Why I’m Changing Resolutions after a Week (and I think you should too)

Einstein is credited with saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results (presumably just before saying he was getting quite tired of being lazily misquoted on the internet).

Whether Albert said this or not, one year or another we have all fallen prey to the insanity of Resolutions season.

One often-cited study suggests that only 8% of people keep their New Years Resolutions, despite likely having tried year after year.

The reasons why resolutions fail have been explored in depth elsewhere (see here, for instance).

For my purposes, it’s worth recognising that we demand titanic efforts of sacrifice from ourselves every January 1st.

We boldly commiting to year-long additions and abstinences that we have no track record of preserving, and if we fail on attempt #1, we bury it for next January 1st.

This year, I decided to ditch the year-long resolution I would never keep, and made a plan for 52 week-long resolutions instead.

You can copy and use a Google Sheets form of this method here (or just view here), but paper and pen works just fine.

Here’s how it works:

1. Write down a list of resolutions. Don’t worry, you don’t need 52.
2. Start with number one on the list. Write next to it today’s date, and the date in a week’s time.
3. Try your best to keep to your resolution until the week is up.
4. After 7 days, reflect on how you did.

This period of reflection is key to the system. Otherwise, you’ll just repeat the churn of insanity 52 times over.

When reflecting, ask yourself: Did you stick to your resolution? If not, why not? Was your life better with your resolution? Would life be better if you altered this resolution going forward?

Reflecting lets you consider the impact and potential of your resolution before it’s consigned to the dustbin of broken promises. In your reflection, you should reach one of four outcomes:

If you suceeded, great! It’s onto the next one for you. If not, go to step 5:

5. Revise and redeploy your resolution in the following week

Revising your resolution may feel like cheating, but I want to argue it’s not — it’s about being realistic.

When a resolution fails, we see it as a failure of our character. We chalk it up to a lack of willpower, or the conditions not being right, and then sit on those goals until the next January 1st. In this process, nearly nothing changes.

A week time-frame gives you a rough idea of why a resolution didn’t work, and lets you tinker and try again next week. By reflecting, revising, and redeploying a resolution, we have a chance to retool it until it sticks.

And then it’s on to the next one.

What do I do when I’m finished?

Once you’ve made it through your (retooled) initial list (whether it be 5, 10, or 52 resolutions), it’s time to go back to the top.

Did any old habits slip creep back in? Make them the goal for next week.

Want to take another crack at those failed resolutions, or improve successful ones? Now’s your time to try.

By the end of the year, you’ll have hopefully a concrete list of revised resolutions, refined and stuck to across the year.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be a calendar year — the convenience of week-long intervals means that you can start whenever you like.

Conclusion

So there you have it, an alternative system for New Year’s Resolutions. For now, I’m calling it “the 3R Method — Reflect, Revise, Redeploy”. Or “RRResolutions” for short, which happens to be much more fun to say.

Whatever you call it, I hope it helps you to make incremental but meaningful change in your life, one week at a time.

To finish, a quick example from my use of the 3Rs.

For me, escaping the Facebook timesink was my first resolution for the year. I spent Attempt #1 purging Facebook completely from my life.

But it turns out I needed it for a couple of tasks throughout the week. Rather than giving up on my resolution entirely, I’ve since revised my resolution to remove all ‘doomscrolling’ from my life. Two days down, and I’ve yet to give in to the thumb twitch.

One final thought — even if you have to iterate and alter your goals, committing to 80% is a whole world better than abandoning 100%. You’ll have cracked the vicious churn of insanity.

Einstein would be proud.

Thanks for reading! Any ideas for how I could improve this system?

Do you have a alternative system for keeping resolutions?

I’d love to know in the comments!