While this may look a lot like New Year's resolutions, I prefer to think of it as making decisions to end aberrant behaviors on my own part and for my best interest a manifesto. And instead of keeping it to myself like any human being with anything close to resembling a shred of dignity, I find it's usually best to shame myself into action by way of public accountability. And nothing works for self laceration quite like public forums. So, if any of these thoughts help you,... well then, god speed and all that.

1. Stop Living in My Head So Damn Much. I spend a lot of time thinking. About everything. About what I want to do and about how to do it. This includes stories, projects and things around the house that I perpetually put off. I mean really, how many times can one person consider all of the angles? So, enough with the thinking. Time to trust my own judgement and get to more doing. As such...

2.Work Harder. Stop grousing and just do what you're supposed to do already. You could've finished your workout in the time it took you to figure out the eleven billionty reasons you don't want to do it (but will anyway). And this goes further than "don't procrastinate." Whatever you do, do it as hard as you can. Push yourself to do more in less time and hopefully, you'll get to the point where you can do it faster. That's logical, right?

3. Work Passionately. If you're doing what you love, then it seems a lot less like work and a lot more like, well, just being. It's a trueism, I know, and I tend to abhor trueisms, but this one is pretty simple.

4. Obey the First Rule of Time Management: Which is: don't waste your fucking time. Usually, I use this in regards to lost causes that we fool ourselves into believing will work if only we had a little more willpower. White knuckle hope and belief is nice but nothing beats actual work... But I digress. This also applies to "how much E! network do you really need to watch?"

5. Admit It, You're an Animal. And that's okay, but animals weren't built for cubicles. So take that big astronaut brain of yours that's trapped in that caveman's body and run it for a few miles. Or do some push ups. Running has turned into my new drink too much and look at the stars experience, which is great for (yeah, I know what I said earlier) thinking.

6. But You're an Animal of Class and Taste. I'm going to try reading more this year. And when I say read, I mean read more books that aren't graphic novels. A hundred pages a week isn't great but it's better than what I've been doing (i.e. reading twenty pages and then "ooh. Look. Something shiny!).

7. Catch Your Stories While They're There. Usually, I mean this in regards to writing down stray ideas and the truly freaky dreams. But I lost my grandmother this last year, and unless I sit down and pry the stories out of my grandfather in the here and now, we'll lose a love story that spanned continents, cultures and decades. Stories are everywhere. You just gotta catch 'em while you can.