Keep Those New Years Resolutions

Use Systems and Project Management to stay on track with this years intentions.

Goals and resolutions are similar, yet different. A goal is usually a specific task or project that you want to get done. A resolution is typically more related to changing your life or habits and routines.

For instance, one of my goals for this year is to develop some useful products for my web site visitors. One of my resolutions is to lose 20% of my body weight.

Using project management techniques to reach my goal of developing new products is fairly straightforward. The project has a definite start and end and will go through typical project life cycle phases, such as initiation, requirements gathering, product design, product testing, implementation and marketing as well as post implementation followup. While I may change my daily routines a bit to find time for the project and work on it, developing a product will not necessarily cause life changes for me. While developing the project may eventually lead to finding a system to develop more products, a system isn’t necessarily required for me to produce the first one.

While I can use project management techniques to assist with my resolution to lose 30 pounds, those techniques alone will not support success. I’ll also need to develop new systems.

I have a lot of experience managing computer projects and developing computer systems. Before retiring in 2010, I was a computer system development manager and am still (as of this writing) a Project Management Professional (PMP is a certification from the Project Management Institute). I took many classes, seminars and other types of training sessions to gain expertise in different project management techniques – such as Waterfall, Joint Application Design & Information Engineering; iterative development; and Agile types of management. With over 20 years of practical project development and implementation, I got pretty good at putting in projects.

I’ve also used many different tools and techniques to study work systems so that manual work could be converted to computer processing. This took hours of study, observation, interviewing and more to figure out what people did to get their job done, how it related to other pieces needed for the whole and lots of thought as to how best to design and code a computer application to do that work.

I’ve even spoken on How to Build Systems for Your Blog – at FinCon13  this past October in St. Louis.

If you have had trouble in the past sticking to your New Years resolutions, try looking at your 2014 resolutions through the lens of project management and systematization.

I’m going to try that, but I haven’t developed too many systems that attempt to change human habits and routines. That is what I hope to do this year to help me lose weight. Here in this post, I will describe some of the project management and systematization steps and try to show you how to relate them to a resolution.

Project Initiation and Definition.

In project initiation, an idea is reviewed to see if it is worthwhile pursuing, a high level scope is defined, sponsors lined up and a project objective is stated. The project is justified by showing the expected benefits and costs.

When developing a system to get things done, you first must pick the area to systematize.

To initiate and define your project or system to keep your resolution, write down the end result you hope to achieve. Figure out how you will look, act, think and feel differently when you achieve it. Think about what the actual monetary and time costs for you will be as well as the psychological costs. Are you willing to pay those costs to keep your resolution (is your project justified?).

The idea of losing weight is really part of a larger goal for me – becoming more healthy (feeling better, living longer, and being active longer). High level research shows that losing weight can result in better health. The health benefits I believe are possible include: better joint health (less pain, more flexibility, denser bones, less osteoarthritis); and better circulatory health (lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, better blood flow, less chance of stroke, heart attack).

Other benefits of losing weight include looking better, feeling better about the way I look and better fitting clothing.

The costs of the project will be minimal in dollar amounts as I don’t plan to use any commercial weight loss medicine or routines. However the psychological cost will be high as it requires a change in lifestyle habits for me.

The primary health benefits to me will be to possibly avoid having to use medication to lower blood pressure and the possible reduction in the amount of cholesterol medicine I take.

I will feel differently about myself – gaining a more positive self image. I will think differently about eating and exercise habits once I have successfully implemented my system to change my behavior. I will act differently in that I should be able to be even more physically active – using joints more aggressively – ones that now hurt with movement.

In order to derive all of the benefits at the stated cost, I’ll develop a system to help me change my lifestyle habits.

The scope of the system and project will be to research and introduce healthy eating habits and to sustain or increase the amount of exercise I do each day.

My objectives include being more consistent with walking, continuing to do weight bearing, weight lifting, aerobic and stretching exercise, exchanging salt and sugar filled foods in my diet with more fruits and vegetables; and eating less.

A project scope typically includes some background on the way things are today. Here is mine.

I’m a post-menopausal, retired woman, who runs a part time web business from home. My spouse lives with me. For almost 30 years I have exercised to tapes and DVDs for 30 minutes to an hour each morning and continue that routine currently. Since 2011, I have had a goal (sometimes met, sometimes not) of walking 3 miles a day for at least 4 days a week. I love sweets and salty food. I cook one meal a day for my spouse and I. He loves chips, cookies and fried food and can eat as much as he wants without gaining weight. I’ve lost weight twice (once in my forties and once in 2010) but now weigh more than ever. I have osteoarthritis in my spine, hips and knees, medication controlled cholesterol, and elevated (uncontrolled by medicine) blood pressure.

Risk analysis.

Another part of managing a project is to define the risks to project success and figure out how to avoid the risk or eliminate it or mitigate it.

In studying a system, it is helpful to find things that people are doing that are not necessary – the time wasters, the things that take us off track in getting the job done, the habits and routines that distract – the ones that inhibit your success.

Think about what might prevent you from keeping your resolution and make plans now to deal with those things.

MY RISKS AND INHIBITORS.

