How are you doing on your New Year’s resolutions?
Remember mine? I didn’t pick something unattainable like losing 20 pounds or running a marathon or something nearly impossible. No, my New Year’s resolution was something that should have been easy. My resolution was to simply try to finish one thing before starting another.
It’s not going so well. For instance, I recently came to work with every intention of answering about a half dozen emails that have been sitting in my inbox for a few weeks. Sounds simple right?
But before I started with emails, I decided to file some information sitting on my desk from a county board meeting I had just attended. As I flipped through the documents to see if I could throw them away, I read the correspondence. Reading the correspondence, I realized there might be another story there. I called for information, but reached an answering machine. I left a message and turned back to the emails.
I started with an email from Teri with the Isle Royale Friends & Family Association. She was seeking some information about Isle Royale from the News-Herald archives. Bill Neil had tracked down the big binder holding the issues that should have the information, so I started looking through it. We eventually found the information, photographed it and I sent it off in an email.
But I didn’t want to go back to the emails. Instead I started looking through other binders to find and stockpile Historical Reflections photos for the future. That wasn’t a bad plan, but then one of the old photos reminded me of yet another historic picture donated by a reader.
I needed to email them for more information. I closed up the archive binders and headed back to my computer. Before I did that, I needed a cup of coffee. Heading back to my desk with my coffee, I realized I needed to chat with fellow reporter Brian Larsen about who was going to cover what for the week.
That settled, I went back to my email, thinking I’d send one quick note and then return to my journey through history with the archives. But then I saw a note from Cindy Everson in the school office, letting me know that one of the students in the Class of 2016 had dropped off a form and photo in the office for us to pick up.
Great news, we sometimes have a tough time getting that information from our busy graduates. I very much appreciate the help from school staff, so I sent Cindy a note asking for more help. Could she mention during school announcements that seniors need to get their photos and interview sheets to us?
That made me think of the seniors I know and I decided to make a list of parents I could call to also recruit to encourage the grads to get their information to me.
And then I thought of the lovely glossy magazine we put together and publish just before graduation and I realized I need the senior class photo for that. So, I sent off another email to the school to see who was the official photographer this year.
In between all that I took a subscription from someone who walked in and took a change of address for a returning snow bird over the phone. With both people I had a very pleasant chat about mud season and construction delays. The phone rang again and I talked to a funeral home about our deadline for obituaries.
Thinking about an obituary made me think of church and that reminded me that it was time to remind next month’s Spiritual Reflections columnist that it is his turn. Thinking of one columnist reminded me of another and I shot off an email reminder to one of our senior citizen representatives to also remind them it was their turn to submit.
As all this was happening, I once again thought, gee, I wish I could finish just one thing today—and I decided to jot myself a note to write a column revisiting my New Year’s resolution.
And finally here it is. It only took a month of stops and starts to do it, but I’ve finished just one thing. I hope you are doing better with your New Year’s resolutions.
The average American worker
has 50 interruptions a day,
of which 70 percent have
nothing to do with work.
W. Edwards Deming
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