A new year is upon us, and many of us have made New Year’s resolutions. But, only a week into 2012, how many of us have already let some of those resolutions slip?

The problem with resolutions is we tend not to think them through. Chivvied on by the fast approaching end of the year, we pick something we’d like to change in the next year, and vow to do it. But it’s far too rare that we actually think about how we are going to do this!

So, after the first week of the year, full of good intentions and crossed fingers, let’s try to put our resolutions on a firmer footing, and give ourselves a better chance of actually getting them done this year. Let’s start using our project management skills to make our New Year’s resolutions project successful!

1. Define the resolution – Project Aim

Your first step is to get a clear grip on what you want to achieve. It may be that you have made a general goal, such as ‘lose weight’ or ‘get fit’. The problem with these is that they aren’t specific enough. Remember, in project management we want a clear aim – something precise enough that we know when we have met it. In other words, we need to know what success looks like.

In the two examples above, you could make the aims more specific, for example ‘lose weight’ could become ‘lose twenty pounds’, and ‘get fit’ could become ‘run a half-marathon’.

Remember, though, that you need to make sure your aim is not impossible. Aiming to go from couch potato to ultra-marathon runner in a year is not going to be successful! Be realistic, but don’t forget you should be trying to stretch yourself.

2. Define the benefit – Business Case

Now that you have a clear idea of what you are actually aiming for, you also need to make sure you set down why you want to do this. As you go through the year, there are going to be times when you simply don’t want to keep working towards your goal. After all, if it was easy, you probably wouldn’t be making resolutions about it!

To help you during those times, you need to remind yourself why you are doing this. For example, you may want to lose twenty pounds because you want to look good at your brother’s wedding, or to get fit enough to run a half-marathon so you’ll still be around to walk your 7-year old daughter down the aisle at her wedding. Focussing on the why will make the how seem a lot easier.

3. Define the actions – Plan

So, you know what you want to achieve, and you know why. Now is the important part of figuring out how you are going to do it.

Obviously this part is going to vary depending on what you have actually resolved to do, but there are some important principles you should keep in mind. Remember that you are trying to achieve something which will likely need continued small steps towards it over the year. In the two examples we have been using, we need to make some changes to our lifestyle, and keep them up.

For example, to lose twenty pounds, you may need to start skipping the latte you buy every morning, and eat better in the evenings. To get fit enough to run a half-marathon, you need to build time for exercise into your routine. Each of these are small steps, but they need consistency to have an effect.

Make a plan, and keep revising it. Remember, you need to pencil in the big milestones (e.g. able to run 5k, lost 5 pounds, etc.) that you are aiming for over the year, but you also need to look at a shorter timescale. Plan when you are going to train over the next two weeks, and stick to it. Revise the plan every week, to keep it up to date with everything else going on around you.

The important thing to remember is to not just have an aspiration, however well defined you have made it. You also need to take concrete steps towards achieving it – and the first of those steps is to create a plan!

4. Evaluate often – Project Monitoring

It is important that you keep an eye on how you are doing. It can be far too easy to allow the good intentions to be overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of life. Partly this can be combatted by making sure you keep your plan up to date, but partly it can be fought by evaluating where you are now.

Sometimes this will be a pleasant experience, as you realise you have done all you were supposed to, and are well on track. Sometimes it will be decidedly unpleasant, as you realise you have skipped too many actions, and are falling behind. But both of these are useful – good news can encourage you to carry on, and bad news can spur you to greater efforts.

On final word on this: in a project, sometimes we will have to change our plans, or even our aims, because we realise in our monitoring we have been too ambitious, and can’t achieve it. While ideally you will have avoided this with your resolutions project by setting a realistic goal, even realistic goals could be damaged by unforeseen events (e.g. a twisted ankle or broken leg preventing training). If this is the case, don’t give up completely – revise your aim, and work towards this new goal. Don’t make it too easy, though – it should still be a stretch.

5. Reward yourself – Milestones

A year is an awful long time to work at something without reward. I mentioned pencilling in some big milestones into your plan. When you meet these, reward yourself! They are a sign you are on the right track. Do something as a little gift to yourself – go to the movies, treat yourself to a good book, something that you enjoy – but that won’t derail your efforts so far!

6. Success! – Project Closure

Hopefully, by the end of the year, you will have met your goals. Even if you haven’t, you will have made some progress. Now is the time to evaluate how you did, to bask in the glory of having achieved your goals, or identify why you’ve missed them.

And why do you do this? Simple – now you can make a better plan for next year! Using the information you have on how you did this year, you can make an even better plan for next year. Now could be the time to start reading up on the Boston marathon…

Best of luck with your resolutions – and please wish me luck with mine (I need it!).