New Year's Resolutions

By Amy Baranski

Technically our year hasn't started yet for Good Luck With That (we go from Feb-Feb). But for all intents and purposes it's the new year! Along with trying 12 things in 2012 (list to be revealed later this month) I'm making it a point to make some new resolutions myself.

Signs of spring on a new year's walk.

About three years ago I began giving my year a theme instead of assigning myself a list of self-improvement items such as "eat less cookies."

In 2009 it was organization. The year included rooting through old files, giving away useless things, investing in organizing stuff such as file folders, bins and containers for the kitchen, to name a few. It also involved alphabetizing and spending a lot of time cleaning closets. It was a productive year.

In 2010 my theme was:  do, make, read. The do and make were covered in spades and included a foray into bookmaking classes, meeting new friends, teaching myself how to cook and prepare food better, and planing a trip to China. The read happened, but not as vigorously.

In 2011 I focused on getting things done, however it ended up that I just did things (like 12 new things for this blog to be specific) and left many old (and future) projects undone or not yet started.

2011 will always be a very fond year in memory.

So now it's 2012 and it's going to be a big year! I've made a list of my personal improvements and goals but the overall theme I'm giving to the year is to work faster.

The idea, as my mother in law explains, is that work expands to the time allotted. So this year I'm going to give myself little meadows of time to get things done, versus great plains.

I'll let you know how it goes!