Remember, It’s 2011: Tips for Remembering the New Year

It's that time of year again. The time when people vow to change some aspect of their life. Maybe they want to get in shape, stop smoking, get out of debt, etc. Well, here is my suggestion for a New Year's resolution.

With the new year comes…well a new year. It's 2011, but some of us have a difficult time dealing with the change. We're so used to typing 2010, that our brain continues that trend into January. Over the past few years, I've been working toward getting past this road block. Here are the techniques that seem to work for me:

• 2011 Mantra – throughout the day I find it useful to tell myself "It's 2011. It's 2011…" in an attempt to bring the current year to the forefront of my mind. For me, the mantra works best in the morning while getting ready for work. I also repeat the process whenever I find myself typing the incorrect year.
• Double Check Your Work – even when I remember it's 2011, my brain still finds a way to type 2010. So I'm always in the habit of double checking dates.
• Post-it Note Reminder – for the first year of attempting to remember the year, I stuck a Post-it note to my computer that said "It's 2011". In addition to helping me remember the date, the note reminded to keep up with the other techniques.

Now keep in mind, this type of mistake is very common this time of year. So if you're in charge of posting information online for someone else, you'll need to double check their work also. If you notice any mistakes, don't forget to let them know. That way they can correct the mistake on their end before sending the information to anyone else. Even if they don't send the information, letting them know may help them avoid making the mistake again.

Luckily this type of mistake seems to be so common that your audience may not even notice it. If they do notice, they'll probably know what you mean. Of course, it's still a good idea to type the correct year.