The new year is a fact. A new start with new possibilities. For some, this is also a time to make new resolutions for the year: more exercise, more reading, more patience in conversations, less social media and distractions. Too often, all those resolutions, no matter how sensible and useful, do not last longer than a few weeks. That is not your fault, but the construction flaw in good intentions. And goals, willpower and motivation. The good news: it’s actually easier than you think.
Have an open mind in retrospect
Taking a look back at the old year is very helpful. After all, you learn from it. The disadvantage is that many of us look back more easily to see what was not successful, what was difficult, where you have something to learn, than to see what was successful. It is certainly useful to reflect on what could be improved, but if that is the only thing the retrospective yields, then it is too one-sided.
Also because sometimes things turn out differently than expected precisely because of strengths, such as flexibility, patience or setting limits to ambition. What if you have not achieved a goal but have started a number of new collaborations or strengthened the cohesion in your team? This is lost in a too one-sided review of goals.
In any case, it is useful to view the goals you had for 2024 and those you are making for 2025 as hypotheses. With what you know now, these are excellent starting points. But the world and you are changing, so adjustments will probably be necessary.
‘Everything will be different’
It is tempting to immediately implement a major change that you want. Don’t walk after lunch, but run the Rotterdam marathon. Don’t do a short start every day, but journal daily about your day, gratitude, habits and what you have read. It is logical that you want to set goals with ambition and allure. The disadvantage is that the road to those goals is a long one. As James Clear in Basic habits say:
You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.
Running the Rotterdam Marathon is a fantastic goal. It requires an approach to do this healthily and with pleasure. Just like your goal to make more impact in discussions, it requires an approach. What do you need to, for example, make more impact? Want to be better prepared? Want more questions? Take on a role in discussions? By thinking systematically, you arrive at concrete actions.
A systematic approach also requires reflection: are you on the right track, are you making progress, what requires adjustment? If asking more questions during meetings does not get you what you want, can you give a summary every now and then? Or identify a common thread in a discussion? Reflect and adjust.
Now is the best time
When is the best time to start your change? The classic answer is: a year ago, but the second best time is now. It sounds a bit hyperbolic, just do it‘ish, but it is tempting to keep planning, to wait with the change until the busy period is over or your house is tidy or your inboxes are empty. The question is whether one of those moments will ever come. And if you already have inbox zero, the first emails are already pouring in.
Action now is worth more than a well-thought-out plan. In the book Basic habits (affiliate), James Clear describes an experiment in which one group of students was allowed to take one photo and another group of students was allowed to take as many photos as they wanted. Then a professional jury would choose the best photo. You might imagine that one well-thought-out photo produces a better result than just shoot-and-shoot photos.
The group that was allowed to take a lot of photos had better results. Especially because they made several attempts at a photo and therefore looked closer, analyzed what was missing in a photo, adjusted and tried again. The conclusion is therefore: start, evaluate and adjust. If you want to eat healthier, there is probably a perfect method somewhere. But until then, you can start by being critical of carbohydrates, or use more fresh ingredients, or have a handful of nuts as a snack.
At meereffect we have made stickers with the motto *You are here*. What will happen in the future is uncertain, so here and now, taking action in the right direction with what you can do now, is more important than making the best plan imaginable or waiting for the right moment.
Make it manageable with a theme
To make better choices here and now, you can summarize what you want to do more or experience more in a theme. What, in one or a few words, is the desired change you are looking for? If you can summarize it in a theme, you can apply the change in all kinds of decisions.
The New York Marathon is in one day and you can train a few times a week. But if your theme is ‘2025, the year of movement’, you can think about how to combine that with movement while queuing in the store, working in an office or while reading something. A theme shows you options that you might not have seen without it.
Instead of waiting in a line, you walk through the store to another cash register, in the office you propose to have a meeting while walking and the reading work becomes listening work with the speech function of, for example, Substack.
Navigate with a dashboard
As a knowledge worker you have to deal with a constant flow of information, tasks and distractions. To stay on course and not succumb to the daily hustle and bustle, a personal dashboard offers a solution. This dashboard should contain the lists and reminders that are important to you. Such a clear overview of your priorities will not only help you stay focused, but also be strategic in achieving your goals.
By putting a number of things next to each other and seeing them in context, you prevent yourself from seeing either only your agenda, only your to-do list sorted by due date or, even worse, only your inboxes.
If you create 4 columns, you can:
- fill the left column every day with what is in your agenda, the tasks for that day and a message/self-coaching for yourself.
- Fill the second column every week with current matters, such as an important appointment coming up, presentations or documents, advice you are working on. In short, things that you have in hand and that you do not want to lose sight of.
- In monthly or quarterly reflection, fill in the third column with priorities, goals, KPIs, OKRs, roles in which you want to do more. In short, your tactical intentions for the month, quarter, year.
- continuously fill the fourth column, the reflection column. Monitor the progress of your habits with a habit tracker, keep track of your hours spent and note any friction you experience. In your weekly reflection you try to get rid of that column and convert it into actions and adjustments.
- Place your annual theme very large below, above or behind your dashboard.
The idea is that if you get too bogged down in reactive work, your dashboard will allow you to see ambitions and work in progress again. That can help you pay more attention to it and free up more time for it.
There are knowledge workers who keep this on a whiteboard above their workplace, others have a board in Trello or something put together with Obsidian, but it can also be a bullet journal-like page in your notebook. If you use Microsoft 365, the app Boards Lite van Ichicraft highly recommended. You then use data you already have in Microsoft 365 to put widgets together on a board.
In short
New Year’s resolutions are a start. Make your goals a step more concrete, but real change starts by systematically working on habits. The book The little habits (affiliate) can help you with this.
In addition, have an annual theme as a common thread in all kinds of choices, large and small. To work systematically, a dashboard is a great place to see ambitions and concrete actions in context.
Source: www.frankwatching.com
