cubicle17

This time last year, I chose not to make New Year’s Resolutions. Instead, the idea was that rather than resolve once a year to change something, I’d start a list of things to do to improve my quality of life, regularly review this list, and make changes as necessary. No fake, forced pressure, and no lying to myself. This was the original list:

1. Slow down
2. Learn a new programming language
3. Budget better, save more
4. Write (at least) one original article per week
5. Read more
6. Commit to a todo system (regardless of which one)
7. Consume less frivolous media (less RSS, for example)
8. More music, less TV
9. More time with family/friends, less with my computer

How’ve I been doing, you ask? Let’s start with items 1, 3, and 9. Although I’ve done better with these, I’ve chosen to keep them on my list since reminders about these never hurt. I’ve improved enough on 5, 6, 7, and 8 to feel comfortable removing them (for now). #2 has proved to be somewhat irrelevant, so it gets removed as well. That leaves 4 as the only item which needs some tweaking. Oh well, they can’t all be winners.

What does the list look like now?

1. Slow down
2. Budget better, save more
3. More time with family/friends, less with my computer
4. Focus more, multitask less
5. Stop worrying, don’t get defensive, and generally calm down
6. Create more

While the goal isn’t just to mark things off the list, I think the list’s size can be a decent indicator of how well this experiment is working, and by this measure, last year was a success. I hope this year is too.