I saw this list of New Year’s Resolutions on the Did I Get Things Done blog (originally from Amazon)

• Lose Weight
• Get Your Finances in Order
• Go Greener
• Curb Your Vices
• Get in Shape
• Relax More
• Pursue a New Career
• Upgrade Your Technology
• Organize and Optimize
• Start a New Hobby

The main reason that I have had a problem with a resolution is that I don’t really think about them much a week or so after New Year’s. A few years ago, I created a small web app for myself to log how well I was doing at keeping to resolutions I was making. A few months ago, I ported it to the iPhone as Habits.

Instead of making resolutions this year, I created a few habits instead. I want to lose some weight this year (the #1 resolution), so I added a habit to run every 2-3 days, to do bicep/chest and shoulder/tricep weight training once a week. I want to keep my house in better order, so I added a habit to clean up and to process my mail pile more regularly.

A lot of these resolutions should just be a recurring task that you try to do as often as possible.