Community Corner

Will Time Torpedo Your New Year's Resolution?

It will according to one expert. Every year about this time, millions of New Year's resolutions are made but will be broken within 60 days.

People are going to lose weight, get in shape, learn a language or some other skill, spend more time relaxing, eat better, spend more time with their family, travel more, and in general improve their lives.

Doug Sundheim, Executive Coach and co-author of the book, 25 Best Time Management Tools and Techniques, believes, “as well-intentioned as these resolutions are, 30-60 days from now most of them will have fallen by the wayside.”

The reason? Those making the resolution did a poor job of managing their time, ending up not being able to carry out any of their New Year’s Resolution effectively, ultimately short-changing themselves and their families, friends, and co-workers.

Find out what's happening in Powaywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

If you want to increase the success rate of your New Year’s Resolutions, Sundheim suggests three things. 

1.  Prioritize what you want to accomplish.  It’s impossible to accomplish everything.  If your list is too long you won’t accomplish any of it.  Pick your top 1-3 goals and focus on those.  Not only will those have a better chance of getting done, but once you’re on your way to accomplishing them, you can then move on to other goals on your list.

Find out what's happening in Powaywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

2.  Reduce information overload.  When you have too much information coming in, your brain can’t handle it.  You end up accomplishing little and wasting time managing it all.  The antidote is to unsubscribe, toss out, pare down, and be very selective about the information you do allow to reach you.

3.  Learn to say no.  Too many people say yes to everyone and end up with little or no time left to do what’s important to them.  If you say no, you’re telling yourself and others what’s important to you.  Not so oddly, that’s what you’ll end up getting done and getting done well.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here