Good Things Jar and the Art(ifact) of Remembering

Earlier this week, Mozart Guerrier retweeted this cool New Year’s idea:

What struck me about the idea were the jar and the end-of-the-year instruction. It’s not just about the regular practice of positive reflection. It’s about encouraging reflection in a very simple way. Even if you don’t read the notes at the end of the year, the jar full of colorful notes will serve as a constant reminder of the good that’s happening in your life.

Most of us tend to use artifacts mostly as a real-time tool. When I write something down, it helps me and potentially others get clear in the moment. That’s a good thing. But if you don’t find a way to revisit the artifact later, you’re wasting your artifact. The trick is to find ways to support remembrance. The jar is a simple, wonderful hack.

A few years ago, I picked up a simple hack from Rachel Weidinger that I now use with my teams. When her teams come up with a set of agreements (an excellent practice), she asks each member of her team to print them out, post them at their working space so he or she can always see them, and share a photo so that everyone else on the team knows that it’s up. It acts as a symbolic signature, but it also assures that everyone is constantly reminded of those agreements. Bonus: It works with distributed and face-to-face teams!