Once again, the New Year has brought me old resolutions to try again. My main two resolutions are: eat a balanced, lower-calorie diet and get more exercise. One of the things a family life educator such as myself tells people is that goals are best accomplished when they are SMART -- that is: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. Handheld tools for the purpose of tracking behavior and goals can be a great assistant in making goals SMART. First, they push you toward being more specific. For example, "eat balanced" is not as specific as using a program like Food Groups for the iPhone, which helps one track the number of servings of fruits and vegetables vs. meats and grains. Obviously, tracking also makes the goals measurable (because one IS tracking them) and timely (the handheld is right there to be used as the tool for tracking; no having to wait till one is near a computer. Besides the aforementioned Food Groups app for iPhone, I am tracking my daily goal of walking by using Fitness Day Journal (again for the iPhone), where I track my more specific goal of three miles walking daily. All in all, smarter goals (and easier tracking) may facilitate holding on to one's resolutions long enough that they become habit.
