Groundhog Day Resolutions

Posted Sunday, March 13, 2022 by Sri.Tagged GHDR

GHDR stands for "Groundhog Day Resolutions", a yearly planning ritual that I have been doing since 2007. It was based on two observations:

  1. Traditional New Year Resolutions were inconveniently-timed; who is ready to make big year decisions on January 1st? Not me! I need at least a month to close-out the year and recover from the holiday season. I use January 1 to start thinking about the year to come.

  2. Using the "double day" MONTH/DAY pattern made it easier to remember when to reflect on my goals, as regular reflection is necessary to keep on-track with any long-term goal.

Here are all the official dates of a GHDR calendar year:

02/02 Feb 2

Groundhog Day! Lay down the strategic plan!

03/03 Mar 3

Monthly Review #1

04/04 Apr 4

Monthly Review #2

05/05 May 5

Monthly Review #3

06/06 Jun 6

Monthly Review #4

07/07 Jul 7

Monthly Review #5 - Review strategic direction, adjust goals as necessary.

08/08 Aug 8

Monthly Review #6 - Optionally take off a month to enjoy the summer.

09/09 Sep 9

Monthly Review #7

10/10 Oct 10

Monthly Review #8

11/11 Nov 11

Monthly Review #9

12/12 Dec 12

Final Review #10 - Summarize achievements for the year, break for holidays.

REFERENCES

  • Most of the reports are tagged ghdr on my old website. You can read the original kickoff post here!
  • There is a GHDR overgoal that came to me in 2022. All of my GHDR goals from 2007 onward were variations of the overgoal.