Crabby Office Lady

New Year's resolutions are easy to make but hard to keep. The best way to keep at least some of them is to make them manageable. This year, I've taken some old standbys and combined them with some new ones. I'm feeling confident that I (and you) can make most of them happen.

---

Subscribe to Crabby's columns
Read all the Crabby Office Lady columns
Get the Crabby Office Lady's book

---

The time is fast approaching to pull the tinsel out of your hair, scrape the candle wax off every surface in your home, and take the reindeer antlers off the dog. As I write this, Christmas hasn't even happened yet, but I'm planning my New Year's resolutions nonetheless. I suggest you think about your own, too, and get a head start on your list. Then you can get back to serious wassailing.

Quit smoking

Well, fact is, I don't smoke (in the messy, smelly, expensive way). When I say "smoking" I mean the smoke that pours out of my ears when I get frustrated at an inanimate object such as, say, a computer. There is no need to flatten my keyboard with all the force my palms can muster, slam my mouse until it issues its last squeak, or pop off a red-hot e-mail message to a colleague (who may or may not deserve it, but this is not the point).

Here's how I plan to kick that fuming habit: When I'm frustrated about something (computer-related or otherwise), I hereby resolve to get up out of my chair and go for a walk down the hall, outside, or at least to the kitchen where I can pour some caffeine or cool spring water (yeah, right) down my gullet. Then I will return to my desk calm and fresh and ready to tackle the issue at hand. I suggest you do something similar. It's just software and hardware, folks. It's not life or death.

Communicate more clearly

According to some of the feedback I receive, the information I'm trying to impart is occasionally being lost in my lengthy sentences, flowery paragraphs, and drawn-out jokes. While part of my charter as Crabby Office Columnist is to be different from the usual assistance article that gets right to the point, I admit I tend to blather on a bit. And so my aim is to create shorter columns that are useful and still fun. (Note that I didn't promise anything; I said "aim.")

But while we're at it, maybe you should consider providing feedback that is also useful and non-blathering. Brevity and clarity (sisters, though not necessarily twins) make it a lot easier for those of us who read each and every piece of feedback we get. (Just a suggestion.)

Lose weight

No, I don't mean this in the traditional sense of flab. I mean software bloat (of course). Open the Add or Remove Programs tool in the Control Panel (in Windows Vista, it's Programs > Uninstall a program) and review the list to see what you're using, what you don't need, and what you can get rid of. Do just as I aspire to do within my own closet at home: If I haven't worn it in a year, it's going to the circular file, also known as the recycle bin, the charity bin, or my daughter's dress-up trunk. Bloat is bad; a lighter, cleaner computer is good.

Join in

Ever feel the need to interact with fellow Office users, get your questions answered, share ideas, or learn more about the Office products and technologies that interest you? No? Well, my little misanthrope, there isn't a better time than the holidays to resolve to be a little more open and friendly.

If you DO want to share ideas with the Office Community and get answers you can't find elsewhere to your burning Office questions, then you should take a little field trip to the Office Discussion Groups. There you can read interesting (OK, sometimes not-so-interesting) posts, ask questions, and even bless other users with your lustrous pearls of Office wisdom.

• About Office Communities
• Crabby's Office Community courtesy chat
• Office Discussion Groups

Safety first

I've talked to you before about e-mail scams, now haven't I? If you get a message from Nigeria, from someone claiming to be a government official or even a member of the royal family, do not finish reading it. Delete that message … immediately.

And if someone — I don't care if it appears to be from a governmental organization or your credit card company — asks you to "verify" or "update" your information (name, password, account numbers), again, press the DELETE key … immediately.

And finally, if you get word that you've won the Latvian lottery (a small country you can't even find on a map), what should you do? Delete it, of course. Immediately.

If you aren't already deleting these sorts of nasty, scamming e-mails, I suggest you make it one of your resolutions to do so. If it seems too good to be true — it is.

Give more

While you may have come to think of me as curmudgeonly, cranky, and sometimes coarse, I do occasionally make space in my crabby heart for considering those folks less fortunate than me. And so should you, for that matter, with your freshly unwrapped wireless-pocket-mobile-voice-activated whatchamacallit replacing your big old desktop computer in your heart. It's better to give than to receive — sound familiar? Applies all year 'round.

• How to donate your old PC.
• Become a computer mentor.
• Find out more about the Fresh Start for Donated Computers program.

This year's wrap-up

Thanks for taking time out of your office party to pop by and read my column. I certainly don't write the columns for my health, and I certainly wouldn't write them if I thought no one was out there listening. And so, as usual, let me hear from you: Send me your feedback and I'll keep trying to address your questions. Happy New Year, everyone; now get back to work.

"Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account." — Oscar Wilde

About the author

Annik Stahl, the Crabby Office Lady columnist, takes all of your complaints, compliments, and knee-jerk reactions to heart. Therefore, she graciously asks that you let her know whether this column was useful to you — or not — by entering your feedback using the Was this information helpful? tool below. And remember: If you don't vote, you can't complain.

Subscribe to Crabby's columns
Read all the Crabby Office Lady columns
Get the Crabby Office Lady's book