That’s the headline of a Michelle Singletary article from Sunday helping you set and keep goals.
Honestly, one of the best things you can do is make your goal very visible. Michelle writes about putting up a whiteboard. I’ve heard of writing it in dry-erase marker on your bathroom mirror. I used to keep post-it notes on the mirror so I could see my goals every morning as I brushed my teeth. I had a friend in high school who had a label-maker sticker on her dashboard that asked her if her lights were still on. I drained and jumpstarted so many batteries, I probably should have done that too.
Other suggestions for making your goals highly visible and a daily reminder:
1) Change your cellphone banner with your savings goal number.
2) Hack your software’s splash screen to ask you what your goal is.
3) Put a list on your mirror.
4) Make a daily reminder on your time-management software to review your list (Outlook, UGH.).
5) Write it in masking tape and put it on your shirt upside down, so when you look down at it, it’s right side up for reading.
6) Tell a friend. (Ok, perhaps not a daily reminder)
7) Write it on a card and put it in your wallet next to your driver’s license or regularly used ATM card/grocery card.
Make your screensaver a marquee with your goal.
9) Put a post-it note near your front door knob so you read the goal every day as you leave your house.
10) Take a sharpie and write it on the front of your credit card.
I especially like the last one best because I have found that with gift cards that go unused, it’s best to look up the balance, and then mark it on the front of the card so I can use the darned thing up eventually. I see nothing wrong with writing “HAWAII VACATION” on the front of a credit or debit card to remind me that maybe, just maybe my Hawaii vacation is more important than a cute pair of shoes on sale.
Related posts:
- Itemized Grocery List for Camping Since people were complaining about what listed as the grocery...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Hilarious. I might just write “Hawaii Vacation” on the front of my credit card just to make me laugh. It’s a great idea; I’m so writing, “Mortgage Balance $0″ on mine.
I’m gonna put a “Paris” sticky on my credit card right now!
Ewwww… “Paris” and “sticky” can never, ever be used in the same sentence ever again. m’kay?
Brad Isaac has a series up giving 101 goal-setting tips over 31 days. Here’s the link:
http://www.persistenceunlimited.com/
I use his “Achieve-IT” software on my PDA. It’s good, but I don’t utilize it religiously like some folks do.
I use sticky notes on credit cards as a reminder, works great cause there is some serious guilt action if I remove it to swipe it for something I shouldn’t. Think it’s time to start doing that to the debit card too.
I’m also big on the bathroom mirror notes — we use dry erase and it works pretty well for reminder. Perhaps instead of just including household reminders, I should put up reminders about the things we want to save for — new barn in Spring 2008!
I put my goals on the front of my binder!