I've never been a fan of New Year's resolutions. Todoist once claimed that most resolutions fail by 3 January. I often quip that I set my resolutions in October to align with the Fiscal Year, my birth month and hasten failure. Why wait for the dark days of winter to fail when you can do it in early fall? This year, 2025, feels different to me. The twenties have been a rocky period, but at least for me I think 2025 will be a good year. I'll embrace this by grabbing a nudge word and rolling with it. What is a nudge word? It's a variant of the "One Word" or "Word of the Year" exercise is a goal-setting and personal development approach that gained popularity as an alternative to traditional New Year's resolutions. The evolution from one-word to three-word themes reflects the recognition that some concepts need more nuance while still maintaining simplicity. I've used this approach a few times with a bit of hit/miss in the outcome. For 2025, I'm going to try "Focus, Complete, Elevate" as my nudge words. Focus on what matters; Complete what I start; Elevate mind, body and spirit. I will use a 6/2 cycle method to set short-term milestones rather than attempt to set a year-long goal (per se). And at each cycle milestone, I will blog my progress. Focus, Complete, Elevate forms a strategic framework for my personal transformation in 2025. • Focus directly addresses the challenges of Variable Attention Stimulus Trait (VAST) / ADHD through deliberate improvement of executive function skills, enabling better attention management and task prioritization.  • Complete brings structure to project execution through a rhythmic 6/2 cycle -...

As 2024 ends, I'm reflecting on my yearlong experiment with different productivity tracking methods. Like many creators juggling multiple projects—in my case, writing and programming—finding the right system to maintain motivation and track progress has been a journey of trial and error. [My Wall Calendar for 2024 (filled) and 2025 (blank)] Three Tracking Systems, Three Different Approaches My experiment revolves around three distinct tracking methods: a Basecamp weekly Check-In, a wall calendar using a variant of the "Seinfeld Method," and a Field Notes journal. Each system serves a different purpose and comes with its own strengths. I didn't really commit to experimenting between all three until late February. The backbone of my accountability system has been Basecamp's automated weekly check-ins. Every week since November 2021, I receive an email prompt asking about my accomplishments. These reports go to Cathy Wilson, providing external accountability that has proven remarkably effective—I've only missed two or three check-ins out of 161 weeks. It helps that we use Basecamp for family activities. I started using a wall calendar inspired by Jerry Seinfeld's "don't break the chain" method. In February, I shifted from a simple mark of what I was working on to a short snippet of detail. In October, I opted to continue with the calendar since NeuYear offered a two-year (front & back) calendar. I have a variant of this at work based on the Fiscal Year. The visual impact of marking progress has been compelling, with only about 12 missed weeks since I started (I didn't count). The calendar didn't come into play until February 3rd, when I began comparing its effectiveness with the notebook method. The Field Notes experiment—a 6x9-inch notebook next...