While making my list of interesting articles for the week, it was just as hard to avoid the dozens of articles on New Year’s resolutions as it was for me to avoid making any resolutions myself.  Given that it is January 2 and I have already failed at one of my non-resolutions (to say “no” more often), I couldn’t help but get swept into the Resolution fever after reading these.  I won’t offer to divulge any more about my personal battle with resolutions [Editor's note: research shows that making your resolutions public could help:)], but I have tried to put together a highlight reel with some new ideas to help you rethink how you might accomplish your 2018 resolutions. 

The articles I read typically fall into one of two categories: behavioral pieces or action-specific pieces.  For the first category, Tim’s repost of a blog by Shane Parrish of Farnham Street Blog is an excellent starting point.  If you haven’t yet read it, you should, but the bottom line is: form a good habit and forget about the quantifiable goals you typically set.  Katherine Milkman, a behavioral economist at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote The Science of Keeping Your New Years Resolutions, which would be a great follow-up read.  She discusses four strategies and the research supporting the potential success of each.  Here is a brief description of each, but all address forming a good habit:

• Jump start – whatever the activity you want to add, start right away, do it often, and it just might stick.
• Take a mulligan – give yourself a little leeway and you are more likely to be successful
• Piggybacking – the example here was to add a new behavior to one that is already ingrained (add flossing to brushing teeth)
• Temptation bundling – do something you want to do while doing the thing you don’t really want to do (indulge in watching your favorite TV series while on the treadmill)

Daniel Pink’s essay in the Wall Street Journal, How to Be Healthier, Happier and More Productive: It’s All in the Timing, rounds out the list in this first category.  Based on science, it discusses how we are more successful at completing different types of tasks at different times of the day.  So spending your lunch hour working on your novel may not be the best idea.

 I put three other articles in the second category.  I view these more as checklists than resolutions per se, but they offer good advice for your technological and financial health.  The Cleveland Plain Dealer “Money Matters’ Columnist, Teresa Dixon Murray, penned Get going on a few of these financial resolutions.  There are too many practical concepts in here to begin to list, but as I never use my debit card except to get cash, I am always happy when an expert declares herself to be in my camp.  One I hadn’t thought of? “Stop giving information about yourself just because they ask.”  The cashier doesn’t need your phone number, and the dentist doesn’t need your SSN.  And check out the NYT’s 5 New Year’s Resolutions to Protect Your Technology if you want a similar list for your personal technology.

The CNBC piece Here’s how to get the most out of your 2018 Financial Resolutions includes an interview with Stacey Tisdale.  The interesting advice in this is all about preparing for natural disasters.  After a year full of them, it is timely advice.  The basics—keep an emergency kit with $500 cash and all of your insurance info in it (policy numbers and contact numbers) to grab when the storm/fires hit!   

Wishing you all a Happy and Healthy 2018!!

Beth

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This piece covers a wide array of topics, and NGPF has activities that cover many of them. 

• Blog Post: For Financial Success, What Is More Important, Habits or Goals? 
• Insurance Case Study: Like a Good Neighbor, Narwhal Is There
• Financial Pitfalls Data Crunch #3: How Prevalent Is Financial Fraud?

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