Now, About Those Resolutions…

As we begin wrapping up 2013, we look back at the things we can improve upon and would like to do differently in the next year. Here are few helpful tips for creating and reaching those attainable New Year’s resolutions for 2014:

Step away from the smartphone

If you spend each and every day with your face hidden behind a smartphone, tablet or computer, make an effort to interact more with the important people around you. Try planning a family night. As much as we love our gadgets, it seems to be turning our family members into strangers. Introduce some more human interaction in your household. Most importantly, keep those phones away from the dinner table!

Actually keeping that “Get Fit” promise

Devices like the FitBit or the Fuel Band are small electronic devices discreet enough to carry around, or even stylish enough to wear on your wrist, that measure and report on your daily activity. They connect to your phone or computer and provide metrics on your daily activity. It allows you to monitor how close you are to obtaining your set daily fitness goal. Sometimes it can be as little as walking the dog or walking up and down stairs instead of taking the elevator.

De-clutter!

Don’t save all that cleaning for the spring. It’s time to clear out inbox of the 700 unread emails that have been sitting there for months. Maybe start some tabs and begin filing your emails in a more efficient system. This can be difficult for some, because if you’re like me, you have a flooded inbox of sale alerts and shopping deals from different retailers. Get rid of that electronic pollution and gain back control over your emails. Another way of freeing up clutter in your life is trying to go paperless. You can easily pay your bills and access important documents from any device with a Wi-Fi connection. Payment systems like PayPal allow you to store a history of your transactions over multiple cards in one easy place or send money digitally through the PayPal app. No need to have bills from different carriers sent to your house. You can even scan old papers and convert your paper files into digital files for safe storage — or at least, as a backup.

Learn something new online

Embark on exciting, self-improvement projects. There are lots of quality courses for every age, interest and attention span for free online. Try learning a new language this year – maybe you’ve been planning a trip to South America. Why not start practicing your Spanish now? If you can’t think of anything, find inspiration through the best Ted Talks or even try including your kids with fun and engaging YouTube videos like the Spangler Science channel.

Seriously, keep those promises!

University of Scranton research suggests that just 8% of people achieve their New Year’s goals. To assist you in keeping these goals you can look to apps like Everest, which encourage you to simplify your goals to be more manageable. Each challenge is broken down into steps which you simply swipe to complete. Stop hitting that snooze button, today is the day you begin reaching these goals. There’s a nifty app that can help you get out of that bed and eliminate that pesky temptation to hit the snooze button every morning. With the Charity Alarm App you have an extra incentive to get out of bed because for every time you hit snooze, you automatically pay $0.99 to a charity of your choice.