2012 Resolutions

I've was never a big believer in New Year's resolutions until about two years ago. Unhappy with my weight after two kids I finally resolved to do something about it and over the course of a year and a half I lost 50 lbs. I don't mention that fact for bragging rights (though I am modestly proud of myself) I mention it because it taught me that sometimes the beginning of a new year is a great time for reflection. It might sound trite because the improvements we strive to make at the start of the year are things we should address all year long. But there are few landmarks that are as effective as the start of a new year and, like two years ago, I have reflected on a few things that I'd like to improve in the coming year.

• Spend More Time Writing While Wasting Less Time on the Internet-- I don't know about you, but I have serious Internet ADD.  I log onto the net with the best intentions of sitting down and writing a blog post and end up web-surfing for waaay too long (I'm embarrassed to talk numbers) while still not accomplishing my goal. The inevitable outcome of this is that my productivity has declined in virtually every area of my life-- just ask my laundry pile. The real silliness here is that I will bounce back-and-forth between the same few sites to see if anything new and interesting has popped up and usually end up staring at the same page over and over. To accomplish this I am effective immediately instituting time limits on how long I can stay on the net. 


• Write More Fiction-- I'm horrible about getting in ruts. A few years ago I wrote several short stories and liked the sense of accomplishment that came with that. But I got lazy over time (that *&^%$ Internet ADD again) and pushed the story writing off to the side. To accomplish this I am going to schedule a solid time every day that will be set aside only for this.


• To Be a More Well Rounded Reader--This year has been the year of the book club and it has been a good thing for me. I am not one to broaden my horizons if I can help it and having a group of women insist that I read books I'm positive I'll hate has been surprisingly enriching. It turns out that I have my own brand of literary-snobbery that causes me to dismiss anything I'm not interested in as an Oprah book and it has made me overlook some extraordinarily good books. I will admit that I have read a few stinkers this year too, but that would have happened even if I had stuck to my own genre. To accomplish this I am going to pick authors within my own comfort zone (generally scifi or fantasy) but choose titles that I have previously chosen not to read because I didn't believe they were to my taste. 


• Be More Organized--This is probably going to be the most difficult for me to accomplish. I am not a naturally organized person. I rarely plan my blog posts in advance and usually end up staying up far too late to finish my reviews (it's 12:33 am right now). I used to have an incredible memory, but age and children have robbed me of the few bits of self-monitoring that I was once capable of. To accomplish this I am going to learn to embrace lists-- I've already started writing down ideas for blog posts and it has already come in handy. 

So that's my list. I'm stopping at four resolutions because I think it's a doable number and just those few things could make a huge difference in providing some structure to my occasionally chaotic life. What did you resolve to do this year?