I do not think I'm using my monthly cards well - in fact, I've stopped doing them at all, I just realized.
Does anyone have tips, descriptions of how they use theirs, or other observations that might be useful?
Thanks!
Monthly cards?
1. Don't worry too much. The daily cards are much more important.
2. Come up with a list of potential monthly resolutions in advance, so you're not choosing one at the spur of the moment at the beginning of the month. Keeping a list is also helpful because there are probably a million things you want to resolve to do NOW and since that's simply not possible, writing them down for the future lets you stop worrying about them and focus on just one thing at a time.
3. Don't commit to anything until you feel reasonably sure about it. It's ok to be a few days into the month resolution-less. Much better no resolution or a late one than a lousy one that you aren't going to be able to keep anyway.
4. Stick with just 1 resolution at a time. If you get it done before the month is done, then maybe you can try to squeeze another in.
5. Set yourself up for success by coming up with realistic resolutions that you aren't going to make yourself crazy trying to attain. This is tricky, so I'd recommend making your initial few resolutions very unambitious, until you get a good feel for what you can actually get done.
6. Do not make your resolutions unnecessarily specific. A little open endedness means you're going to have an easier time counting it as a success -- this is motivationally important. It's also "tactically" important. You don't want your high level strategy to lock you into implementational details which you may not be in a position to properly understand yet. Example: last month I resolved to write a new program at work using a new technology. Since I didn't really know precisely what would be involved, I didn't want to commit myself to having the program ready for public release, or to have any specific features, just that I would somehow have a version "done" in some sense of the word by the end of the month. The resolution spurred me to get a lot done, and by the end of the month, I had no trouble feeling that I had indeed accomplished what I'd set out to do: I had a useful, impressive little program that convinced the higher ups that this was worth pursuing further. If I'd set more specific goals I might have felt like a failure despite all this achievement, or pursued misguided ends simply to check something off a checklist.
Reinhard
2. Come up with a list of potential monthly resolutions in advance, so you're not choosing one at the spur of the moment at the beginning of the month. Keeping a list is also helpful because there are probably a million things you want to resolve to do NOW and since that's simply not possible, writing them down for the future lets you stop worrying about them and focus on just one thing at a time.
3. Don't commit to anything until you feel reasonably sure about it. It's ok to be a few days into the month resolution-less. Much better no resolution or a late one than a lousy one that you aren't going to be able to keep anyway.
4. Stick with just 1 resolution at a time. If you get it done before the month is done, then maybe you can try to squeeze another in.
5. Set yourself up for success by coming up with realistic resolutions that you aren't going to make yourself crazy trying to attain. This is tricky, so I'd recommend making your initial few resolutions very unambitious, until you get a good feel for what you can actually get done.
6. Do not make your resolutions unnecessarily specific. A little open endedness means you're going to have an easier time counting it as a success -- this is motivationally important. It's also "tactically" important. You don't want your high level strategy to lock you into implementational details which you may not be in a position to properly understand yet. Example: last month I resolved to write a new program at work using a new technology. Since I didn't really know precisely what would be involved, I didn't want to commit myself to having the program ready for public release, or to have any specific features, just that I would somehow have a version "done" in some sense of the word by the end of the month. The resolution spurred me to get a lot done, and by the end of the month, I had no trouble feeling that I had indeed accomplished what I'd set out to do: I had a useful, impressive little program that convinced the higher ups that this was worth pursuing further. If I'd set more specific goals I might have felt like a failure despite all this achievement, or pursued misguided ends simply to check something off a checklist.
Reinhard