{"id":1908,"date":"2012-01-01T08:22:05","date_gmt":"2012-01-01T08:22:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/?p=1908"},"modified":"2013-01-05T08:39:21","modified_gmt":"2013-01-05T08:39:21","slug":"resolving-the-resolutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/2012\/01\/01\/resolving-the-resolutions\/","title":{"rendered":"Resolving the Resolutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

A year ago I publicly<\/a> made some New Year\u2019s Resolutions, and it is interesting to look back and see what my good intentions were and to what extent I\u2019ve managed to stick with them.<\/p>\n

Resolution 1 <\/strong><\/em>I will ensure I return all referee reports on papers by the due date in 2011<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve not done too badly on this front, largely because I have developed a taste for declining to review almost anything. Gone are the days when I enjoyed the luxury of looking at a paper\u2019s title or abstract and thinking that it looked rather interesting, albeit somewhat removed from my current field of activity, and therefore it might be satisfying to referee the paper in parallel with reading around the topic.\u00a0 Now if it isn\u2019t relevant, or is relevant only to something I worked on in the past but no longer, it\u2019s an automatic \u2018no\u2019. I can deal with that sort of refereeing request very speedily! More troubling are the ones I\u2019d really like to read through and ponder over, but a glance at my diary tells me that I am already horribly over-committed during the time period allotted for the refereeing task. I am probably rather slower to turn these requests down, but hope I get around to it within a few days as it becomes ever clearer there isn\u2019t a hope in hell I\u2019ll get it done in time.\u00a0 Occasionally one slips through the net and I get a chase from the editor, but genuinely these are few and far between. I think I can tick this resolution off as successfully accomplished (and I plan on sticking with this for the coming year too).<\/p>\n

Resolution 2 <\/strong><\/em>I will delete unread at least 50% of all emails that arrive overnight (when the worst of my spam seems to appear) \u00a0and 25% of those that come during working hours.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve developed a good system to delete that boring barrage of stuff that arrives in one\u2019s inbox in the small hours. Before I ever get my computer on I do a quick scroll through my inbox on my iPhone over that first crucial cup of coffee of the day, and delete as many emails as I can. I think that probably does amount to ca 50% so I\u2019ll tick the first half of this resolution off too. During the day how well do I do? Actually, I\u2019ve very little idea what the percentage that gets deleted each day is, but I suspect it\u2019s getting too high, that I\u2019m getting \u2018trigger happy\u2019 with the delete button. Twice in the last month I\u2019ve had to ask people to resend messages \u2013 one was a reference request which was particularly embarrassing \u2013 because the relevant emails had got so effectively obliterated they weren\u2019t even in my trash or deleted folder. So, I\u2019ll claim success with the second part too, but with the caveat I probably need to be more careful on this front rather than less.<\/p>\n

Two down, what about the third resolution I laid claim to this time last year?<\/p>\n

Resolution 3<\/strong> I won\u2019t accept any more invitations to write reviews;<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Success, definitely not written (or agreed to write) any reviews this year!<\/p>\n

b) I won\u2019t print out a paper without having a clear slot of time immediately thereafter to read it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ah well, it was too much to hope I\u2019d get through all my resolutions triumphantly. No, failed on this one. I am still prone to print out papers, leave them lying them around on desk or floor, and find them weeks later still unread. So, this is one to work on in 2012.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

All my resolutions last year revolved around the vexed questions of refereeing, papers and emails. There is of course rather more to (academic) life than that, so I should consider what my good intentions for the coming year are in addition to keeping up the good work on these 3 items. The one that comes to mind is developing a little bit of tolerance regarding my fellow cyclists. OK, this isn’t particularly academic but increasingly they are irritating me by their bad manners and willingness to ignore the Highway Code, as if it wasn\u2019t designed for cyclists as well as other road users. So my resolution for 2012 on this front is<\/p>\n

2012 Resolution No 1<\/strong>\u00a0 I will not swear at those cyclists who cycle straight at me the wrong way up narrow streets, typically without lights on if after dark. I will only permit myself to swear if they make actual physical contact or cause me to fall under the wheels of a passing taxi.<\/em><\/p>\n

I have written previously<\/a> about how peevish such cyclists make me. They seem to be getting ever more numerous, as if the one way system in the centre of town is pure fantasy and I am alone in trying to stick with it. They make life very dangerous for the rest of us, however, and I could wish the police put a little more effort into enforcing the rules on this front (and the use of lights ditto).\u00a0 This is not an academic grumble, but I am sure it is not good for my blood pressure to get so stressed about this particular peccadillo of other people.<\/p>\n

2012 Resolution No 2<\/strong> I will continue practicing to say \u2018no\u2019 more often to things it would be foolish \u2013 if interesting, fun or diverting \u2013 to say yes to. <\/em><\/p>\n

I have begun to do better on this front. I refused an invitation to go and speak to a distant university forum about my diversity work for no better reason than that I already had accepted more invitations in far-flung parts of the country than are good for my well-being. I felt very churlish doing this, but having just made a verbal commitment to my family I would not accept any more invitations to give what one might call \u2018random\u2019 talks (i.e. unassociated with any of my more formal responsibilities and roles) this year, I felt if I said yes to \u2018just one more\u2019, it would be too easy never to draw the line. I was delighted the response I got from the forum organisers was very understanding, though they may well be back earlier in the academic year next time.<\/p>\n

2012 Resolution No 3<\/strong> I will do my bit for the environment, by not printing out committee papers, but try always to work with them on the screen.<\/em><\/p>\n

I am of the generation that still finds it easier to scribble comments on a paper \u2013 for a committee or a research paper written by a group member \u2013 than to edit or comment on it electronically. This means that I generate an awful lot of paper that soon gets recycled. My university still persists in sending out many of its committee papers in hard copy, so that frequently I have no choice but to work with paper copies, and this means I don\u2019t practice as hard as I might with the electronic route. But this year an experiment is being carried out with the promotions panel I sit on. Instead of 3 large boxes of papers we are being offered one USB stick \u2013 plus an hour of \u2018training\u2019. I find this strange; I cannot think why I need an hour of being shown how to navigate through the files (unless they\u2019ve done something very strange and counterintuitive). But there it is, an early New Year treat of USB stick training coupled with the carrot I need to stop printing out my papers and start being greener (and yes, I do know carrots aren\u2019t green!)<\/p>\n

So, a new and varied batch of resolutions with which to enter the New Year. Now I have six resolutions to live up to. I am in all honesty surprised to find how well I have done with those I set myself for 2011. I wonder if I can do a repeat performance for 2012.\u00a0 Happy New Year everyone!<\/p>\n

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A year ago I publicly made some New Year\u2019s Resolutions, and it is interesting to look back and see what my good intentions were and to what extent I\u2019ve managed to stick with them. Resolution 1 I will ensure I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[236,419,182,418,177],"class_list":["post-1908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-culture","tag-cycling","tag-diaries","tag-email","tag-new-year","tag-refereeing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}