HP:
I generally refrain from giving out free advice to ppl i don't know, but i feel a connection to you and a few people here, so I will make an exception.
I had approached a professor of mine about my own time management problems, and he gave me this wonderful piece of advice, which came directly from his nobel prize winning advisor at stanford. it's called the one-hour rule (actually the advisor called it the 5 min rule, and my prof modified it).
here's how it works: Choose the ONE most important thing you need to do at this stage in your life. if you are a student, it's your academic work. Every morning, after breakfast, before doing anything else, make a strong determination to sit down at your desk for ONE hour to do this most important thing. (Turn off your laptop, cell phone, and other distractions. I find that when i check my email first thing in the morning, i end up wasting an hour on average browsing the web).
Once you get your one hour of work done, you are free to do whatever you want for the remaining 23 hrs. hurray !!! If you find yourself becoming engrossed in your studies, feel free to continue. BUt you must do the one hour at a minimum EVERY day.
The reason that this works is that it brings discipline and continuity, plus it constantly reminds you of what's important, so you always stay focused. If you find that you have lost your daily continuity, bring your duration down to 1/2 an hour. The reason you bring it down to a 1/2 hour is so that you get back on track. The duration is less important than the continuity. Surely you can do 1/2 an hour every morning! Once you become regular, you should raise the duration to 1 hr again.
At the end of the week, you will have done a MINIMUM of 7 hrs of extremely productive work, which i think is a lot! I used to blow off a whole week just slacking off because of this lack of continuity and focus. If i had started doing this in college, I would have accomplished a lot more by now. It may sound simple, but hey most things in life are very simple once you really understand them. From personal experience, I can say that this thing works! However, don't take my word for it. Give it a shot and see for yourself.
Since we are on the topic of resolutions, here's my opinion of your list: it's too long and some of the items, like #10 and the ones with "may" and "might" are vague and already destined to fail.
The problem with having a big list is that it becomes very easy to break one or more resolutions. when i break a resolution, my mind starts telling him that i am a loser, and then i lose the determination to keep the remaining resolutions. when you have one or two resolutions, it becomes easier to keep them.
now about sajha: for me sajha is entertainment in my *free* time. you spend more time if you post a lot because you keep coming back to hear what others have to say. btw, i certainly enjoyed your posts, but if it is taking too much time, you should reduce it. my approach is to read the poems and stories, and stay away from most of the political discussions, because most people are already pre-set in their opinions, and there is no point trying to engage in a meaningful debate. and most of the times, it's the same ideas all over again. as far as my posts are concerned, i generally make a few quick smart-ass comments. maybe i will start wrting some serious prose once i have some free time, but for now i can just read stuff, thanks to some good writers out here.
okay, this turned out to be longer than i had anticipated. but if there's any take-away from all of this, it's the one-hour rule. maybe that can be your resolution. i hope this was helpful.
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