…words

My friend Dave Seah came up with a remarkable way of managing and tracking your annual goals, one that he calls Groundhog Day Resolutions.

GHD: Making Groundhog Day a Habit

As we’ve learned in GTD, the weekly review is a critical part of making real progress toward our goals. The same principle applies to the making of resolutions.

There’s a pattern I’d like to exploit in conjunction with Groundhog Day. As you know, Groundhog Day falls on the 2nd day of the 2nd month. January 1st, the first day of the first month, should mark the beginning of the sacred period of preparation for making one’s GHD Resolutions.

Extending the pattern of dates, I hereby decree that the THIRD DAY of the THIRD MONTH, the FOURTH DAY of the FOURTH MONTH, and other dates with the same magical month/day pairing as days of GHD Resolution Review. That should be easy to remember for everyone, and the numerical pattern should work as a reasonably-good memory trigger.

Here’s my proposed calendar to systemize the GHD Resolution Methodology:
DATE NAME PURPOSE
1/1 New Year’s Day Catch up and get settled in so you can make your resolutions in February!
2/2 Groundhog Day Make your resolutions! You’ve got 6 weeks of winter, what else you going to do?
3/3 Review Day So, how are those resolutions going?
4/4 Review Day No, seriously, how’s it going?
5/5 Cinco de Mayo! Spring is around the corner, so today’s a particularly good day to be positive about resolutions
6/6 Review Day Those resolutions are coming along, yes? Good!
7/7 Tanabata! It’s the Japanese Star Festival, and it’s also halfway to next year! Make some wishes and help keep your resolutions on track!
8/8 Father’s Day! In Chinese, the number eight is pronounced “ba”, so 8/8 is “ba ba”, which also sounds like the word for “father”, so this is Father’s Day in Taiwan. I’m not a dad, so I guess I would mark the day by muttering some fatherly words of encouragement to myself, or by calling up my elders to report my GHD progress. Telling people what you’re doing is always a great way of gaining perspective.
9/9 Review Day We’re moving into the end of the year, so look back and see how the year’s been.
10/10 Review Day The crisp autumn air reminds you that it’s time to start closing some of those deals you made with yourself.
11/11 Review Day It’s the 11th day of the 11th month, which has a kind of ominous “get stuff done” feel to it. The 11th hour tolls!
12/12 Resolution Day The holiday craziness is in full-swing, so you might as well review what you’ve gotten done for the year then let the festivities wash over you. Congratulations! Enjoy the holiday season!

Of course, figuring out some way of measuring progress on these goals is the trick. For right now I’m going to just be subjective and note whether things seem to be moving forward or not.

As I was wrapping up for 2009 I decided that I would utilize this process to manage my own goals for 2010. Watch for review posts on the above dates, and for the big roll-out on 2 Feb. Also, let me know if you’d like to participate in this project, we can make it into a blog carnival.

You still have a few days to sit down, sharpen up your pencils, and map out your concrete action plan for 2010. I’m happy to help, send an email if you’d like.