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Fight through post-holiday haze.

This “haze” sets in after any holiday—it’s the anti-climax, the regular routine rushing back in, often we face lots of clean-up, we may be returning from traveling, we have to adjust back to the work schedule, etc.

Here are ideas for fighting through the haze:

• Think ahead and buy anything you need—often there are big sales.
• Try to deal with decorations quickly; it can be a big drag to see them well into the new year. Consider having a standard day for dismantling everything.
• If you’re particularly pleased by an arrangement of decorations, take a photo so you can copy it next year if you want.
• As you put away your new possessions, weed through your current possessions to identify items to give away, toss, or recycle. (For more ideas on clutter-clearing, check out my book Outer Order, Inner Calm.
• Plan something fun so you have something to look forward to.
• To ease into work, let yourself start with minor tasks or work on your favorite major project — to help you re-acclimate to the workplace with enthusiasm.

Happiness Hack

Because so many people include “Read more” as an item on their “20 for 2020” lists or as a New Year’s resolution, consider the “First Fifteen,” a program that encourages people in a workplace to begin their days by reading for fifteen minutes. If you want to see my one-pager on “Reading Better Than Before,” with ideas about making a habit of reading, it’s here.

Happiness Stumbling Block

Not keeping New Year’s resolutions.  This very common stumbling block led me to write my book Better Than Before, all about how to change our habits, and for that book, I created many resources.

• The book Better Than Before describes all 21 strategies for habit change. Twenty-one sounds like a lot, but it’s good to know all your options, because different strategies work for different people.
• Better Than Before: A Day-by-Day Journal will help you track your resolutions and figure out how to keep them more successfully
• Checklist for Habit Change
• Habits Manifesto
• Exercising Better Than Before
• Working Better Than Before
• Eating Before Than Before
• Reading Better Than Before
• Daily Time Log

Writing Better Than Before led me to write The Four Tendencies, because I was puzzled by patterns that I saw in how people did or didn’t successfully change their habits or stick to New Year’s resolutions.

To find out if you’re an Upholder, Questioner, Obliger, or Rebel, take the free, quick quiz here. (2.5 million people have taken this quiz). If you want to learn more about how to use the strengths of your Tendency to keep your resolutions, you can:

• read the book The Four Tendencies,
• take the online video course to go deep,
• teach the workshop if you want your co-workers, friends, team, etc. to learn about the framework,
• get the resources,
• join my free app, the Better app

Find all The Four Tendencies resources here.

Gretchen’s Demerit

I didn’t press Jamie to tell me the date of his office holiday party, even though I know perfectly well, from years of experience, that he never remembers to tell me the date.

Elizabeth’s Gold Star

Elizabeth gave herself a gold star for getting back into hiking — she and Sarah talked about this habit on their podcast, Happier in Hollywood. Perfect timing for our Walk 20 for ’20 undertaking.

1. Are you joining us in making a “20 for 2020″ list? I created a PDF you can download to write out your list and post it somewhere to keep it at the top of your mind throughout the year.
2. And if you’re joining us for “Walk 20 in ‘20,” I created a PDF where you can use to check off every day you walk for 20 minutes and see your progress throughout the year.