Your Tiny, Annoying Tasks

Making a list of New Year's resolutions is easy, but keeping them is hard.
( Marcos Mesa Sam Wordley / Shutterstock )

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Brian: For our last few minutes today, our calling about the annoying tasks that you set out to complete as part of your new year's resolutions. Have you done them yet? 212-433 WNYC. We're not looking to hear about your big life-change resolutions, like those of you who have vowed to apply to grad school or change careers, or you're going to start going to the gym or you're going to leave your bad marriage, or you going to take part in dry January.

Did you update your credit cards on file for your Autopay with a new expiration date? Did you file your explanation of benefits statements? Those can really add up to a lot of paper. Did you clean out the kids' toy bins full of junk? They never even see, let alone play with their now seven and nine. These toys are for three and four-year-olds.

You know who I'm talking to. The annoying tasks that you set out to complete as part of your new year's resolutions, which ones have you done, and which ones are you still putting off?

212-433 WNYC 212-433-9692. Here we are on January 24th already. It's enough time for you to write a little scorecard for yourself on your new year's resolutions. Which of those little tasks, those annoying tasks that you set out to complete as part of your new year's resolution that you maybe didn't even talk about with your friends at your New Year's Eve party, but you just made a little mental note of for yourself. What were they and have you done them?

212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692 or tweet @BrianLehrer. Did you schedule that colonoscopy? Did you get that mammogram? Did you finally write a will or establish your healthcare proxies? 212-433-9692. Did you make a baby book for your kid who is now five? You've been meaning to do that. Did you clean out your closet and donate or sell some of those old clothes? 212-433-WNYC, 433-9692, and yes, for a lot of people, starting a new year is often less than profound, but rather means finally getting to those tasks you put off the whole year before.

For some of my producers who proposed this idea, that meant finally making doctor's appointments, getting overdue haircuts, cleaning out their closets, attacking the clutter piles, strewn around the house, you know who you are. What did you put off last year that you're finally getting to? What easy tasks did you finally get to check off your list or put on your list and haven't done yet? 212-433-WNYC, 433-9692, or tweet @BrianLehrer and we'll take your calls right after this.

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Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Wow, look at all these people with really useful, if not life-changing new year's resolutions. Maybe they're even going to give you some ideas. Jeff in [unintelligible 00:03:30] you're on WNYC. Hi Jeff.

Jeff: Oh, Brian. Huge fan. I have been dealing with password management. It took up a ton of time and ever since the last past data breach, it's been something I've wanted to do, and I got to say it has made me feel so much better having it done. Took a long time going into each website and redesigning a password and a system that I could either memorize or the computer can memorize. I cannot tell you how wonderful it is having it done and how everyone should get it out of the way.

Brian: That's a great one, Jeff. A good reminder for a lot of people to change your passwords periodically. Tracy in South Orange, you're on WNYC. Hi Tracy.

Tracy: Hi Brian. Thank you very much. I decided to complete my passport application this year. I've been meaning to do it and as part of my work, I process other visas for other employees in passports. It's something I've been meaning to do and when COVID hit, I put it off. It feels good to have that task completed, waiting for the passport to be mailed to me. It's been approved and I can finally hopefully travel.

Brian: Give me some advice because my passport expires this year after 10 years. Do you have to go in person anymore?

Tracy: Brian, I actually went to the post office, but there is a checklist on their site that gives you a lot of information of what to do when it expires. Expediting the process. Very helpful.

Brian: Tracy, thank you.

Tracy: I would start at the website.

Brian: Yes. Great. Thank you very much. Oh, look, Erin is also renewing a passport. Hi Erin.

Erin: Hi. I also renewed my passport this year, and I can answer your question. You can now do it online.

Brian: Yes. A few people are chiming in with this. For the first time passports, you need to go in person. If it's a renewal, I guess if you get it in by a certain deadline. Then you could do it online. Glad you are remembering. Rebecca in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi Rebecca.

Rebecca: Hi Brian. Right now I'm cleaning my stove and, I guess something people should do more than once a year, but I'm doing it now because I had a little time and I was just listening to you. It caught my eye and doing all of those deep cleaning things on my one work-from-home day.

Brian: This is the reality of being a radio host, by the way for anybody who fantasizes that you're going to be talking to a crowd paying wrapped attention, sitting in a dark theater paying full attention to you from beginning to end. No, it's people cleaning their stoves for 12 minutes and then going on to something else. [laughs] Now when you say cleaning-- go ahead.

Rebecca: If I listen to it all I would. [laughs] This is how I could hear it the best and hear it live rather than on podcast.

Brian: Of course, I'm not criticizing. Now when you say cleaning your stove, do you have a self-cleaning oven but you're scrubbing the top?

Rebecca: I'm scrubbing the top right now. You maybe even hear the [unintelligible 00:06:53]. I'm just getting deep underneath the grates and I've got the top grates soaking. I'll guess I'll clean those during the next program.

Brian: Rebecca, thank you very much. Now I have a picture in my mind of who we'll be talking to on tomorrow show, and what they'll be doing. Charlene in Edgewater, you are on WNYC. Hi, Charlene.

Charlene: Hi, Brian.

Brian: What are your new year's resolutions? Hi, we got you. Can you hear me?

Charlene: Oh, hello. I'm a big procrastinator, but I actually just accomplished two major tasks in the past two hours.

Brian: They are?

Charlene: My puppy is being spayed as we speak, so I'm a little stressed, but she'll be fine, I'm sure. I had a bunch of stuff in storage for the past two years, and I was able to save some money by bringing it to an alternate space, and I just loved all those things from New Jersey over the border to Westchester. Now I'm saving some money.

Brian: Oh, that's really good. I think Allison had a declutter on her show recently who said, "For most people, there's really no reason to have a paid storage compartment." Maybe you listened to that show too and took that advice. That's a good one. Thank you so much. Call us again, Milagros in White Plains. You're on WNYC. Hi Milagros.

Milagros: Hi Brian. Thank you so much. Great, great show as always. The little things for me are the important things, and this is a great show. What I do is that I always keep losing my reading glasses or my cell phone when I am in my house office or around the house, and wasting a lot of time and getting crazy. Where did I put my glasses? I found the glasses, and now where did I put my cell phone? My resolution has been to keep all those two things together and it has been great. I don't get as crazy anymore [laughs] and I'm very efficient.

Brian: Organizing. Thank you very much. One more. Lewis in Astoria, we've got about 10 seconds for you. Hi Lewis.

Lewis: I did my own taxes. I bought the software and I did my own books, and I bought professional-grade software because I'm a retired tax preparer and I got tired of waiting on other tax preparers to do my taxes for me. I just did them myself.

Brian: A ringer. I see. Lewis, thank you very much. All right. Thanks to everybody who called in with this little call-in at the end of the show on the annoying tasks that you made new year's resolutions to accomplish and are now [unintelligible 00:09:33]. Some good ideas like changing those passwords from a lot of people out there too. After we did all the heavy stuff today, new year's resolutions accomplished, check Brian Lehrer on WNYC.

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