New Year's gets a bad rap.

I think it's because there's plenty of things that are involved with the holiday that people could *potentially* hate, so odds are there's something about New Year's you're not going to like. The persuasive argument for me is that it reminds people of a popularity contest: where are you going? Who are you with? What are you wearing? Oh, *you're staying in and going to bed early?* I *guess* that's fun!

People hate it. I can see why.

But taking the party out of New Year's, I've always liked the idea of having a time to try new things: think less resolution and more let's throw things against the wall and see what sticks. So here's what I'm throwing against the wall in 2018:

• Average two movies per week, at least one of those older than twenty years
• Blog at least one tweet-sized post per day
• One longer blog post per week
• Listen to my Apple Music New Music Mix each week
• Be less concerned about posting things of a political nature, but keep it less opinionated and more reasoned ("Less Opinionated and More Reasoned on Twitter"-- what could go wrong with that?)

I hear most of you: "you've got a new baby, where is all of this time coming from?" That brings me to what I think is the crucial piece that most people leave out when doing new resolutions: *what exactly are you giving up in order to fit these new things in your life?*

Time is as zero-sum of a game as exists. So to do this new stuff, here's what I'm planning on giving up:

• The incessant refresh of Twitter and RSS feeds: only two post-8pm refreshes
• The infinite scroll of Reddit: only when everything else has been finished
• Piddling around after the baby's asleep: better plan downtime
• Clearing that big red unread messages badge on Outlook: post-6pm work emails should only be absolutely necessary

Now, I understand that "stop wasting times so I can to do more stuff" sounds a lot like the Republican tax plan banking on insane economic growth to not grow the deficit. Maybe it is. Just like Congress: we're throwing things against the wall and seeing what sticks, remember?

This reads like the opposite of what most people resolve to do in the new year, but I'm still going to try to do the normal stuff: exercise regularly, eat better, etc. But if I'm forced to sum all of this up as a New Year's Resolution, it's this: in 2018, I want to be more intentional with my time.