Family health history is one risk for me to losing weight, living longer and being active. My Father died at 65 from colon cancer and my Mother at 79 from complications resulting from a hip replacement due to osteoporosis. Mom and her Dad were both overweight. Genetic factors are a risk I cannot avoid or eliminate but I hope to mitigate them via my system.

Being menopausal is a risk to me in being able to lose weight. After women go through menopause, fat tends to accumulate around the midsection of the body and that is consistent with increased circulatory issues. Loss of weight will not necessarily eliminate this risk but can mitigate it. In addition, post-menopausal women have slower metabolism’s as do aging people in general. This is a risk I can mitigate with exercise to maintain or increase muscle tone.

I crave sweets and salt. Although I have in the past, successfully reduced the amount of each in my diet, for the first few weeks in doing so, my body craves them. I will need to find alternative foods or activities to distract me from the craving until it ends.

I eat while watching television. We eat supper while watching TV and also tend to snack frequently in the evening. Although I could try to avoid this behavior, I will be more successful if I attempt to mitigate it instead. I will first substitute healthy foods or water for the snacks, and then attempt to reduce or eliminate them.

I don’t walk when it is super cold or if I am rushed with writing or business tasks. I need to build time into my system to make walking a higher priority than working, or find other weight bearing exercise that I can include in my day.

Projects typically go through a requirements gathering phase.

This will include observing current work patterns, interviewing end users, doing research, analyzing the results to select the requirements in scope and then documenting those.

When you build a system for something, you will document all of the steps needed to get the job done, then analyze those to see if they fit into the most efficient and productive way to do the work.

Think about what you are trying to achieve – the end result and drill down to specific things that you can check off when you reach them. Listing the requirements helps you figure out how to reach them.

Here are what I see as the requirements needed by my new system.

• It must keep the habits I currently have that contribute to a healthy me.
  • These include morning exercise, eating oatmeal, using flax seed, drinking green tea, keeping stress levels low.
• It must facilitate reduction in the volume of food eaten.
• It must focus first on loss of weight and show success in that area in the first couple of weeks. Increasing activity levels is important, but won’t necessarily take any weight off.
• It must include a progressive schedule to allow gradual change of habit.
• It must focus on one habit at a time.
• It must include specific items to mitigate my risks – alternatives to current non-healthy habits.
• It must include actions needed to provide continued motivation to succeed.
• Change of habits must occur within 60 days to claim success.

Projects then enter a design phase.

To design my new system, I will do a bit of research to see how others have changed habits, lost weight and switched to healthier foods. I’ll also research the best foods for me. Actually, I’ve already done these design tasks so will proceed straight to developing the system.

Project development is where the design becomes a system.

In development, you will lay out the process you will use to meet your resolution. You will get the supplies you need to accomplish it, find the people to whom you will report success or failure and figure out the method you will use to stay on track.

To lose weight and grow healthier, I will lay out the step by step processes I will follow to change my habits so that I succeed. I’ll list specific things to do each week for 8 weeks (it takes awhile to change habits). The things I list will follow the requirements, be measurable, be something I can actually do, seem achievable and follow my time frame. They will be detailed enough so that I can check each one off as I do them and will build on one another. I’ll include things like status updating, motivational support, celebrations on intermediate achievements just like I did with computer systems development projects. For example, Agile project management techniques can call for a quick morning meeting to let key players on the project know the status of everything, psych folks up and focus on today’s activities to keep the ball rolling. I may include a brief morning meditation to visualize what my body will look and feel like when I have lost the weight, and share any new habits or pounds lost with my spouse in our morning coffee conversations and etc.

Systems should always be tested until proven correct and usable.

The next phase of a project or system development is to test it. Before you commit to implementing (i.e starting to work on your resolution), make sure what you are laying out will work for you. If you think you are going to have a system that requires you to get up at 5 am and jog for an hour, try getting up at 5 am and seeing if you will jog, try out a jogging route, see if it can meet your requirements.

I’ll try my week 1 activities for a day or so before actually starting – to see if they will work for me. As I work through my 60 days, I’ll try out the next weeks activities before the current week is up and change the system if it won’t work for me.

If the tests fail, refine the system before you move forward.

Next in project management and system development is implementing what you developed.

Don’t make the mistake of just starting on your resolution without thinking it through.  Make a production of your start day!

This is where you actually start using your new system. Sometimes projects are implemented in phases. This is what I will be doing with my 8 week schedule. It will take longer than 8 weeks for me to lose all of the weight I want to lose. After 8 weeks, I will go into my post-implementation support phase.

The final stage of a project is post-implementation support.

OK, you have achieved what you resolved – whatever that was. Now is the time to make sure that you hold onto your success. Successful projects always specify the activities and support that will be done after the project is implemented and so should you.

My post-implementation activities will include making sure I continue to follow all of the accumulated new habits present in week 8. I’ll do this by writing down or checking off each one, each day. I’ll enlist my spouse to help keep me motivated, and I’ll continue to track my food intake and weight loss each week until I meet my final goal – which hopefully will be easy to achieve with my new habits!

One of the things you also want to do for yourself is to celebrate your success, so that next time you make a resolution, you know there is a reward at the end of the road.

How do you plan to keep your new year’s resolution in 2014?