NYR update

I'm doing exceptionally well with my new year resolution this year, which was to be a more active person.

I've been working out nearly every day! My only aim has been to just go. No other fitness goals. Even if it's 20 min of walking on the treadmill that doesn't break a sweat, it's a success. I just want to build exercise into my routine so that working out feels like something I just do at the end of the day instead of being a big deal. I've been doing weights a couple days a week, treadmill or elipitcal some days, and...wait for it...a dance class one day a week! I DID it! I've been taking ballet and it's really fun.

I've also been doing all sorts of social things. I'm extremely fortunate that I have recently landed in a group of friends who are doers. They plan all kinds of interesting things and get people to do them. I've said yes to some things I wouldn't have wanted to do in the past, and it has been quite rewarding. And I've had people over a couple of times too.

I'm not sure I can say the exercise has me feeling all that different except that I seem to have more energy for chores. I've been keeping the house WAY cleaner. A nice consequence of that is that I can have friends over on short notice without worrying if the toilet's gross.

Off to a good start

I went to the gym today. I had a good workout with a good stretch at the end.

I have tentative plans with a new-ish friend on Saturday.

Not failing yet, yo.

Stretch

My new year's resolution is to stretch. Literally and figuratively. I need to become a more active person.

On the literal side, I don't think I get enough physical activity regularly enough. I'm starting to feel like I'm aging, with my body getting stiff and crampy more often than I'd like. So I think I should make a point to stretch more, and that stretching should come with being more physically active.

In the figurative sense, I want to stretch out of my comfort zone. I have many interests and there are lots of things I'd like to do, but I pursue very few of them because I don't want to try new things on my own and I have trouble recruiting friends to do things with me. If I'm honest, that's mostly because I'm a little afraid to ask. So I'm going to make an effort to be more proactive and also more independent, and take charge of my evenings and weekends. I'll have to be more focused and proactive at work in order to allow myself to leave early enough to have evenings in which to do things. I'll have to make plans in advance for weekends so that I have accountability to get me out of the house. I'll have to put myself out there and invite people to do things with me. Also, I think I will finally, finally sign up for a dance class.

This mindset will also be helpful at work, as I expect to finally have data from my postdoc. It will be a kind of data that I've never worked with before, so I'll have to stretch my mind to conduct the analyses and interpret the results. It will be cool.

Welcome 2011

I love New Year's resolutions (NYRs), but I'm having trouble coming up with good ones this year.  I've had really good success with NYRs in years past, notably the year I paid off a bit of stubborn credit card debt thanks to the motivation from a NYR.  Last year I made a few that I really liked, but I abandoned them almost immediately. This year, rather than setting super-specific rules for my behavior, I need an over-arching theme. 

This year needs to be about getting my shit together.

On paper, 2010 was a really good year for me.  After defending late in 2009, I finished my thesis revisions and deposited in January.  I went on a fantastic cruise vacation with my BFF.  I started my postdoc.  I'm making way more money with better health insurance.  We moved to a great new apartment, which improved my quality of life dramatically (I should write a post about that improvement).  We got engaged.  I had a success with a big responsibility at work.

But I felt kind of off all year.  No, not off.  Just not quite on top of it.  We didn't visit my family frequently enough, which has made me feel kind of out of touch with them and my BFF.  Although some things at work have gone very well, I still haven't collected any new data.  We have a venue for our wedding, but no other plans.  I haven't gotten any more of my thesis papers published since I defended, although I submitted one that got rejected.  Nothing went badly at all, but I feel like I could be doing better.

My work-related goals are twofold.  First, I will publish the rest of my thesis, damn it.  My thesis should generate four papers: One is published; Two is going in a special issue related to a conference and is due January 31; Three has been rejected once and is almost ready to resubmit; and Four might go to another special issue and in that case would probably be due in March.  If Ecogeoman and I want to have any hope of finding decent jobs together, this just absolutely must happen soon.  Second, I need to be a bit more aggressive with my lab work.  I've got some cool things started, but now it's time to make data happen. 

