Bingo!

By now you are aware of one of the Lichtenbergian Society’s most revered RITUALS, that of our Proposed Efforts in the Annual Meeting. In one way, they’re like New Year’s Resolutions: a promise to ourselves (and to the Universe) that we’re going to MAKE THE THING THAT IS NOT, to change the Universe in one small way or another.

On the other hand, our Proposed Efforts are limited to our creative work. “Lose weight” or “Learn a language” don’t really fall into that category.

And I know a lot of us use a kanban board to organize tasks, but resolutions tend to be more general. You could put “Lose weight” in the To-Do column, but when do you move it into the Doing column — and how do you move it out of the Doing column?

As it happens, I just this morning learned of a TikTok thing that I have only begun to explore, but since I need a blog post for today — and I will be out of town for the next couple of weeks — just let me put it out here: New Year Resolutions Bingo!

The concept is simple: You make a bingo card with your Resolutions, and as you achieve them you mark the card. Bingo! Reward yourself.

I poked around for bingo card generators, and Bingo Baker seems to be the easiest/least entangled site to use.

One good thing about Bingo Baker if you’re the type who doesn’t make 25 New Year’s Resolutions because you’re not a crazy person is that you can generate cards that are only 3x3 or 4x4.

It has already occurred to you that you will need to invent your own rules about when you get to mark a space. In the example here, is Get to work on time on there twice for a reason? Do you get to mark it off if you get to work on time just once? Or after it becomes a habit? You decide.

Now that I’ve shown you a pathway to perfection, I expect you all to be both thinner and polyglot by the time I return to this keyboard. Happy New Year!