How to write three New Year promises you can keep

Promises that last past January are small enough to start this week. How to write three, and how the promise machine in Slipmatic checks in on them.

Why three, and why promises

Big resolutions often collapse by the middle of January because they ask you to become a different person overnight. A promise is gentler: something you say to yourself the way you'd say it to a friend. Three is few enough to remember without writing them on your hand.

Keep them small

Pick something you could start this week. "Read before bed on weeknights" is a promise; "read more" is a hope. Small promises are easy to keep, and each one you keep makes the next feel possible.

Make them specific

A good promise says what you'll do and roughly when. Compare these:

"Get outside more" becomes "walk to the shop instead of getting a lift".
"Be more organised" becomes "clear the kitchen table every evening".
"See friends more" becomes "call one friend every weekend".

If you can't picture yourself doing it on an ordinary Tuesday, make it smaller.

Make them kind

Write promises that sound like encouragement. "Stop being lazy" is a scolding; "go to bed when I'm tired" is looking after yourself. Try to make one of your three about someone else, like a weekly message to a grandparent or saying thank you more often.

A quick test

Read each promise out loud. Would you say it to a friend? Could you start this week? In a month, would you know whether you'd kept it? If the answer to all three is yes, it's ready.

How the promise machine works in Slipmatic

The promise machine is in The Stalls. From the fifteenth of December, the promises you write there are for the year about to start. Write up to three, short enough to fit on a slip, and print them to keep.

Tick a promise off when you've kept it. Unless you switch the reminders off, the printer checks in twice: on the first of February to ask how they're going, and on the first of July, halfway through the year, to remind you to tick off any you've done. When you print your year card at the end of the year, your promises are on it, ticks and all.

Your promises are in your own words, so they stay on your phone. They're never sent anywhere, and only you check them.

For entertainment and reflection.