What is "Groundhog Day Resolutions"?

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

Suggested GHDR Report Activities

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 - Adjust goals as necessary

05/05 May 5

Monthly Review #3

06/06 Jun 6

Monthly Review #4 - Adjust goals as necessary

07/07 Jul 7

Monthly Review #5 - Review strategic direction. Optionally take off a month to enjoy the summer.

08/08 Aug 8

Monthly Review #6 - Optionally take off a month to enjoy the summer, or adjust goals as necessary

09/09 Sep 9

Monthly Review #7

10/10 Oct 10

Monthly Review #8 - Adjust goals as necessary to gain closure on the year?

11/11 Nov 11

Monthly Review #9

12/12 Dec 12

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

If you miss the February 2nd start, just start with a different month/day double. So long as you are reviewing regularly, you're winning at GHDR!

Groundhog Day Resolutions (aka GHDR) is a yearly planning ritual with an easy-to-remember schedule. It starts on February 2nd and ends on December 12. There are several things I like about the system:

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. Likewise, the period ends

2. Ease of Knowing When to Review

Using the "double day" MONTH/DAY monthly 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.

3. Ease of Synchronizing with Others

As a bonus, having an easy-to-remember system for review days makes it possible collaborate with others who also want to make a commitment to self-improvement or other goals for the year. We are stronger together!

Philosophy

Originally I thought I could be done in a couple of years to achieve my goals quickly and prosper. In hindsight, my main achievement has been about the commitment to becoming a better version of myself, as irritating as that was initially because I wanted to "be done" as quickly as possible. I found that this just stressed me out; the important habit, I feel, is the commitment to review and assessment.

After running GHDR for more than a decade, it's been more about discovering the deeper implications of what I think I want to achieve, and I've gotten better at acknowledging my strengths, weaknesses, blind spots, and true needs. In hindsight, it's become my system for implementing continuous self-improvement.

While GHDR can be used as part of an efficient results-oriented methodology, this is not a criteria for participating in the yearly ritual. As in Groundhog Day movie, the path to what we desire isn't obvious or direct or fast. I suppose over time, I've learned to just stick with the commitment to try better every year, and use the opportunity to try out new ideas that help me make meaningful progress.

In my current practice, Groundhog Day Resolutions is not intended for extracting maximum efficiency from people. Instead, it presumes that there are a lot of things we want to do are uncertain, ambiguous, and surprisingly challenging. The important thing for someone like me is to not give up hope, to have something new to reach for, and have a supportive group that help lift each other up.

How It Works

Groundhog Day Resolutions is merely a way to remember when to reflect on your progress thanks to the easy-to-remember date pattern. The only requirement is that you commit writing a couple things down every month where you can find it again to read:

  1. Write something you want to do by February 2nd to kick-off the year. It can be as long or short as you like, and you can change your goals on Double Days.
  2. On every Double Day read the previous post, then write a report about how it's going. If you've refined or changed your goal, note that. If you have to take a break, note that too.
  3. At the end of the year read what you wrote

If you like having shared commitment with accountability with others, consider these optional directives:

  1. (optional) Post your kickoff and reports online, optionally tagging it "ghdr" so others can find it.
  2. (optional) Share your report links with members of your peer group.
  3. (optional) Come up with some new plans for next year, itemize what worked and what didn't.

Beyond that, there is no required tracking or reporting format, system, or rulebookMaterials I create for GHDR may be of interest, and they can often be found in the first couple months of each year. Check the year-by-year summary of kickoff posts. so you can use whatever you want!

  • If you're new to doing this kind of reflection+writing, you may want to designate your first year of Groundhog Day Resolutions simply for figuring out a system that works for you. You could use a Tumblr, a Word document called GHDR2025 Journal, etc. The important thing is that you are able to find it and easily write your report so everything is together. That
  • It's hard to write about your thoughts and feelings. Finding a trusted friend or peer to talk-through goals can help.
  • If you are more results-oriented, you can use a hard metrics-based goals+tracking system for your daily activity. Use GHDR for the bigger picture aspirational and meaningful aspects of your experience.

What is the Minimum Viable Implementation?

The basic idea is that GHDR is merely a means to remember when to reflect and to write a reflection that you can review as a collection at the end of the year. The system is agnostic as far as what to do.

At minimum, you just need some place to write, draw, or film somewhere you feel confident and safe so you can be:

  • truthful to yourself
  • authentic in your reaction
  • express your real thoughts and reasons

This may not be a public place, but it could be a private journal you keep.

The bonus element of GHDR is synching-up with others using GHDR as their reminder system. It's up to you how much you share. I would recommend choosing trusted friends that have your best interests at heart; again, psychological safety is important!

Practically speaking, you will also need a reminder to do something related to your chosen goal(s) between Report Days. This is where having a group chat available, poster, reminder card, or other trigger. Pre-scheduling reflection days according to your schedule helps. Also, if your GHDR goal is tied to something you are already doing frequently, that's a good way to have the goal top-of-mind. There's nothing stopping you from writing more than one report in your GHDR records.

Suggestions for Groundhog Day Resolutions Goals

  • a "direction to explore" in a non-commital way
  • a "personal challenge" that you think is worth facing
  • an "experiment" to "see what happens" and "test your knowledge"
  • a project to share "regular progress", or just a single step
  • a class to attend, reporting what you learned
  • a tutorial to follow, posting your results

Oftentimes, our goals are bigger than we think. There's always something unexpected to learn or unforseen obstacles, so you are totally allowed to adapt, improvise, retarget or abandon your goals. Or you could push yourself as hard as you want. It's up to you. GHDR doesn't judge! Life is a series of unexpected indignities and delights, after all, that we can learn from gladly (or otherwise...but we abide)

Examples of Groundhog Day Resolutions

I'm a process nerd so my own examples are heavy on systems design, but you don't have to do it that way.

If you've done a year's worth of Groundhog Day Resolutions online, I'd love to link to it! Let me know one of the contact options at the bottom of the about page.