I have a longer list of personal goals. The highest priority is to not let wedding plans fall though the cracks.  I don't want to feel like decisions and preparation for this wedding are a big ball of guilty blah because I waited too long.  I'll probably have to make more trips to my hometown to make arrangements, but that will will also address the issue of not seeing my fam enough.  I'd also like to entertain more.  Our social life, frankly, is pretty good.  However, I think we're kind of passive socializers, so having friends over more often should help me feel more in control of our plans.  And it should go a long way toward another goal: keeping the house in order.  We're messy.  I have to just accept that.  But just a tiny bit of effort could go a long way. 

All of this is about being assertive and proactive.  Time to take responsibility for how I want my life to be and make it happen.  Happy New Year!

Resolutions

A belated happy New Year to my vast audience! I hope the new year is treating you well. So far I'm off to a pretty good start, having taken a relaxing vacation in a warm location, won a small award for a poster I gave a conference last year, and just about nailed down a post doc that should start pretty soon. More on all of that later. For now, I give you my (overdue) New Year's Resolutions.

1. You might recall that last year I resolved to post birthday cards to all 28 members of my family. I did reasonably well, but I was late for most of them. This year, I will get them sent on time.

2. I will open and file the mail the day that it arrives. I hate dealing with the mail. We don't get all that much of it, so I usually let it pile up for a few weeks and then go through a bunch of it at once. Unfortunately, that practice leads to unsightly piles and important items getting misplaced, so this year I'm going to change my mail-procrastination habit.

3. I will do 15 minutes of housework every day except Friday. Because really, if you keep up with it just a little at a time, it's really not such a bitch.

Notice that there are no work-related resolutions? That's because I don't have a clear enough vision of how my job is going to play out to formulate how I want to structure my work life. So many things are going to change, but plenty will stay the same, including my personality and temperament. I have some ideas of how I want my post grad school life to go, which I think I will discuss at length in future posts. Stay tuned!

NYR Update

First, let me just say that EGM got poison ivy and was scratching all night. I'm tired! And if it happens again tonight, one of us is going to the couch. Aren't I nice, sensitive, and empathetic?

Now that that's out of the way, I think I should report on my new years' resolutions. I have performed mediumly on both of them. I've sent birthday cards for almost all of the family birthdays so far, but several of them have gone out late. But, I have the next ones all ready to send. As for being more eco-conscience, there has been progress and setbacks. I kind of gave up on the paper recycling after the pile got so big that EGM finally threw it away -- I just kept putting off dropping it at the recycling place. We also decided not to do the CSA after all because we're not sure we'll actually use that much produce. On the other hand, the garden is going well. The seeds I started indoors are starting to look like plants and the things I planted outside are starting to take. Also, we started a compost pile near the garden. I have been bringing our kitchen scraps to work to compost, which gives me warm fuzzies. I'll post some photos soon.

Green update

It's time for a little NYR update, folks. I had two resolutions this year: send birthday cards to my family and make my daily life a little more sustainable. I haven't done so well on number one. There have been two birthdays so far and although I didn't forget them, I didn't send cards. However, there are a whole slew of birthdays coming up, so perhaps I will go buy cards today so I can follow through.

I've been doing better on the green resolution. Things I've implemented so far:

• I got a cart thingy for groceries. Unless we go to the grocery store on our way home from somewhere, we don't drive to there anymore. I've tried to cut back on unnecessary driving, with limited success. Still, better than before.
• I have chosen "natural" versions of personal care products when my regular ones run out. Incidentally, the face scrub I ordered hasn't arrived yet.
  
• I found a place nearby that takes paper recycling, so we have been saving most of our paper.
  
• I found out about a really convenient CSA which we will be joining next week! I'm really excited about this one. You pay an annual membership fee plus $20 week-1 for a box of organic produce. Plus, it goes all year round. During the growing season the food comes from a nearby farm and during the winter they buy organic while making the best choices they can providence-wise. I've been hesitant to join a CSA in the past because they typically make you pay for the whole summer up front and I'm never sure if we'll really use the produce. This one allows you to stop at any time, so we can cancel if we find that we're throwing food away.
  
