15 Actually Fun Resolutions

When it's fun, it's done

We went to Germany, Austria, and Italy over the break. Italy was with our dear friends and we had ourselves a ball. Exhibit A above : )

Oh boy is there a lot written about New Year’s Resolutions. Plenty about capturing the increased motivation that comes from the “fresh start” effect. Plenty about debunking our ability to reinvent ourselves on a whim.

Where do I fall? I like resolutions, but I like ‘em fun. I wrote last year about how resolutions can be less shame-induced transformation, and more invitation to play with some new identities. Perhaps you have already picked a word for the year, created a vision board, or set some intentions, but if not, here are a few playful resolutions to consider:

Want a more peaceful start to the day?

Read all about Grandpa Mornings here. In short, make picking up your phone the 14th thing you do in the morning. This was my resolution last year and I loved it. Did I do it all year? Of course not! But I did it and enjoyed it once in a while and that’s once-in-a-while more than I would have done it without the resolution.

Want health but make it practical?

Aim for health, not health aesthetic. Full description here. Invite your friends to your messy house because friendship is healthy. Join the meeting with wet hair because you exercised, showered, and didn’t trade your sleep for a blow dryer.

Want that dolce vita?

Eat as many different pasta shapes as possible in 2026. Like a carby scavenger hunt. -@Songofsaraneth

Want joy and want it now?

“The best New Year’s resolution I ever made was to start devouring all my nicest things, and save no small pleasure for an unspecified future. Now I burn the good candles, wear the expensive perfume at home, scribble imperfectly in pretty notebooks. You can’t pin joy like a moth.” -Holly Cassells

Want to appreciate more of what’s already around you?

We live in a world that rewards paying attention to the signal over the noise. It’s a good way to run a business, but a bad way to run a life. This is my year to pay attention to the noise—small textures of my day: how my coffee shop smoothie had more banana than usual and what a lovely variation, or how certain songs have just the right tempo for walking to the beat. Could I just drink the smoothie and walk without a soundtrack? Sure. More efficient. But the texture of our days is what makes them rich.

Want a mini digital detox?

When you wake up, reach for your partner or pet to say Good Morning before you reach for your phone. No other fleshy entities in your bed? Look out the window and greet the sky. This is one of mine this year! A subset of a Grandpa Morning. Normally I’d be sucked into some email or scroll before I realize Brad is also up and I say good morning like, “Oh, you’re there.” No longer!

Want to enjoy your colleagues more?

Learn the names of every one of your colleagues’ pets. Much harder to think Bob in communications is an asshole if you know he has a fluffy cat named Plume. If you need, keep a pet name journal. People’s pets are usually dear and personal to them, and getting to know their pets (ask for pics!) is a quick way to bypass the business mask and humanize the workplace.

Want to appreciate just how great you already are?

What’s something healthy that you already do? Declare that your resolution! Feel great about it. Just imagine a world where you fell off that healthy habit… ugh now you have to resolve to get back to it. Now just skip the falling off part and simply not stopping your healthy habit is a win!

Want more whimsy and fiber in your life?

Every time you see a fruit you have never eaten, get one, eat it, and then read the Wikipedia article about it -@Songofsaraneth

Want more ease in your days?

A colleague once said to me, “Imagine you walk in the woods every day, and every day you have to walk around a rock. Eventually, it might be time to move that rock.” What’s a small daily annoyance you could solve for yourself? For example, today I went on Amazon and deleted the 13 expired credit cards from my account that are always offered as options. Throw out your expired spices. Pick a few and complete, say, one a week.

Want more belly laughs?

Skip the exercise sticker chart and just play more actual games! This is a great one from my friend Uri Bram. Over the holidays I made up a new game that we played with the help of Claude. It’s called “Face it” or, my preference, “Do It With Your Face.” Same idea as Pictionary and Charades, but instead of only drawing or only miming, in Face It, you can only use your facial expressions. Put these instructions in your favorite AI and enjoy: “Let's play a facial expression guessing game. When I type 'category', announce a random category to the group which I’ll show everyone. After I pass my phone to someone, they'll type 'word' and you'll give them one secret word from that category to act out using only facial expressions.” There is no winning or points, just hilarity. We told Claude to make it 25% harder after a while. It gave me “Philosophical concepts” as my category and “Existentialism” as the word. We got it!

Want to be the main character on your own movie set?

Swap your blue fluorescent bulbs for warm glowy ones. Get a candle for beside your bed. Get a vanity mirror for your bathroom that has an “evening light” mode and use it instead of the overhead when you’re winding down. There’s nothing a little cinematic lighting can’t make better.

Want more efficiency without becoming a robot?

It takes me forever to write thoughtful emails. Did I use too many exclamations? Is that sentence weird? Sometimes the word-smithing is worth it. Other times, definitely not. But instead of writing fast & expressionless which comes off curt, I like to go fast & awkward. Type the weird sentence and let it fly. Too many exclamations? Oh well, I’m excitable. Proofreading is for the humorless. If you want to be more efficient in 2026, skip the organization schemes and go for Fast & Awkward.

Want to go easier on yourself?

This morning I was talking to someone and only after the conversation did I realize I was maybe slowing down their morning. I was tempted to ruminate over it, but instead I just said, “Whoops!” and told myself that was the end of it. No “I had better reflect on this lesson for the future” or replaying the scenario in my head (well, except for writing this). This resolution is not for the selfish jerks who could use more self-awareness. It’s for anyone who is already hyper self-aware and could use to let some things fucking go. Say Whoops! and carry on.

Want to have more fun?

Decide this is the year for it! My friend, Alicia Grimes, is doing it and I think you should too. Having written a book about fun, one of my greatest insights is that to have more fun, you have to expect to have more fun. When we say “work is called work for a reason” and “work is a four-letter word” we excuse ourselves from even trying to find joy in the experience. If I instead expect to have fun at work, it makes total sense that I would take two minutes to DM my work bestie something funny, that I would share an idea that’s lighting me up, that I would put effort into making my project plan real good lookin’.

In short, resolutions should work for you, not the other way around. They should make you excited to experiment. They should feel like play! And remember, our society is real weird about insisting you do something forever or it’s a failure. You can 100% try a resolution, stop it, and still bank the win of having done that thing 5 more times than you would have without the resolution, not to mention the interesting life experiment of having tried it.

What would you add?? Any fun resolutions to add to the hopper? Share with us!