Tuesday, January 9, 2018

New resolutions for 2018

I haven't really committed to what my primary resolutions will be this year, but I'm going strong with several.  (I always wait until after the 12 days of Christmas are over to get started.)  I've got a list of about 10, a few of which (particularly financial ones) are repeats. 


But the best part of getting started with new resolutions this year is because I left work with this view on Thursday night: 


Woohoo!!  That's my voicemail light!  It's on and I DON'T CARE! 

Two of my big 2017 resolutions were work-related.  First, to check my voicemail every day I was in the office, and second, to do "more" of my own filing. 

Holy crap, checking voicemail sucks my will to live!  I hate it so much.  I'm sure the resolution was good for me, made me better at my job and all that, but I am so happy to let that resolution go.  I only missed 3 days I was in the office in all of 2017, so I'd consider that almost perfect.  Considering how much I hated doing it, I'm proud of myself for only missing 3 days. 

I'll keep doing some of my own filing this year under similar guidelines to what I used last year -- filing things if I can do some almost instantaneously with sending or receiving a message.  But on cases where emails are flying back and forth, or cases where I don't address an email the same day I get it, those still go to my assistant to do.  But it's not going to be a resolution this year, it's just more of a habit. 

My only work-related resolution this year is to stand for a couple hours per day on the days that I work from home (that's not even really work-related).  I've worked from home two days so far and have done it both of them. 

Does anyone know details on that whole "sitting is the new smoking" thing?  Like if I work from home from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. two days per week, if I stand for 2 hours right at the start, does that give any different benefit (and if so, how?) from if I stand for 2 hours mid-day?  And is there any difference if I do two separate 1 hour periods?  What about 8 separate 15 minute periods?  I read about it a while ago, and part of me thinks the least beneficial would be doing a 2 hour block right at the start of the day and then sitting the remainder of the day, and most beneficial would be doing like 16 separate periods of 7.5 minutes.  But is the difference in benefit minimal?  Or significant?  For this year, I'm just doing the 2 hours however it works out.  If it's right at the start and all in one block, so be it, but I'd love to know if I'd get more benefit (and how much more) by breaking it up more or doing it more mid-day. 

1 comment:

  1. Voicemail in this age of smartphones that allow for phone, text and email is just annoying to me. I am on a project in a research center just outside of Corning, so not at my ‘home office’ in downtown. For the first year or so I avoided having my phone moved to the new office - because it essentially doubles the cost and I seldom get called! Eventually I gave in, but late last year our IT implemented a new system and now our voicemail passwords expire every 90 days just like our network passwords! Ugh - super annoying, so I have mine written and stuck to the phone! :D

    I don’t know the granularity of the ‘sitting’ studies, but from what I have read it is more about the overall impact of sitting vs. standing and keeping in motion in general. I try to heed the annoying buzzes of my Apple Watch or Garmin telling me to move so I get up and go every hour, which I normally do but there are occasionally days when it feels like I am sitting way too much!

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