It’s that time of year when we subconsciously start to postpone our goals until the next year: January 1st. Fresh start. New Year, New Me. You know the drill.
The fact that we still have 1/4 of the year left somehow doesn’t register.
I want to share the framework that helps me not to fall for this quiet whisper to procrastinate.
The Efficiency of Being Asynchronous with the Masses
The first time I truly experienced this was when my husband and I traveled to France for our honeymoon in September 2018. It was freaking awesome. No crowds. Clean streets. Still good weather. Cheaper accommodations. Better availability for great restaurants. Amazing level of service.
Since then, traveling off-season has become our new norm.
I then decided to apply this concept to other areas of my life:
- Grocery shopping in the mornings.
- Having time off in the middle of the week and working on the weekends.
- Going to the gym during lunch hour vs. before or after work.
- Trying out new restaurants during lunch vs. dinner.
- Going for a nice meal after Valentine’s Day.
It saves so much time, energy, and money when you don’t follow the same schedule with everyone else.
I have no idea why it took me so long to see these simple relationships between supply, demand, and price in my own life despite having my first degree in economics. High demand leads to high prices. That’s ECON 101. And if you can avoid that, you’ll save money.
Apart from the financial savings, there is just far less hysteria and marketing pressure when you do things not according to the commonly held schedule. And you know I’m all about cultivating calm when it comes to personal productivity and life in general. It’s one of the most undervalued concepts in this nervous world. If we stick to the economics theme, being calm has all the upside and none of the downside.
Applying Asynchronicity with the Masses to Goal-Setting
I took this concept further. What if I set my New Year’s resolutions in November or even October?
I’ll be ahead of everyone come January 1st.
I won’t be subjected to all the goal-setting madness that comes on January 1st.
I’ll already be deep in my new routine, so I won’t be triggered by all the advertising.
I’ll get my first results and be motivated to keep doing what I’m doing.
It’s like leaving home early so that you can avoid the stress of the rush hour. You’ll be enjoying a cup of coffee in a nice café near your destination while everyone else will be stuck in traffic.
Setting Your Goals Before January 1st
It’s been a few years since I’ve started embarking on new adventures in October and November instead of January. These are some benefits that I’ve noticed:
- I can get the resources I need at a reasonable price before the holiday peak. Buying running shoes, a gym membership, coaching, courses, and pretty much anything else will be cheaper if I do it ahead of the peak holiday season. And there are no crowds at the mall yet.
- I can calmly reflect on my life and choose the goals and projects that make sense for my life. I am not influenced by anyone else’s resolutions and goals. It makes for a lot fewer regrets down the road when you follow the path you carefully chose, not the path you were led to choose.
- By the time January rolls around, I’m already ahead of everyone else.
- I get to do a practice month and tailor my goals. One of the reasons that people give up on their New Year’s resolutions is that something about their goals does not work with their life. Instead of simply tailoring their goal a little bit, they give up on the entire thing. When I set my goals in October or November, I get to do a practice month without outside pressure to “perfectly” stick to the plan. After a month, I can tailor the goal and proceed with a goal that is a much better fit for my life.
- As a recovering perfectionist, this is one of the ways I’m teaching my brain that it’s okay to start at odd times of the year. In fact, there are a lot of benefits to doing so. Slowly but surely, it learns that it’s okay to let go of these rigid boundaries and constraints on how things ought to be done. It leads to a happier and less uptight life.
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