• But the very most exciting thing is that we're getting a garden at my work! It's so cool. The grounds people will till up an area of lawn for people to have vegetable gardens. The hitches are that you have to find a place with access to water and you can't use any chemicals (because of course they would have to be entered into the chemical inventory). This is a little tricky, actually, since it will likely be crappy subsoil that we'll need to amend somehow since we can't use mineral fertilizer. But, there is a good place near our building and we have an outdoor spigot, so we're in business. There are seven of us going together, so we'll share the work of watering and weeding. I've never had a garden before, so I'm happy to be doing it with others who can give me advice.

Natural deodorant sucks

One of my new year's resolutions was to conduct my daily life in a little more environmentally friendly way. One of the changes I've made is to replace personal care products with natural versions; as I run out of my preferred brand of something, I buy a greener option. For example, I bought Tom's of Maine (ToM) bar soap, Trader Joe's hand soap, and ToM deodorant. The soaps are fine, but the deodorant sucks. I will be returning to Degree when the ToM runs out or the weather gets hot, whichever comes first.

Anyway, I now need some advice, Dear Readers. I'm about out of face lotion and scrub. I've been using Aveno Positively Radiant lotion and St Ive's Apricot Scrub and I love them both. But this website (h/t Nina) tells me that they aren't such green choices. I have oily, break-out prone skin that needs to have the top 5-10 layers scrubbed off twice a day if I want any hope of keeping the acne controlled. Any recommendations?

How green am I?

Thanks for the great suggestions for greening up my life. Reading them made me think maybe I'm not as bad I as thought, since we already do most of the things you suggested. I thought I'd take stock of the situation by listing the things we already do that I consider environmentally friendly. Perhaps you'll notice oversights.

• I eat very little meat (~4-6 times per month). EGM eats more, but most of the food we eat at home (i.e. dinner) is meatless. Some of our staples are organic (cereal, granola bars, yogurt).
  
• We use cloth napkins instead of paper.
• We use very few paper towels.
• I carpool to work (which, admittedly, is too far away). EGM doesn't have a car, so he either gets a lift with me or takes public transit.
• With a few exceptions, we don't drive much other than going to work.
• We use reusable bags at the grocery store. Unless we forget, but then we use the plastic ones for trash bags and lunches.
• I almost always make my coffee at home and take it to work in a reusable travel cup. EGM drinks his at home in a ceramic cup.
  
• We use tupperware containers, not ziplock bags or foil.
• The appliances that we have plugged in are the refrigerator, microwave, coffeepot, toaster, t.v., VCR (I should get rid of this), DVD player, modem, wireless router, laptop, and 5 lamps. We also charge our phones and use the vacuum cleaner. In addition, there are 7 overhead lights in our apartment, 5 of which are frequently used. The point here is that I think we probably use less electricity than the average American household.
  
• Most of our light comes from CFLs, but there are a few lingering incandescent bulbs.
• We can't control our heat (from radiators) but we don't use air conditioning but for a window unit in our bedrooms about half a dozen times each summer. We do use lots of fans in summer.
• I try to avoid random chemicals unless I really want them. For instance, I don't dye my hair, paint my nails frequently, use air fresheners or candles (well, I light a candle on occasion) but I do use hair spray, perfumed lotions, and makeup.
• I only flush when I really need to. EGM hates that.
  

Ways in which I think we could improve:

• If I got one of those wheely carts, I could go grocery shopping without my car. I can easily walk to the grocery store, but currently I can't carry the goods home.
• Green cleaning products. But shouldn't I finish the stuff I have? Certainly it must be better to gradually pour the stuff down the drain by using it than to just discard it.
  
• Focus on local/in season food. We're not good about this at all, although we don't buy tons of highly processed or frozen food. We could certainly choose organic options more often, like milk (in a reusable glass bottle!), bread, peanut butter. Better yet, we could make some of our own foods, like bread and yogurt.
• Grow some of our own food. And use the farmers' market.
• EGM buys lunch, snacks, and coffee way, way more than I do. He could cut down on that.
• I could get a Diva Cup.
• Compost.
• Recycle!

I posted all this in part to encourage discussion and of course I'd love ideas. I think I should also review Ruchi's archives for more ideas, although I can't say I'm prepared to give up toilet paper just yet. Plus I know I can find a world of eco from her blog.

