My resolution for this year is almost being forced upon me: I need to be more efficient, making better use of my working hours to get more done, and better use of my outside-work hours to do Things That Are Not Work (on the subject of which: Ju and I are going to give Capoeira a go, with an introductory course with these guys). Concentrate on doing one thing well (very zen - or do I mean UNIX?) as opposed to jumping between 2000 places at once.

It reminds me of when we're doing lots of sword-work in Aikido. I do a few hundred sword cuts, and it hurts like hell even though I'm desperately trying to substitute technique for muscle strength... but the way I'll learn how to work efficiently is to do it wrong so many times, to make myself so tired that there's no alternative but to do it right: to "grind out strength", as Tom Helsby puts it.

Likewise with work at the moment - we're exceptionally busy, so I'm forced to find ways of organising my time to get more done. And just as with the sword-cuts, it's worthwhile in the long term and rather painful in the short term...