Screw my new year’s resolutions – I’ve got Wordle

Christine Manby finds it hard to stick to yoga and learning a new language but is captivated by an addictive new app

(Illustration by Tom Ford)

It’s about this time of year that I like to give up on my new year’s resolutions. As do most of us, according to research by Strava, the social network for athletes (who you would imagine have better discipline than the average Joe). Strava conducted their research back in the “before times”, which is to say 2019, so it’s probably fair to say that our collective ability to stick to good habits has only got worse. Indeed, since the arrival of Omicron in November, January 2022 looked especially like it would be time to embark upon a programme of radical self-improvement. All the same, I made my resolutions as 2021 drew to a close.

I thought I’d try to stick to the regime I created to get myself through Lockdown One. Those three weeks to “flatten the sombrero” seemed like the perfect opportunity to get myself into shape ahead of what we all still foolishly believed would be a normal summer.

Back in March 2020, I made myself a star chart with five columns: 10K steps a day, 10K on an exercise bike, 20 minutes of yoga, 20 minutes of Italian and 2,000 words on my work in progress. I kept it up for the first three weeks and was enjoying being a “new me” so much that I’m afraid I may have been one of those idiots who mused, “Wouldn’t it be nice to just have one more fortnight of this lovely enforced downtime” as the first 21 days drew to a close. By May 2020, my chart was bereft of stars and I counted several takeaway delivery drivers as close personal friends.