Resolutions

I love New Year's resolutions (NYR). I made a whole bunch of them last year and while I didn't religiously adhere to them all, having them did help me keep certain goals in mind. Like I said last year, I think the best resolutions are very specific. Not, "I'll be tidier" but "I will vacuum every Friday". A resolution isn't going to transform your personality. It's a way to help you focus your efforts on a few behaviors that contribute to a lifestyle change you strive for. Plus, it's much easier to evaluate your success when you have specific goals.

This year, I'm not going to make any work related resolutions. I anticipate lots of professional progress this year and I don't think any NYRs are going to impact my work life. I've got to get shit done no matter what. I expect that this year I will graduate, find a post-doc, and publish some papers. The pressure is on, so rules about how much time I can spend reading blogs should be irrelevant.

So, I will make two resolutions in my personal life.

1. I will send a birthday card to every member of my immediate-plus family. For those of you following along at home, that's 28 people. I've been contemplating this one for a long time. I always (try to) call each of my siblings on their birthdays, but I blow off their spouses and kids. I feel bad about that, especially the kids. So this year, I'm going to remember them all. First I need to check that I know them all.

2. I will implement one new green activity each month. I've been feeling rather bad that my life's work is devoted to climate change sort of stuff and yet I lead a not-so-green lifestyle. It's not abominable, but there are some serious oversights and inconsistencies. For example, we use cloth napkins instead of paper, but we don't recycle (curbside pickup here is ... suspicious, so we will have to take our stuff to a recycling center ourselves). I intend to write a blog post about our efforts each month. Oh, and you might think this is super lame, but I'm going to wait to start the first one until EGM gets back because I want it to be something we do together rather than something I'm invested in that he ignores, because then it won't last.

I'm not sure what 12 things I'd like to do, so I welcome suggestions. Recycling is definitely one. I'd like to get a kitchen vermicompost bin. I'm interested in growing vegetables on the deck when it gets warm and I want to make an effort to shop at the farmer's market. What else should I do?

NYR review

I bet you thought I forgot about my New Year's Resolutions. I did not. I just thought reviewing them made for boring blog posts. But it's been a while since I did an update, so here we go.


Project Efficiency

Recap: I was going to stop procrastinating by 1. not fake working 2. setting goals for each next day 3. not blogging at work at all.

Progress: Not bad, but certainly not perfect.
1. I really do try to ask myself if what I'm doing is actually getting me closer to a PhD, or if I'm doing it to avoid what really needs to get done. Keeping this in mind has been remarkably effective at curbing the fake work habit but I could do better.
2. The days when I arrive a work with a to-do list on my desk that I wrote the previous day are definitely the most productive. Unfortunately, I don't make a list for every day. Need to be more consistent.
3. Okay, I confess that I read blogs a little. My rule is to only read blogs in bloglines which means that I can't read or write comments, the big time suck of reading blogs. It also means that while at work, I don't read blogs that don't syndicate the entire post, nor do I move laterally among blogs. So it's restricted to a break time activity rather than a vortex that sucks me in for hours (like it does at home). In addition, I've cut way back at looking at other websites, like MSN and such.

Money

Recap: I was going to save three months' expenses and pay for two overseas trips as well as open an IRA.

Progress: The IRA is humming along, losing money but for the automatic transfers from my savings account each month. The savings was doing great but has been depleted. I only ended up making one big trip, but I had to help EGM with some expenses. So the total is down, but EGM will eventually pay me back. And I still have time, so I might be able to get to the 3 month mark by January.

Health

Recap: I vowed to cook decent meals at least three nights each week and start eating chicken again.

Progress: We eat chicken about 4-6 times per month, which is about what I wanted. I eat some other meat as well, but not too often. We have been cooking pretty regularly but fell off the wagon during busy times this summer. I have clearly gained weight, so I'd like to get a handle on our eating and exercise to reverse that trend.

