Just one more thing

I've continued to ponder whether I'm going to make any other New Year's resolutions besides the Whole30, and I realized something important: The things I want to do, I'm going to do with or without a resolution. (I'd put in that category several exercise-related ideas, finishing with Romans, doing a sprint triathlon this summer, reading more, experimenting with new foods, and so on.) But if my resolutions are things I DON'T want to do, then I'm going to really struggle and probably not succeed.

Some might conclude that I'm an idiot for not having had that amazing revelation about 20 years ago and that there's no point in my making resolutions at all. But I tend to conclude that I actually enjoy setting goals and that New Year's Day would be a pointless holiday without them. I just need to resolve to do something I wouldn't have done otherwise but is totally manageable.

Gretchen Rubin had an idea in The Happiness Project that fits the bill perfectly: "Suffer for 15 minutes." The idea is to set a timer for 15 minutes each day and use that time (and only that time) to gradually tackle a huge, daunting project that you know should do but you never seem to get around to. She used her time to organize her photos and make albums for each of her kids. That chore is on my list, too, but it's actually SO daunting that I'm going to postpone it for a while and start with something easier. I think Job One will be to clean up my disastrously outdated address book and digitize it. I can also clean out my file cabinets, organize my pile of loose-leaf recipes, purge and clean the laundry room, and get some photos in frames. (It all sounds dreadful, doesn't it?) So…any digital address book recommendations?

Happy 2013!