The Best Way To Make Your Resolution Stick (2015)

A work plan is an outline of a set of goals and processes by which a team and/or person can accomplish those goals, offering the reader a better understanding of the scope of the project. Work plans, whether used in professional or academic life, help you stay organized while working on projects. Through work plans, you break down a process into small, achievable tasks and identify the things you want to accomplish. Learn how to write a work plan so that you can be prepared for upcoming projects.

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   Identify the purpose for your work plan. Work plans are written for various reasons. Determine the purpose up front so you can prepare properly. Keep in mind that most work plans are for a certain period of time (i.e., 6 months or 1 year).
   • In the workplace, work plans help your supervisor know what projects you will be working on over the next several months. These often come right after an annual performance review or as teams undertake large projects. Work plans can also be the result of strategic planning sessions your organization holds at the beginning of a new calendar or fiscal year.
   • In the academic world, work plans can help students create a schedule for a large project. They can also help teachers plan their course material for the semester.
   • For a personal project, work plans will help you delineate what you intend to do, how you intend to do it, and by what date you intend to have it done. Personal work plans, while not strictly necessary, will help the individual keep track of his/her goals and progress.
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   Write the introduction and background. For professional work plans, you may have to write an introduction and background. These provide your supervisor or manager with the information they need to put your work plan into context. Writing an introduction and background is often unnecessary for an academic work plan.
   • The introduction should be short and engaging. Remind your superiors why you are creating this work plan. Introduce the specific project(s) you will be working on during this time period.
   • The background should highlight the reasons you are creating this work plan. For example, recite details or statistics from recent reports, identify problems that need to be addressed, or build off of recommendations or feedback you received during previous work projects.
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   Determine your goal(s) and objectives. Goals and objectives are related in that they both point to things you hope to accomplish through your work plan. However, remember the differences, too; goals are general and objectives are more specific.
   • Goals should focus on the big picture of your project. List the desired ultimate outcome of your work plan. Keep it broad; for example, make your goal be to complete a research paper or to learn more about writing.
   • Objectives should be specific and tangible. In other words, you should be able to check these off your list when you accomplish them. For example, finding people to interview for your research paper would make a good objective.
   • Many work plans break down objectives into short-, middle-, and long-term objectives if they vary significantly. For example, a company's short-term goal to increase viewership 30% in three months may vary significantly from its long-term goal to strengthen brand visibility in social media outlets over the next year.
   • Objectives are generally written in the active voice and use action verbs with specific meanings (e.g. "plan," "write," "increase," and "measure") instead of verbs with vaguer meanings (e.g. "examine," "understand," "know," etc.).
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   Consider ordering your work plan by "SMART" objectives. SMART is an acronym used by individuals searching for more tangible, actionable outcomes in work plans.
   • Specific. What exactly are we going to do for whom? Lay out what population you are going to serve and any specific actions you will use to help that population.
   • Measurable. Is it quantifiable and can we measure it? Can you count the results? Did you structure the work plan so that "health in South Africa would increase in 2020?" or did you structure it so that "cases of HIV/AIDS in newborn South African babies would decrease 20% by 2020?"
     • Remember that a baseline number needs to be established to quantify change. If you don't know the incidence rate of HIV/AIDS among South African newborns, it's going to be impossible to reliably say that you decreased incidence rates by 20%.
   • Achievable. Can we get it done in the time allotted with the resources we have available? The objective needs to be realistic given the constraints. Increasing sales by 500% is reasonable only if you're a small company. Increasing sales by 500% if you dominate the market is near impossible.
     • In some cases, an expert or authority may need to be consulted to figure out if your work plan objectives are achievable.
   • Relevant. Will this objective have an effect on the desired goal or strategy? Although it's probably important for overall health, does measuring the height and weight of high-schoolers directly lead to change in mental health procedures? Make sure your objectives and methods have a clear, intuitive relationship.
   • Time bound. When will this objective be accomplished, and/or when will we know we are done? Specify a hard end date for the project. Stipulate which, if any, outcomes would cause your project to come to a premature end, with all outcomes having been achieved.
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   List your resources. Include anything that will be necessary for you to achieve your goals and objectives. Resources will vary, depending on the purpose of your work plan.
   • At the workplace, resources can include things like financial budget, personnel, consultants, buildings or rooms, and books. A detailed budget may appear in an appendix if your work plan is more formal.
   • In the academic arena, resources may include access to different libraries; research materials like books, newspapers, and journals; computer and Internet access; and professors or other individuals who can help you if you have questions.
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   Identify any constraints. Constraints are obstacles that may get in the way of achieving your goals and objectives. For example, if you are working on a research paper for school, you may find that your schedule is too crowded to allow you to research and write properly. Therefore, a constraint would be your overwhelming schedule, and you would need to cut something out during the semester in order to complete your work plan effectively.
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   Who is accountable. Accountability is essential for a good plan. Who is responsible for completing each task? There can be a team of people working on a task (see resources) but one person has to be answerable to a task being completed on time.
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   Write your strategy. Look over your work plan and decide how you will use your resources and overcome your constraints in order to reach your goals and objectives.
   • List specific action steps. Identify what needs to happen each day or week for you to complete your objectives. Also list steps other people on your team will need to take. Consider using project management software or a personal calendar to keep this information organized.
   • Create a schedule. Though you can create a tentative work schedule, realize that unexpected things happen and you need to build space into your schedule to prevent falling behind.

