I’m not a fan of the New Year’s Resolution craze. As a kid, I think I was sucked in to the mystical glamor of thinking that the first day of a new year is somehow more special than the remaining 364, but after numerous “resolution” failures, I adopted my dad’s favorite holiday phrase:
It’s just another day.
Now, I know that might sound a bit pessimistic, even fatalistic, but if you cut the NY stuff down to the bare bones, you’ll see what I mean. January 1st has no inherent magical qualities, no special morning fairy dust to help you achieve your goals more than, say, March 22 or August 4. Think about it: how many times have you decided to do something (stop smoking, exercise more, spend more time with someone, keep your house clean, etc.) and there’s a magical day you’ve waited for to get yourself going–only to find your energy and enthusiasm wane in the first three weeks when reality (aka LIFE) gets in the way? There’s always something that sets us back, and in lots of cases, back far enough that we never fully recover.
That’s why I don’t set resolutions on NY. Don’t get me wrong–I’m not saying I don’t plan my projects, try to improve myself and my writing, or find small ways to tweak my behavior to get more results I desire. I just don’t buy into the whole January 1st thing. I prefer more of a quarterly reflection. By the end of three months, I know whether or not my goal for writing 3,000 words a day is too lofty during the school year (it is) or if my intention of finishing the second draft of my novel in six months is too lax (it isn’t).
The way I spend the quarters of my year is very different since I’m on a school schedule (as a teacher), so to decide in January that I’m going to finish a draft of a book or project in three months, during one of the busiest times of the year for me, is foolish. Those first three months of the year are about sustaining and convincing myself to come back to the page on a daily basis when the lack of sunlight combined with the stress my students face with the constant state testing create daily train-wrecks in my working life and depress me. Once spring comes, and with it, the advent of summer vacation, my output usually doubles since I have the time and mental focus back. Moving into fall and winter bring changes, too, to my work and approach, and give me a chance to wrap things up and move on to new ones.
So if you’ve discovered that resolutions aren’t cutting it for you, slow down and think of your year in a series of related chunks of time and how that works with your process. Saying you’ll write XX words a week starting January 1st doesn’t do you any good if you’ve not realized that’s not your most creative time. If anything, treat each quarter or even each month as a new chance to set meaningful goals based on what you’ve got coming up or know about your process (and if you don’t know about your process, this is the time to think about it…take notes…reflect…). You’ll accomplish more and be less frustrated when 2011 rolls around…which, really, should be everyone’s resolution 
How do you set goals and face the New Year’s Resolution bandwagon?
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