Our culture is obsessed with the new year resolution idea. It’s almost like saying, you only get one shot at creating goals for yourself every year. If you miss it, you have to wait a whole year to start over. The apparent reason is that the new year gives our motivation a boost. We feel hopeful about a new start, and have all the good intentions to make the year the best year of our life. The downside though, is that because we rely on motivation so much to keep the momentum going, our execution is gone along with the motivation by the end of January.
I started experimenting with various productivity techniques from September 2019 (an example that you don’t have to wait until the new year to work on your goals), and have come up with a system that really works for me. Not only do I have the motivation to do the things I want to do, but my execution is also consistent. Remember, it’s always harder to persist behaviors than start behaviors. For me, the key idea is:
Rather than focus on unreliable willpower to get things done, set up structures in your life that minimize the frictions and mental energy needed to make decisions.
This idea is nothing new. The famous example is both Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg wear the same shirt every day so that they don’t have to spend their precious brain power on what to wear. I personally would never follow that fashion advice, but what has worked for me, is that I look at my schedule for the next day before going to bed, so I know the places I need to be, then lay out my outfit for each event/occasion. This simple habit may seem small, but it serves two purposes: 1. Saves me from having to make decisions in the hectic morning; 2. Mentally preps me for the day.
I know this article says at the beginning that it’s not about resolutions, but I want to start by listing my resolutions, i.e. a list of prioritized goals for 2020.
- Spend more time with family
- Take care of myself mentally and physically
- Diversity my income stream
This is what most people’s new year resolutions look like. It’s brief, lacks details, and worse, sometimes we have way too many items on the list. The problem with most people’s new year resolution is they just stop here, hoping that magically we’ll follow through on these items throughout the entire year. No wonder new year resolutions fail us miserably every time.
Here is my advice:
Get specific and let them be actionable.
For example, take care of myself mentally and physically sounds really vague. It also means completely different things for different people. It takes time and effort to figure out what it is that makes YOU mentally and physically well. It took me the whole year in 2019 to realize that what I need is:
- Eat healthy
- Exercise
- Spend time alone
Ok, we’re getting more specific! But remember, these things all take time and won’t happen if you don’t plan it well. You need structures. Here is what my weekly agenda looks like:
Meal Prep
Monday: Order groceries on Amazon Fresh
Tuesday: Groceries delivered to my door
Wednesday: Meal prep (Thursday — Sunday)
Thursday: Enjoy food!
Friday: Create meal plan for next week
Saturday: Enjoy food!
Sunday: Pick up groceries and meal prep (Monday — Wednesday)
Exercise
Monday: Dance practice
Tuesday: Legs
Wednesday: Dance practice
Thursday: Abs, butt
Friday: Dance practice
Saturday: Teach dance class
Sunday: Abs, arms, and back
This is what I call structures. I know exactly what needs to happen every day and there is very little decision making needed. I also go one step further and schedule everything out on my calendar. Again, the idea is that if you want something to happen, you need to create the structure, which in this case means to carve out time on your calendar. I’ll discuss the techniques I use for time management in my future posts!
So, what does your weekly structure look like?
