New Year’s Resolutions Pt. 1 (the cliches)

The concept of New Year’s Resolutions is a pretty understandable one, to me. The date of 01/01/XXXX is a very stark and imposing date, implying a beginning of things. It’s a perfect time to start new things in your life. It’s definitely better than “I’ll start tomorrow” because it lacks the dual connotations of procrastination and immediacy. Saying “I’ll start in January” is less than pie-in-the-sky but more concrete than “eventually”. So, I’m starting some stuff this year. Some of these things I have already started, and some of them I am launching today–Inauguration Day. So maybe these aren’t so much New Year’s Resolutions as they are New Administration’s Resolutions, but I digress.

Get Healthy

  • Oh, here’s an original new year’s resolution. I’m sure no one has thought of this! Well, cliche aside, I could be a lot healthier. I’ve got a daughter now, and I want to live to see her as a grown up and know my own grandkids. In order to do this, I need to:
    • Eat better – This is one I have actually been doing for the past month or so. It mostly involves watching my calories, especially when out to eat. I’ve been using this restaurant nutrition iPhone application, which has a lot of eateries on it. That means not getting mayo/special sauce/ranch dressing and going for the chicken-on-wheat instead of the double western bacon cheeseburger. It also means possibly never eating at Taco Bell again (a mixed blessing).
    • Work out – I hate working out. Sweating is generally the antithesis of happiness in my life, though I do enjoy a rousing game of Ultimate Disc. But the prospect of actually losing weight and being healthier is an intriguing one. Rossy has me trying out Power90, a 30ish-minute-a-day workout video series that so far isn’t too bad. Plus I am tired of dirty looks from my Wii Fit when I check in.

Get Organized

  • Here’s another enormously cliched resolution that I’ve decided to take on. Will it succeed? Specifically, I’m taking a page from the Merlin Mann playbook:
    • Using the 43 Folders method – I started this last week and I am already failing spectacularly. The concept is that you have 43 folders–31 for each day in a month and 12 for each month. You regularly move days to the next month once they’ve passed and ideally have all your tasks for that day in that day’s folder. It’s not working so well for me since most of my tasks come to me over email and I am loathe to print them out. We’ll see how this works…
    • Inbox Zero-ing – I finally am getting control over my massive, sprawling Outlook inbox. With some categories, some smart folders and some judicious deleting (everything older than 3 months–don’t worry, it’s all backed up online) I finally know exactly what stuff I forgot to do in October. Oops.

 

More to come tomorrow or later this week–less-cliched things that I haven’t half-failed at yet.


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