Michael Kemp, The Daily Record Newswire
New Year's Day has come and gone; the ball in Times Square has been put away, and all the confetti swept up off the streets. We're back into the grind. But there's still a hanger-on from New Year's, I hear sometimes in random small-talk. People ask if I've made any resolutions. I haven't. I did get a kitchen towel for Christmas from my aunt that said "Be the person your dog thinks you are." It's a nice sentiment, but it's not exactly a resolution.
I am making some resolutions for my firm, though. Actually, just one.
I've tried resolutions before, around my office (and surrounding small firms). Casual Monday through Friday was replaced by a short-lived attempt to dress in a suit-or at least a button-down and tie-every day, after I had a walk in on a day when I was supposed to just be holed for 18 hours finishing a summary judgment brief. I write best in jeans and a hoodie, but it's not particularly conducive to establishing professionalism when meeting a potential client. It didn't last.
The small firms in my building once tried to implement three-piece Thursdays, because we're like that. Only we realized that it was rare that more than two of us were in the office at the same time, so that didn't stick either. I tried to limit myself to one pot of coffee per day and no sleeping at the office, which is great on days you're not wearing jeans and a hoodie, but sometimes falls to the necessities of, you know, staying awake.
My firm has not been great about keeping resolutions, New Year's ones or otherwise. This year is going to be different though. Why? Baby steps. I'm identifying a larger issue that needs to change, but instead of attacking the larger issue, trying to take one small, manageable step.
The first step has to do with bookkeeping. My firm has resolved to be better at bookkeeping. Not client bookkeeping, not tracking hours and invoicing things regularly (although those are good things too). I mean tracking and recording expenses. Bookkeeping is one of those things where you can meet the minimum requirements by spending five minutes a week and a week at the end of the year, or 10 minutes a week and an hour at the end of the year.
Predictably, I've always been the former. But no more. No more shoebox full of invoices and cluttered receipts with notes hastily scrawled onto the back, shoved unceremoniously into a hole in my file cabinet until the end of the year. No more receipts sitting in my wallet until all the ink has rubbed off and I have no idea what the receipt was for. No more throwing away receipts because it's just $8 for some boxes of paper clips and who cares. No more throwing printer ink refills in with my groceries at Target and putting them all on my personal account because it seems overly complicated to make two transactions - as if, really, I don't have two minutes to spare. This has to stop.
I hate to admit it, but it's indicative of a larger issue, and one in which I'm pretty sure I'm not alone, although my prognosis might be more dire than that of most people. Quite simply, I'm lazy when it comes to collecting rewards.
It's a common problem; it's the one companies are banking on when they offer you a "$50 mail-in rebate." They count on people like me, for whom $50 is enough to make us think we're getting a deal, but not enough to make us go through all the steps to get it. Sadly, I do it all the time. Sometimes I'll order something online - for myself or for the office, it doesn't matter - and when it comes, it's not what I wanted. The latest casualty was alligator clips. I wanted the kind that holds large stacks of paper together, not the kind you use to repair car wiring. Incidentally, if anyone is planning to repair 200 cars in the near future, I'll give you a deal on alligator clips. Why? Because they only cost about $4, and it seems like more work to return them than the $4 is worth. So I just kept them and ordered the right kind. I have whole stacks of useless junk at home and in the office. I could return it, no one would complain, and they would give me my money back. I've just chosen not to go through the work to collect the reward of getting my money back.
From that larger pathology I have chosen just one issue to deal with: the above-mentioned bookkeeping. Rather than go after the whole problem, I'm attacking one issue. When I have that under control, I'll fix another one (you're next, spam filter). It's my version of resolving to stop eating candy bars rather than resolving to "lose weight." Based on nothing more than common sense, though, I think it's more likely to succeed.
Someday my firm will tackle other problems. I'll dress up every day for the office whether I'm meeting a client or just working on paperwork. I'll drink less coffee and more water. I'll drag myself home even if it seems easier just to crash at the office for a few hours. "Someday" has a nice ring to it. Today, I'm just going to file my receipts. I just got some paper clips in the mail.
Published: Tue, Jan 12, 2016