Work

Recap: 1. submit two papers 2. finish lab work for chapter 2 3. finish lab work for chapter 3 4. get started on or eliminate chapter 4

Progress: 1. Chapter 1 is getting closer to submission form. Research Advisor still hasn't read it, but I did get some good feedback from another colleague. She pointed out some flaws that had me uncomfortable, so I feel like after I deal with them the paper will be really close to ready. It's unlikely that I will get another paper out before the end of the year.
2. done, with the exception of a handful of analyses that will take a few hours.
3. See counter at side bar. After the samples are processed, I'll be delightfully over the hump but I'll still have a bunch more work to do before I have all the data.
4. I dramatically reduced the lab work required for this chapter at my committee meeting, which is a start. I might get started on the lab work before the end of the year, but it will mean trade-offs with other work, like writing chapter 2. Since I think I work best when I divide my time between the office and lab, I'm thinking I might put this lab work off so I don't spend the spring in writing jail. On the other hand, it would feel really good to see this project get rolling.


So that's that. I think I'm still on track to defend in late spring/early summer with some money in the bank and reasonable cholesterol levels. How are your NYRs faring?

March NYR review

I’m overdue for a New Year’s Resolution update post. I’m sure these are boring, but they really do provide some accountability for me, so here goes.

• I’m doing fine on the money and cooking resolutions.
• Lab work is slowly but steadily progressing. I met a small milestone for Chapter 2 work this week. Chapter 3 work is not going as fast, but not entirely stalled.
• The paper is not going well. Well, it’s not going badly but this is April already and it’s still not done. I have no one to blame but myself. No excuses. I just haven’t done it. Progress has been creeping along, but I need to get my A into G and do it. Actually, that’s not really fair. I did do a fair bit of work on it in March. However, I can feel myself fake working during my writing time and that’s bad. Also, I put everything else first and that’s also bad.
• I still have the same old problem of being really effective in the lab and not so much at my desk. One of the resolutions I have let slide was to make tomorrow’s to-do list at the end of each day. I think I should try that again. Also, I think the goals should be more specific. Currently, I’ll say I’m going to “write” for 2 hours or whatever, but I think I need to say “I’ll work on paragraph X” or “I’ll find the appropriate references for these 3 arguments”. There’s currently some good advice about goal making and list writing at the Aphasic Grads Writing Group.

Sorry I complain about the same crap over and over, but it’s what I struggle with.

NYR February Review

Another month has breezed by; it's time to check in on my New Years' Resolutions.

Project Efficiency has gone downhill. I haven't been writing daily goals, which is the centerpiece of the program. I have also been checking my bloggy email and maybe sometimes peeking at bloglines during work. On the other hand, there hasn't been a lot of fake working. I think I can be proud of that. I'm optimistic about March after reading Silvia's book and getting Slimtimer. So my goals for March are to get in the habit of actually using Slimtimer regularly while establishing a writing routine.

Money went pretty well in February. In addition to the normal big-for-my-income sum that gets automatically transferred to my ING savings each month, I had a little bit leftover on the 29th to add to the kitty. Having two international trips planned really motivates me to save. In other news, Psycgirl and I are thinking about starting a multi-author blog (similar to the Active Academic ) to discuss all manner of money issues that academics have. Anyone interested in that?

We cooked most of our dinners, but there was more pizza than there should have been. Oh well, it was yummy.

Work has been medium. I made some more progress on Chapter 1 paper and discussed what I have so far with both advisers. There's still a lot to do though. There was a little progress for Chapter 2 as well, as I had to complete the final laboratory analyses on one chunk of samples and partially work up the data for a conference abstract. My goal for March is to finish a complete, decent draft of the Chapter 1 paper.

Overall, February was medium. I'm hopeful that the longer days of spring will revitalize me. But, who am I kidding? It won't be spring around here for another two months. I guess I may as well be working!

NYR Update

I should have written this post yesterday, but whatever. Here's my progress on my New Years' Resolutions, to keep me honest. My theme is "Gettin' It Done" but I had a bunch of specific goals too.

Project Efficiency:

There have been only a few instances of fake working. The fact that I can remember them suggests that I have cut down on this behavior.

I have been pretty good about setting goals for each day. Even if I don't write them down, I've still been better at breaking down tasks so I can figure out something useful to do right now, which helps with the procrastination.

