Tracking your New Year’s resolutions

DEBBIE JACOB

NEW YEAR'S resolutions. We make them, break them and sometimes forget all about them. We rarely feel we achieve our goals. But there are ways to do better.

Experts say good New Year’s resolutions should be measurable. For example, don’t vow to get in better shape this year. Make a pact to get in better shape by going to the gym three times a week or walking five days a week. In other words, your goal must include ways to achieve it.

Keeping track of goals in your head or writing them down on paper never works. Instead, make the internet your partner. The internet provides a gold mine of free apps designed to help track many goals digitally.

Here are some of my suggestions for making and tracking useful goals for the new year:

First, check out this article featured in Good Housekeeping magazine at
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/wellness/advice/g985/achievable-new-year-resolutions/. You’ll find useful resolutions and ways to track them. Also, Good Housekeeping has its own book club. Sign up and read a suggested “feel good” book every month.

If your goal is to get in better shape, try the resolution, I will lose weight by using a daily calorie tracker. This is a proven way to drop pounds. Sign up for
myfitnesspal.com to track calories and break down your sugar, protein, fat carbohydrate and sodium.

You can find the number of calories in the food you’re eating, track each meal and snack along with the amount of water you drink, get ideas for meals and read many interesting articles about health and weight loss. Track your weight and see your weight loss graphed.

There’s always something to discover on this site. Like many free sites, you will be given the chance to upgrade for a fee, but I have used this site for years and find the free app sufficient.

I haven’t tried a budgeting app but you can find something to fit your needs from a simple Google spreadsheet to GnuCash, the best desktop software for small businesses. The link below offers ideas on free budgeting apps. Click on the hyperlinks in the story to see what is available. Check out this site:
Here are the best free budgeting tools of 2022

Reading is important. I can’t say that enough times. It’s the cheapest form of entertainment and it develops analytical skills and empathy necessary for school and life. Check out
goodreads.com, an amazon.com-owned site for setting reading goals and tracking the books you read. You’ll see what books other readers choose and find readers’ reviews and ratings. Every year Goodreads has its own contests for readers to vote on the best books in each genre.

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to do more t’ai chi. Type in Jet Li t'ai chi academy on YouTube and you will find t'ai chi lessons by the actor, which are fun and informative. Type Qigong exercises on YouTube and discover a myriad of t’ai chi exercises that targets pain or just promotes relaxation. T’ai chi is a great way to get in shape. It is meditation in motion so you get the added benefit of learning how to relax while you exercise.

Exercise your mind by signing up for Wordle in the New York Times. Wordle gives you six tries to choose the five-letter word for the day. It’s fun exercise for the mind. You can only play Wordle once a day so you can’t get obsessed with it like other online games. Find Wordle at
https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html or just type in New York Times wordle.

Journaling is a good habit that helps you focus on your day, organise your thoughts and work out your feelings. Move beyond the old-fashioned way of writing in a diary and try a digital diary instead. The site below offers many ideas about which online journal to choose:
https://www.makeuseof.com/best-online-journal-sites/.

I have used Penzu before and found it user-friendly. Online journals are easy and convenient. They provide reminders so you can get into the daily habit of writing in your diary. Some electronic diaries provide writing prompts in case you are stuck about what to write.

Keeping track of New Year’s resolutions is easy and fun when you make use of technology, which is always changing and evolving for better results. Surf the net to find free apps for many of the New Year’s resolutions you set for this year. Good luck!