2023 resolutions (and a bit of 2022 review)



Time for the resolutions, in my traditional categories:

A habit

Last year, my plan was a plank a day, but I only made it part way through the year. I'm going to stick with the theme of weight-bearing exercise and go with this:
  • Add yoga or Pilates to my online fitness class regime.
I've signed up for the first one, so I'm on my way! I already pay for the Frame online membership, so this costs me nothing but time. (And if it replaces a dance class, then it's not even costing me time.)

A side-resolution:

  • If I manage to attend fewer than three live classes in a week (or if I fail to sign up for a live yoga/Pilates), then I have to do an on-demand class.

A 'one and done' project

I have two things I want to do under this heading. The first, and simplest, is:
  • have my hearing tested
I doubt it's bad enough to do anything about, but it won't hurt to have it checked.

The more involved one is:
  • make a spreadsheet of all my regular outgoings, including charity donations, subscriptions, direct debit bills
I think I'll need to tackle it in parts. One week, I can go through my PayPal and see what's going out monthly or annually from that. Another week, I can go through my credit card, another week, another account. 

Of course after (or while) making the spreadsheet, I might find some subscriptions I've forgotten about or I might want to rethink my charity strategy. My goals isn't necessarily to save money, though. I mostly want to know what I'm spending and think about why I'm spending it. 

Something to make me happy

  • try to use the adjective grand more often. 
How do I feel about that? Grand! At the very least, I'm using it as my Wordle starting word.


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Work life

So those are the resolutions, but I want to think a little bit here about work and how I'm going to manage it in the coming term. 

Based on a 5-day week (excluding holidays), I worked 9.3 hours/day in 2022. Not ideal, and pretty much directly the result of treating the editing of Dictionaries as my 'Saturday job'. 

I definitely have work achievements for the past year.* But what I don't have are REFable publications. I did some work toward such things, but the progress was too fits-and-starts to amount to anything. I've been asked to update some old works of mine, and these projects are very tempting because they stand to make me some money, but they are not REFable. I really have to get some REFable stuff off for review, and I have to do that before I do any more on the book I'm writing. 

If all goes smoothly this term (please, let everything go smoothly this term), I am teaching just one mostly familiar module and supervising a bunch of students. My aim this term is to keep the work mostly in the week and to return to taking Saturdays properly off, using them for non-work projects (or just fun). 

So I am thinking I should:
  • Put 15 minutes of week-planning into my calendar. I'm thinking on Wednesdays. It is a bit unconventional, but I think I'm too optimistic at the beginnings of weeks to do good planning then.
  • Declare a weekday as Dictionaries day. Keep a 4-hour stretch free for editing work on that day. Maybe Tuesday?
  • On the other days, find a way to fit some time for a REFable project, starting with the GloWBE please paper, which has significant parts done. I am thinking I need some kind of daily accountability-partner work—the problem is finding partners who are free at the same times as me.
  • Not forget about doctoral students when thinking about how much I can get done in a week. Getting a chapter or a thesis in my inbox is what frequently undoes me. 



* Some things I did:
  • Two >200-page issues of Dictionaries. One was a special issue, which took some of the pressure off me—I was essentially the production editor. The general issue was me alone, and so feels much the equivalent of publishing an edited volume. 
  • New 30-credit first-year module with Lynne C, successfully planned and taught. 
  • Another year as head of department, enjoying our 100% satisfaction rating in the National Student Survey.
  • Four commissioned media pieces (incl. 2 TLS reviews). 
  • Seven talks (two of them properly new, the other five adaptations of previous talks) 
  • A book chapter finally out 
  • New newsletter, which has replaced my Twitter Differences of the Day. (Not taking less time yet—but I'm hoping it will, especially if I reduce frequency.)
  • etc.