New Year’s Resolutions Shenanigans, 2020 edition

It’s the time of year when New Year’s resolutions are ubiquitous. In a quick search, I found more than 100 articles published in the last week alone. Apparently, we’ve all resolved to write about resolutions.

While they are common, New Year’s resolutions are notoriously difficult to keep – only 1/3 of people who make resolutions keep them for longer than a few days. Part of the reason is that the resolutions are typically made at the beginning of the year and aren’t updated as circumstances change. Worse still, resolutions often have unrealistic targets. When the gap between where you currently are and what you want to achieve is too large, people can easily get demotivated. Similar problems can plague corporate goals.

A decade ago, I decided to have a bit of fun with this resolution-mania and posted my own tongue-in-cheek 2010 resolutions. A year later, I graded how well I lived up to my resolutions. As it turned out, I did pretty well.

For 2020, I updated the original list of resolutions to be more in synch with the times:

1. Less reading on Apple devices; more eating apples.
2. Make sure my personal blog isn’t a Big Load Of Garbage
3. Hope that my eyesight stops fading and returns to 2020.
4. Encourage everyone to do more hand washing, less digital washing.
5. Won’t swim with the sharks; might skate with The Sharks
6. Leave time for writing. For fun. On non-tech subjects.
7. Spend more time reading my anti-library.
8. Balance online social tech-tools with IRL social old-school.
9. Institute a ban on rubber chicken dinners at events.
10. And my most important New Year’s resolution:

Enjoy the journey. Sometimes we get caught up in goals/destinations and forget to revel in what’s going on around us.

In the comments, let me know if any of these resolutions resonate with you.

Happy New Year everyone.