People have made New Year’s resolutions since a time before Adam and Eve enrolled in play school. Leastways in some form, as according to Wiki the Babylonians and the Romans made promises to their gods at the start of each year.
Most people make new year resolutions. Check. Most people make them in early January. Check. I made mine at the start of March. I know, I know, I know, that’s procrastination beyond procrastination.
At the beginning of each year I usually write-up a set of to do lists covering different categories such as: house, personal, garden etc. In early January, other things, including making preparations for my holiday to Jordan, were on my mind. So instead of putting together proper lists I scrawled a semi-legible jigsaw of ideas into a notebook.
I used to cleave limpet-like, to the belief that – ‘I don’t make resolutions’. My lists normally contain: things I feel I have to do, e.g. prune a certain shrub before it takes over triffid-style my tiny garden; things I would like to do e.g. visit Stockholm; and things I feel I should do, e.g. take more exercise. The reality is, of course, that the should do’s on my lists are resolutions.
At the end of February I still hadn’t knitted the aforementioned scrawls of my have-to, like-to, should-do items for 2017 into a set of coherent lists. So I took the easy route by ditching a yearly perspective and deciding to make resolutions and to do lists monthly.
I have just two simple resolutions for March. The first is to eat a salad for my main meal twice a week. The second is do something different once a week. The something different could be anything – cook a new recipe, visit a coffee shop I’ve never been to, drive from A to B by a different route … Apparently doing things differently and doing different things is good for us.
I have listed one to-do for March. It’s to clear out the back bedroom which has served as a repository for a tornado of stuff since I moved into the house. I need to do this so I can get it decorated and install a new wardrobe. To clear it properly I will need to do a monstrous declutter. Cue psyching myself up to banish the phrase ‘I might use this one day’ from my vocabulary.
Having just one thing on my to-do list for the month feels like cheating but getting that room cleared out is something that’s so long overdue that I will be mightly pleased if I finally get it done. I deliberately made my March resolutions super-easy and eminently doable so that moving through the month isn’t metered by pangs of guilt caused by resolution failures. And If I succeed in keeping them I can try a couple of harder ones in April.
Just Add Attitude 
Step by step resolutions are the way to go and lists are good for the soul (item one “make a list”). Best of luck with the de-clutter. As one who has come out of the end(??) of a major de-clutter, I can testify to the satisfaction – and to the curious sensation of not wanting to re-clutter. GXX
Thank you so much G. Bxxx
Best of luck with your resolutions which are practical and doable IMHO.
Thank you so much and I am sorry for the delayed reply.
Steady does it! 🙂 🙂 Totally without resolve, the imminent arrival of my son’s new lady friend got our study cleared in record time. 🙂 Sadly, much of it was just stuffed in a cupboard for ‘later’.
It’s a bit too steady – I need to go a little faster as the end of the month is nigh! Having visitors is a great incentive to clear out! 😉
I hope you were successful with your resolutions…they sound like good ones for most of us.
Thank you Karen. Mostly I was. 😉