It is the end of the year—a time when millions of people make promises to improve their lives and themselves. According to a recent Marist Poll, 59 % of people kept their New Year resolutions in 2014. So what is it that makes a resolution stick? One expert, Judith Beck, Ph.D. , president of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy in Philadelphia and a clinical associate professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, explains the benefits of a buddy system and why vague goals fail.

For All Those Procrastinators
New Year’s resolutions tend to encompass big commitments that people have put off. “Usually these are things that are difficult to do, otherwise we would have done them already,” explains Dr. Beck.
The most common January goals focus on weight loss and better general health, but nearly all of them fit into one of seven categories: physical health, organization, relationships, how to spend leisure time, spirituality, creativity and work. “Some people want to get back to the way they used to be, and are committed to making a full-fledged effort,” Dr. Beck says of the goal-setters. “Others want to expand themselves and feel more fulfilled in life.”
The Stickiness Problem
As any visit to a gym in January will attest, most people can persist with a resolution for a few weeks. But by February, that drive is often depleted and the treadmills go empty. “There is some research to show that people who start trying to lose weight because they’ve had a medical scare are more successful than people who do it for another reason,” explains Dr. Beck. In other words, “Often the resolution will stick if the stakes are very high.”
Typically, though, people fail to stick to their annual goals because the resolutions are too demanding, vague or unrealistic. “There can also be external factors. If your objective is to spend more time with family, you may need the cooperation of your teenagers to plan more outings, for example,” Dr. Beck says.
Learning to Cope
When people feel unmotivated or discouraged, says Dr. Beck, they have unhelpful thoughts that interfere with working toward their goal. “So you need to predict in advance what thoughts you might have, when you’re feeling more gung-ho—like now, before you’ve even started—and write them down,” says the cognitive-behavioral therapist. “Nobody is taught how to get back on track when they make a mistake,” she says, but a person can take control of sabotaging thoughts by reading those responses daily.
Dr. Beck also advises clients to imagine themselves in a year or five years, both having reached their goals and establishing them as habits and having failed.
“No-Choice” Category
Most people have some positive behaviors that they might not consistently want to do but they decide to always do anyway. Dr. Beck calls this the “no-choice category,” and places putting on a seat belt or getting dressed for work in this column. “We do them without struggle because we don’t give ourselves a choice,” she says. “It’s the choice that makes sticking to a resolution so difficult.” She suggests putting positive behaviors on a mental “no-choice” list and reaffirm them daily. “If you never give yourself the option to eat dessert, you’ll never have the struggle,” she says.
Don’t Wait to Motivate
Dr. Beck has witnessed firsthand that taking action sparks motivation. “Once you actually get to the gym, the first minute may be difficult, but it almost always gets easier,” she says. She also says that the best way to stick to a resolution is to have an accountability system, whether that is an app or a partner, she says.
When you do put on those gym clothes, she adds, you need to congratulate yourself. “Constant affirmation is essential to success,” says Dr. Beck.