New Years Resolution Challenge

Bet a lot of you are thinking about that New Year new you thing right? Same here. Time flies and before you know it, its time to ring in the new year. For some of us New Years resolution seems, well… lackluster. Sure, you’ll come up with a few very well thought out goals for 2016 only to have them abandoned at the 2 week mark. Goals are hard. Our solution? Spread them throughout the year and make it a weekly or monthly challenge.

Step 1: Top Goals for 2016

Think of 12 to 24 goals you would really like to achieve in 2016. We say 12 to 24 because you want to spread these challenges out and give yourself plenty of time to work your way there. No rush. Any successful endeavor requires ample time for planning and let’s face it, between work, school, daily errands and etc, time is a fleeting commodity. Limit yourself to top (and realistic) goals by brainstorming a list and then select a few you’d like to focus on in the coming year.

Step 2: Set the Challenge

Formed your top goals? Set a realistic challenge. Grab a calendar and map out your time limit for these goals. Setting a time limit often help to keep you more focused on a goal and we’ll list a few helpful apps below for time management which will allow you to send alerts to yourself.

How do you set the challenge? We’ll show you a great few examples below for different types of lifestyle goals. Make stackable goals (a few different goals per week or month) and keep improving on yourself for 2016.

Tip: Planning is the key to achieving your goals. Think of it as guidelines to help you keep track of all your ventures and remember, nothing is set in stone. Adjust your goals as you see fit (but no cheating!).

Fitness

• Exercise at least 3 days per week
• Take a yoga/pilate/zumba/etc class 2-3 times per week
• Run a mile per day for 4 days
• Take the 30 day fitness challenges
• Monthly fitness challenges for the year: cardio blast, jump rope, kick master, beginner’s ab, squats

Health

• Go 15 days without refined sugar
• Replace junk food snack with healthier options (nuts and fruits)
• 1 month without alcohol (or limit alcohol intake to 2 glass per week)
• Limit eating out to 2-3 times per week
• Pinterest has tons of health challenge which includes both workout regimes and health plans, browse and find one that best suits your needs!

Career

• Craft a 6 month goal for personal development at work
• Sign up for a class to learn more about your industry
• Start a small side project you’re passionate about

Step 3: Celebrate Every Milestone

The above are examples of the kind of challenges you can set for yourself. Our top staff tip is to have a physical calendar where you can mark your achievement. After you’ve completed your goals for the week or month, its important to reward yourself too! We’ll leave the rewards part up to you . Not a fan of physical calendars? Check out our top app selections (all free of course!) that will help you stick to your goals!

1. Goals On Track
   This personal productivity app not only helps you keep tabs on your goals but also contain various other tools like journal, habits, tasks and much more. It has all the top tracking features to help you stay on top of goals and everything is fully customizable!
2. Coach.meCoach.me is one of the leading app that provides users with not only tools for keeping track of personal goals but also countless resources with their free habit tracker app. If you have an Apple Watch, Coach.me is also available for that platform plus, join the Coach.me community and get additional plans, coaching and more resources to help you achieve your goals.
3. Strides
   Strides is a no frills simple and well designed productivity app that helps you to manage your goals. One of their top features include statistics and clean charts to help you better visualize each milestone. Strides is a great task management app for budgeting, health, fitness and much more and its simple to use!
4. irunurunAnother simply and beautifully designed app to help you keep track of all your lifestyle goals! irunurun is great for college students, executives, parents and more. Their simple interface makes it easy to establish new habits and tasks.
5. Habitica
   Habitica is one of our top picks as a new comer in the productivity app category with a real cool concept. “Real life role playing” as they call it. Habitica is incredibly simple to use and just like an RPG game, you can ask friends to join, build a community and help each other gain exp, get rewards and fulfill goals. With this easy interface, you can keep tabs on to-dos, dailies, habits and much more. This is definitely an app you can have fun with as you arrive at each step to your goals.

That wraps up our guide to New Years resolution challenge for 2016. Keep strong and conquer your goals!

by Victoria Cao