Two popular New Year's resolutions are working out and saving money, but the two have much in common. While both fitness activities are great for our future selves, they are not so much fun for our present selves, and both tend to be tackled with no small amount of trepidation.

Let's put weight loss aside for a moment: in 2020, food is frankly one of the only comforts we have left, and exercise is much more difficult for most people. So let's give ourselves a little grace in getting fit. But getting financially fit. This is doable.

This guide will help you lay the groundwork and remove the fear to make financial management an activity you actually look forward to. Because achieving financial goals requires commitment, and to sustain any commitment, you must not hate it.

These five practices may seem a bit outlandish, but they have certainly worked for me. With limited funds and little discipline, I was able to put my three children through college, own real estate, and feel financially comfortable in my mid-40s.

In the coming weeks, we will be sharing specific money management practices and recommended software for your needs. Today, however, it is important to get in the mood. To be successful at anything, it's all about mindset and approach.

Fear of the unknown is a big one and keeps us from getting things done. If you get a tight feeling in your chest every time a notification from your bank arrives on your phone, try to curb your excesses for a week or two and just be a bystander. Open your banking app once a week; look at your online credit spending every couple of days. Just look at it. See, it's not so scary, is it? It's hard to believe that you can ever really master something if you don't start by knowing what it is.

Time boxing is the technique of promising time to spend on a project rather than actually completing it. You promise time, you keep it, and you don't exceed it. (If every time you sit down to manage your money, after four hours you are exhausted... It is inevitable that you will be afraid to sit down.)

It's a long-term game, so the task should remain for the next time; whether it's two hours or 15 minutes, set a timer. Or make a music playlist for just the right amount of time. This week, let's do the housekeeping for exactly four songs every night. At the end of the week, decide what to do next."

Take 15 minutes to write out a simple financial to-do on a piece of paper. Crumple it up and put it in a jar or bowl. Each time you sit down for finances, do one of these tasks. Don't try to do them all at once. Here are some ideas:

Keeping financial information confidential is a personal preference for many people. Who wants to reach out to their friends and improve their financial fitness? Plan to get together regularly, virtually or in person, to work on financial fitness in parallel.

After a little small talk, put your heads down and get to work. You can learn from each other by simply asking a simple question: "Hey, do you have life insurance?"

[23] "I don't understand what's on your credit card statement. Do you think it's worth a call?" Or just work in silence as colleagues, then talk about your kids or whatever. You can decide on a monthly theme (budgeting, retirement, rainy day savings, etc.) or just have the accountability of having a peer who is working on the same things you are.

If 2020 has given us anything, it has helped many of us see how dangerous isolation can be to our overall well-being. How about seeing economic fitness as an opportunity to build a little community?

When it comes to managing money, often the hard part is not the job itself, but the trash that must be collected to do the job. Just as the biggest barrier to going to the gym was finding clean footwear. (Spend an hour today setting up a management infrastructure, and you'll be able to go through the year without the fear of finding socks in your financial "practice."

By following the steps above, you can create a framework that will make it easier to continue your financial fitness. Now, let's fill in that framework next time. Good luck.

Margot Page is a personal finance editor and writer based in Seattle, WA, where she led the product management teams for Microsoft Money and MSN Money.