The state of my new year's resolutions: one month review

Methods and Discussion:

Resolution (1) : To stop biting my nails.
Result? Not a nibble. Yay for me! (Although I still have to coat them with enough nail-polish every day to make them taste terrible if I absent-mindedly try.)

Resolution (2): To get up at 7am every weekday.
Result? Mostly success (3 days missed).

Resolution (3): To do my Greek translations (for a Homeric reading group I go to) regularly throughout the fortnight preceding each meeting, rather than in a frantic rush the night before.
Result? Complete and utter failure. (Although last time I didn't do it the night before -- I did it ON THE MORNING of the meeting instead. Crap.)

Resolution (4): To spend the extra hour I have in the mornings working on The Novel (see, it looms) and studying Egyptian (on alternate days).
Result? Partial success. For two weeks, this worked excellently. Right up until, um... let me see... the day I started this blog. I think I am going to have to ban myself from blogging (and blog-surfing) in the mornings.

Resolution (5): To spend one afternoon each weekend trying to finish some of the four programming projects I am in the middle of (and have been in the middle of for about three years now).
Result? Not a sausage.

Conclusions:
The morning novel-writing and Egyptian-learning is do-able. But I need to be vigilant about not blogging.

The Greek doesn't matter all that much. There's something exhilarating about tackling that much Homer in one sitting.

It's the programming that's the real issue. If I want to be honest with myself, I have to admit that my weekends are a write-off. I use them to blob (= blog?) and that isn't such a bad thing. So if I am not going to be able to work on those computer programs every Saturday afternoon, but still do want to get the programs finished, then when?

I try not to let myself get started on them on week nights, since I am completely unable to stop once I begin, and this leads to late-night programming sessions, crawling into bed with scratchy eyes at 4am, and lines of code dancing in front of my eyelids the rest of the night.

I think maybe I should admit I have an addictive personality and try to work on stopping doing fun things while they are still fun. That is really at the root of all my broken resolutions. I gave up on the novel-writing and Egyptian learning after I had a big writing binge one morning and decided that "counted" for the rest of the week. Then I spent an entire weekend immersed in Egyptian, and didn't feel like doing any more when it came to Tuesday morning. And the blogging (which I was allowing myself 15 minutes of before starting the real work each morning) gradually expanded to take up the full 1 hour 15.

Outlook:
I need me some stopping will-power, I do. But where to find some? (I missed the January sales this year).

technorati tags: new year's resolutions, computer programming, writing,