How to keep New Year’s Resolutions

Last week, I shared my new year’s resolutions. Seven days later, some of them are going well, others I haven’t quite started yet, and a couple I’ve completely failed at. So I’ve been thinking about how to turn it around, before we get too far into the year and all my resolutions get forgotten. Hopefully some of these tips will be helpful to other people too 🙂

1. Remember to start

Quite a useful one. One of my resolutions was to clear my desk every Friday afternoon, ready to start fresh on Monday. Unfortunately, I totally forgot until 5.30pm on Friday, when I was supposed to leave. Cue five minutes of frantic tidying before running out the door.

And then there’s the getting up fifteen minutes earlier in the morning, which has just been a total disaster, because I’m basically incapable of getting out of bed. Maybe tomorrow…

2. Tell other people

Writing resolutions on a blog is good, but telling people you see every day is even better. If they know what you’re hoping to achieve or give up, and they’re in a position to nag you regularly, you’re under more pressure to actually make it happen. I have a lot of people waiting to read my novel, and they’re not about to let me forget I promised to have a finished draft for them by the end of this year.

Also, if other people know, they can join in. I’ve already roped in a bunch of other people to come with me to the theatre over the next few weeks. I don’t think they mind too much.

3. Make it a competition

Not necessarily against other people, although that’s good too. I’m learning German as part of a work challenge (which other people are more than willing to join in with, by the way) and wanting to beat my colleagues is keeping me more than motivated. Not least because the person who loses in the office has to make tea and coffee for everyone for a day, and I’ve no intention of being that person.

But I find competitions against myself are quite effective too. One of my goals is to stop worrying about stuff, and every time I do, I have to donate at least £1 to charity. So far, my total is £3, and believe it or not, that’s actually a good week.

4. Start gradually (a.k.a. If you mess up, make an excuse and try again)

Giving something up can be difficult. I had great plans to give up snacking, but there’s still a lot of Christmas goodies lying around, and people keep having birthdays at work (so inconsiderate). I managed to resist the chocolate cake last week, but caved in the face of panettone – but that has fruit in it so it’s healthy, right? – and I figure halfway is better than nothing.

5. See it as an opportunity

Sometimes new year’s resolutions feel like a bit of a chore, especially if they involve a lot of effort. Making the book into something readable feels like a massive task right now, but think how exciting it’ll be when it’s done (well, exciting for me, anyway – everyone else might find it really dull). And while learning German may be hard work, I’m looking forward to the day I can go to Germany and talk to people. Not to mention all the cups of tea I’ll get.

So, here’s the progress report so far:

1. Get the novel ready – not started yet…

2. Go to the theatre more – three London shows already booked for the next two months, and more planned.

3. Clear the desk every Friday – so far so good (just).

4. Get up fifteen minutes earlier – let’s not talk about that.

5. Stop snacking – sort of…

6. Stop worrying about silly things – only £3 donated to charity so far (not bad).

7. Learn German – pretty good, ask me anything (as long as it’s to do with first words, fruit, adjectives or food and drink).

How’s everyone else getting on with your resolutions? Anyone doing anything exciting?

Happy New Year!

I don’t know about you, but I love New Year. Not New Year’s Eve itself, which is usually pretty overrated, but the idea of starting over, taking on new challenges and generally getting things right that maybe haven’t gone so well before. And so I always make New Year’s Resolutions.

Usually by the end of the year, I’ve forgotten what they were, and I don’t pretend that I always keep all my resolutions, but I enjoy the process of thinking through what I want to achieve over the next twelve months. There’s nothing quite like starting the year feeling optimistic about what lies ahead 🙂

So here we go with my 2015 resolutions:

1. Get my novel draft to at least a stage where I’m willing to let people read it, and at most ready to actually do something with.

2. Go to the theatre more, including at least one West End show a month. (I’m well on track with this; I’ve already booked to see The Scottsboro Boys and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown this month.)

3. Clear my desk at work every Friday afternoon, so I can start fresh each Monday.

4. Get up at least fifteen minutes earlier in the mornings. I was doing well with this all the while I had Tommy the cat staying with me (who needs an alarm clock when you’ve got a hungry cat wanting breakfast?), but now he’s gone home I’m back to my old habits. This usually means I have to run around the house in a mad rush, then sprint to the station and arrive at work feeling stressed out and tired. It seems to me that if I could drag myself out of bed just a little bit earlier, it could make all the difference. I guess we’ll see.

5. Stop snacking. In fairness, I’m not usually a big snacker, but in recent weeks, thanks to an excess of Christmas cake, mince pies, chocolate coins and the like, I seem to have spent a lot of time stuffing my face. Hopefully now that the holiday season’s over, I won’t be so tempted, but either way, it needs to stop. Although maybe not straight away, because I do have a lot of Christmas chocolate still to eat…

6. Try and stop worrying about silly things. Not really sure how I’m going to enforce this one, but being neurotic is one of my worst habits. I once spent about a week worrying that I’d been caught by a speed camera in my car, even though I didn’t know for sure there were any cameras (it later transpired there weren’t), and I hadn’t actually been speeding anyway. I’ve even been known to worry because I have nothing to worry about. So here’s the plan: every time I catch myself worrying about something ridiculous, I’m going to donate at least £1 to charity. (The amount will go up depending on how crazy I’m being.)

7. Learn German. I talked about that already. And I want to do a new challenge every month, so I’m open to suggestions 🙂

Plus, obviously, the usual – win the lottery, marry a millionaire, retire to the Caribbean, get a pet tiger cub. Normal stuff.

How about you? What are you hoping to achieve and/or give up in 2015?