My 2 New Year's Streaks That Are Already Transforming My Year
What I did instead of traditional resolutions — and how it's paying off
Last year, I wrote about my philosophy on New Year’s resolutions and why I don’t love them. Instead, I set year-long goals. Semantics aside, there is a real difference.
New Year’s resolutions are, traditionally, broad, sweeping commitments to change one makes on January 1st.
Year-long goals, in contrast, are more focused, actionable challenges to actually drive that desired change.
Going into 2024, I identified two areas of my life on which I wanted to focus. Both are related to time management and discipline — and both were areas in which I have been struggling. But, if I could get both under control, it would unlock not only my book writing project but make everything in my day-to-day life smoother.
Here’s what they are and how I turned them from the traditional New Year’s resolution format into personal challenges.
Challenge #1: Maximizing Work Time
The first thing I wanted to fix was how I’m using my designated work sessions. I’m trying to squeeze a lot into a day, and doing so requires getting the most out of my work time. I use a mix of time blocking, an accountability app called Focusmate, and Pomodoro cycles to designate time for work.
Unfortunately, I’d found myself getting too loose with my time blocks of work, sometimes letting web surfing or other distractions kill part of, or virtually all of, my time where I’m supposed to be focused.
The time waste was bad, but not the entirety of the problem; there was a frustrating spillover effect as well. Often my time waste meant I wouldn’t finish the work for my job during my standard work hours, so I would have to resume at night. In the process, something (almost always my books) would get bumped.
Traditional New Year’s resolution-style attempt to fix this problem: “Make better use of my work time” (vague)
My year-long challenge version: “A streak where every time I begin a time block, I start working at the very first second.”
Like every person in the world, the act of starting is often the hardest part for me.
Once I get into the flow of whatever I’m working on, I can keep going without an issue. With this challenge, I don’t let myself start a work block by finishing whatever article I had just been reading or whatever video I had just been watching. Instead, I jump directly into the project I’ve planned for that session.
I phrased it a streak because that doesn’t allow me any wiggle room or exceptions. Each work session matters toward the streak. My brain won’t let me break the streak.
Challenge #2: Fixing My Sleep
The other area I wanted to solve was related to my sleep: I needed to stop staying up so late at night.
I’m an extreme night owl by nature; I tend to get a real burst of energy around 10:00 P.M. — no matter how exhausted I thought I was. Unfortunately, the world is not made for night owls, so I can’t just embrace my nature to work all night and sleep all day.
Instead, I do some work at night during my burst of energy. Then, after about 90 minutes or so, I am out of mental energy after the day. So I get into bed to unwind with a little TV. But not being at all tired (just mentally drained), I’d binge watch episode after episode of random TV shows.
This was pushing the time I went to sleep later and later — but again, because of how the world works, I couldn’t push my wake up time in accordance.
I was having way too many nights of only four or five hours of sleep. I don’t think it’s a coincidence I got sick more often last year than any other year I can remember. And even when I wasn’t sick, I was spending a lot of time feeling exhausted, groggy, and short-tempered.
Traditional New Year’s resolution-style attempt to fix this problem: “Go to sleep earlier” (vague) / “Stop watching TV before bed” (unsustainable and unrealistic, plus I really enjoy doing it and look forward to it)
My year-long challenge version: “A streak of only watching one episode of TV in bed.”
The point of watching TV at the end of my night is to relax and wind down. I don’t need three episodes of a show to do that; one is plenty to scratch the itch.
Again, I made it a streak to eliminate decision-making or exceptions, and for the sake of sustainability and longevity.
The Outcome So Far
Three weeks into 2024, both of my streaks are having the exact desired effect.
I hop right into work at the beginning of my designated work sessions. The result has been exactly as I hoped. I have been getting more work done at my job, I have plenty of time for working on books, and I’ve been feeling a lot less pressure and stress about getting things done.
I watch one episode of TV then go to sleep. It turns out I can go to sleep after one episode, even if I don’t think I’m that tired. I watch my episode of TV, turn off the screen, and I’m usually asleep in about 10 to 15 minutes. I’ve been getting more sleep and finding I’m less tired throughout the day. For the first time in years I rarely ever feel a need to take a quick nap.
To see what I’ve been working every day in my journey toward 100 books, check out the Work Log.