Sort-of-resolutions

Resolutions are something I've always been bad at. I can make 'em - and make them SMART, and write them up in full colour with attainable intermediate steps and Next Actions - but I get distracted. The mundanities of life get in the way. I've had some success in the past with the 'Best Year Yet' process - it lasted several months, at least in terms of reviewing where I wasn't getting... but years like last year, when my score was something like 11 weeks sick leave plus three weeks of holiday leave marred by illness plus three weeks of serious sick-cat-related-disruption (and the knock-on of cat death into the next month or so), 6 planned trips cancelled (and others not planned properly due to (lack of) health), tend to ruin any systematic plans. Yet... here I go again.

Like Profgrrl and others, I usually try to have a theme, a guiding pattern, for the year ahead. This year, I'm going for regrouping. In roughly 13 months time I will be starting a sabbatical, plus WierdBugMan and GrumpyTechnician (who I really like - and who is critical to my research activities and to some of my teaching - and who may not be replaced) will (almost) certainly have retired. I want to be ready by then for new challenges, a new phase in my life - to use the sabbatical months to start a new research programme, or go on a secondment to administration, or to work on a serious career change or job hunt or do something else exciting and new and refreshing and different. So I need to clear the decks.

Decluttering my list of nagging backlog, whether by saying 'no, that will never happen' and deleting a task or by actually doing the task or by finding a way to delegate or disperse the task, decluttering my physical space and paying more attention to having fun and to nurturing social (and work) relationships that make me feel good (and withdraw from those that drain me) will be good for my mental health too. And whilst I'm at it, my physical health could use some attention - eating plenty of fruit, veg and wholegrains, taking vitamins and medications correctly, drinking a lot of water, sleeping a decent amount and avoiding caffeine, nicotine and alcohol are all things that I have pretty much incorporated into my life, but I can also bring more fresh air and exercise into my routine, and cut the amount of 'treat food' and processed food in my diet to lose at least some weight.

By February 2010 I hope to be

• fitter (what's a reasonable goal? Something like being able to do a hilly walk of 8-12 miles with an average walking speed of about 3 miles per hour, and not be in much pain the next day - in fact let's identify a walk - perhaps this route over Kinder Scout? This is an area I used to walk regularly as a teenager so I can imagine it quite well... and would love to not be 'stopping to look at the view' every few minutes on the steep bits!)
• slimmer (I'd like to lose 20% of my body weight, which is about a pound a week (yes, I'm OBESE (shudder - horrible word, it has so much negative moral weight)) so should be attainable without drastic measures and despite weeks where travelling and work commitments coupled with my vegetarianism mean that I can't practically stick to any kind of formal plan (so often vegetarian = cheese, pastry, nuts - yummy, but hardly low fat, and I know myself well enough to know that as soon as my sleep patterns are disrupted I won't be able to resist eating what's offered - or any icecream that may follow it...). I won't be THIN by any standard if I achieve that, but I'll definitely be healthier than I am now, and plane seats will be more comfortable...
• have made major inroads into my publications backlog, by writing consistently and by setting aside time for writing first
• have done a decent amount of personal writing - journalling, blogging, poetry writing - including exploring what I really want to do with the next 20-25 years of my working life
• have cleared a lot of my sample analysis backlog
• be able to easily find things in my house, not have lots of space wasted on items that I don't either use regularly or treasure, have a refurbished bathroom, and have a renegotiated mortgage deal
• not be starting my Christmas letters with some variation on "sorry for being a lousy letter writer this year..."
• have had fun. Every month, even the really really mad-busy-at-work ones. And made things - poems, knitted items, whatever - and nurtured relationships
• and maybe have found a church that I can join? Or at least made regular religious practice a more routine and central part or my week, in some form

Most of all, I need to focus on maximising the work done in the hours I put aside for science/academia, rather than the total number of hours I spend 'working' but actually fritter away on worrying and trivia (or chatting to colleagues or surfing the 'net - both necessary activities, but ones which can easily expand to fill the time available and sprawl over the edges).

And now I get to fulfil an important personal New Year's Eve tradition - going to bed with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate, and leaving the curtains open so that I can watch a few fireworks if I'm still awake at midnight.