I've had mixed success with avoiding procrastination. Some things have gotten done faster than usual, but other things still get put off. For example, yesterday I did nothing on my snow day and felt all guilty about it. If I had stopped procrastinating and just decided to either work or take the day off, I could have gotten something done or had fun. As it was I did neither. On the other hand, I've been good about knowing when I can't focus/sit in my chair anymore and then finding some small lab task to do so I get something done when I know I would otherwise goof off.

I have dramatically reduced blogging and other personal internet use at work. I did slack on this the last few days, but I resolve to get back on track now.

Money: Doing really well on this one!

I opened an IRA

Put a little leftover 2007 money in my ING savings, along with extra January money. More importantly, I set my automatic tranfer to the amount that I had been paying on my credit card last year. We haven't been going out too much, so hopefully this extra money thing will continue.

Health:

I have been cooking more than three times each week and one meal usually has chicken.

Work:

The Project Effeciency stuff

I have made lots of progress on Paper 1, but fear it's going to start dragging since I've done most of the easy parts. I hope that regular meetings with at least one advisor and confessing my progress here will keeep me on track.

I made little bits of progress on Chapter 2 labwork during breaks from working on Paper 1.

That's it for this month. I still have much work to do on my main issue of keeping work at work and home at home. That probably warrants its own post soon.

*The Blogger spellchecking seems to have crapped out on me. Anyone else have this problem? Sometimes I write posts in Word and paste them in blogger, but not always, so I like the spell check.

RBOC: blah

• I was planning to write a post with real content tonight, but my THREE HOUR commute this afternoon kind of sucked the will out of me. And some of you wondered why I hate snow.
• We're supposed to be getting the biggest storm of the season right now. If it's still snowing in the morning, I'm staying home. I already called my carpool buddy to warn him. On one hand, this is a bummer because I prepared some lab work that I'd really like to do. On the other, a snow day snuggled in my pj's, working on my paper sounds pretty good.
• My traffic-induced grouch was partially mitigated by the return of Lost. Ecogeoman and I get super into it, as do a few of my coworkers. We will surely discuss it tomorrow (if I go in). I think the show is off to a pretty good start The writers need to come back now so the season gets completed.
• I ended the month with a little money left over, which I transferred to my savings account today. Good news for that resolution.

Bonus

So far, Project Efficiency, my catch-all New Year's Resolution all about not procrastinating and getting more done, is going pretty well. For example, I paid for my car license plate renewal the day the notice came, which is the sort of thing I'd usually put off and then scramble to do before the deadline, accompianed by much anxiety. More notably, I haven't been blogging at work at all. Although twice I quickly checked my blog related email to look up specific information. And, I admit that when I worked last Saturday, I did read some blogs over lunch, but I figure it's okay if I'm there on a weekend.

Anyway, an unexpected side effect of less procrastination is a tidier home. We're not super messy, but we're not neat freaks either. Since I'm no longer putting off things like sorting the mail or doing the dishes, we are maintaining a cleaner environment. How nice.

Let's talk about procrastination

I'm positive that there are lots of books out there all about procrastination, why we engage in it, and how to beat it. I haven't read them. I bet that many people in this corner of the blogosphere have read some of these books, or thought extensively on the subject, or definitively blogged about it. Since this is a record of my personal journey, I will now blog about my own recent thoughts on procrastination. But I'd love links to your insightful posts or recommendations for helpful but not boring books.

Procrastination doesn't get you ahead. It puts you in the hole. It causes oppressive anxiety. And it creates more work for you to put off.

Think about when you get an email with an attached form you have to fill out. It’s probably tedious and has a distant deadline, so you ignore it for later. But then the deadline approaches and then passes and you get several reminder emails to return the completed form. So you do it, but now you’ve had to think about the stupid thing all those extra times, search for the buried email, and feel guilty. In a sense, you’ve had to do the work more than once. Or think about when you blow something off and then have to do it again because it’s ruined, or it takes extra paperwork to get an extension, or there’s a late fee. Why do we do this to ourselves? Usually, the thing I do instead is not worth the heartache of dealing with the consequences of procrastination. So much guilt and anxiety for what? A Seinfeld rerun? The headlines on MSN?

