (target was finally achieved though, with a 2 years delay 😅) but not on more that 80%. Somehow that ‘unicorn wish’ is damn good Sci-Fi. You’ll see what i’m talking about.
Second step is decomposed in more steps. To start with, i made up some broad labels that capture my interest areas and then, the idea is to have a goal/resolution (or more) mapped to each bucket. You can paste an old resolution again on the new list or you can also define your own bucket areas. My decomposition list is as following:
1. Something personal
2. Something family-oriented
3. Something professional
4. Something health-oriented
5. Something for community
6. Something for the medium term future
7. Big dream (or unicorn wish, or something for long term future)
Next would be to add my own wishes under each bucket. For instance, at something personal i would add this year: to ensure i write down every end of week reasons to be grateful; to keep feeding Mama33 blog; to collect and store grand-grandma poetry (there are a dozen by now spread over various apps) for her grand-grandson in one location. The points from 2 to 5 are self-explanatory I presume. Then, something for the medium term future is a goal that cannot be enforced with immediate effect (like be kinder with strangers touching your baby 😱 *never*), that has a degree of uncertainity (still requires some more clarity based on some factors you cannot predict at the moment) but has the potential to happen in 2019 e.g. participate in a competition, earn a new certification, sign up for dance class etc. A big dream or the unicorn wish is the toughest one. It requires you to ask yourself how far/deep/high do I aim to reach? Generally. In one year you may not be able to become the president of your country (if so your unicorn sounds like 🦄🦄🦄) but can lead you joining some related groups and hence get closer to your unicorn. You get the point. I absolutely love this one especially when you hear other friends wishes. It’s a WOW moment of discovery.
Finally, the quantification method comes down very simply put to a % on each resolution (not bucket) given based on how urgent/important it must be achieved within a year. For instance, if among my resolutions is a desire to relocate to another country then I must speed up learning the relevant language so, to quantify it, I assign 2 points out of 10 (or 20% out of 100%, your call) for that item.
Evaluate the progress of resolutions every 2-3 months to ensure your focus is on the right track. At the end of the year you compute the ticked boxes versus the unachieved items and there’s how successful your year was! And also how amazing planning & execution skills you possess. Hopefully 😁
Welcome to basic project management 🙂
Have fun!
Mom Situation 