This recent realization of how much I suffer at the devious hand of procrastination is why one of my NYRs was to reduce it and is what I will try to keep in my thoughts so as to avoid it. It feels so good to get things done when they need to be done and then not think about them again. And to know that no one can bitch at you for not doing your bit.

I recently read in a magazine something like “you never say ‘gee, I wish I hadn’t done that’ after you exercise.” I think the same is true for doing things on your list. You never regret being productive. Productive, here, means not only getting work done, but doing the fun activities that we want to do. I noticed that an awful lot of bloggers wrote how they don’t want to waste time mindlessly surfing the Internet or watching tv this year. Me too.

New Year's Resolutions

I love New Year’s resolutions. Last year I made three, one that I kept (paid off my debt), one that I kept for part of the year (Pilates video workout every day), and one that failed miserably (submit a manuscript). I think NYRs can even affect my mood. I blogged about feeling the blahs in December, which I attributed to winter blues. However, I think it might actually have been end-of-the-year blues. In December, I always reflect on all the things I didn’t accomplish and all the goals I left unmet. January brings a fresh start.

Like many others, I will announce a theme for 2008: Gettin’ It Done (I wonder if Profgrrrl knows how influential she is?). 2008 needs to be about finishing some work so I can a. not go crazy from frustration and b. graduate someday. I like the theme idea, but I think the best resolutions involve very specific goals which can be assessed and, more importantly, are manageable size. It's fine to say you're going to lose weight, but it's also important to say how you will go about losing the weight. So, here are mine:

• Project Efficiency. The idea here is that I will be really focused and work really hard when I’m at work and then not feel guilty for not working when I get home. Any extra work beyond five 8-hour days will be bonus. It has several parts:
  1. No doing work that isn’t really work. Like searching for a semi-necessary image for a presentation 3 hours. I know when I’m giving myself excuses.
  2. At the end of each day, setting goals for the next day. These should be reasonable, not lofty, because I don’t want to feel like crap every day when I don’t finish my to-do list. I want to feel good because my daily accomplishments are transparent.
  3. Reduced procrastination. I've finally realized what grief procratination causes me and I resolve to keep that in mind whenver I want to put something off.
  4. And the hardest part: NO BLOGGING AT WORK. No checking bloglines, or my counter, or my blog email, none of it.


• Money
  1. Build my savings to 3 months’ expenses. This will be very challenging because of the two overseas trips we have planned. If I can at least not be in debt due to those, I guess I’ll be satisfied
  2. Start an IRA. I have no goals for the amount, I just want to have something started for retirement. There’s still lots of time for it to build, so anything I save now is great.
  
• Heath
  1. Cook full meals for dinner at least three times per week. This will contribute to the savings goals (synergy!). Ecogeoman will be onboard with this one too, since he wants to get very serious about Weight Watchers this year. He has be doing it for a few months, but not really taking it all to heart. He wants to lose weight for the tux he’ll have to wear in July’s wedding. See, it’s not only women who have this kind of goal!
  2. Start eating chicken again. I’ve been mostly vegetarian since 2002 but I’m finding it increasingly annoying. We often have dinner at friends’ houses and it’s really hard to ask people to make something special for me or to bring my own food, which feels rude. Beef and pork are completely unappealing, but chicken is alright and I think it will help me with part 1. I stopped eating meat in the first place because I felt it was ecologically unsustainable and that the meat production system was filthy. I’m (mostly) okay with free range, organic meat and it is becoming more widely available. I think chicken on the order of once per week would be good. Ecogeoman would certainly appreciate it.
  3. I’d love to make an exercise resolution, but I know I won’t keep it because it doesn’t feel like a hard and fast priority right now. I don’t want to make goals that I don’t think I can keep because I don’t want to set myself up to fail.
  
• Work
  1. Project Efficiency
  2. Submit 2 papers for publication
  i. The one I resolved to submit last year but didn’t
  ii. Another one
  3. Finish lab work for Chapter 2
  4. Finish lab work for Chapter 3
  5. Have lab work for Chapter 4 solidly started, or have decided to ditch Chapter 4. I’d like to resolve to finish lab work for Chapter 4 too, but I’m not sure it’s possible.

I will report my progress here every month for the rest of the year. I’m serious about these resolutions!