I missed whole weeks of sending columns to the newspaper this holiday season. Not that I have a contract with the paper, nor do I get paid, but I’ve always prided myself in getting columns out even in the busiest of times. Writing the column keeps me writing.

This brings me to New Year’s resolutions. One of my cousins said she wasn’t making a New Year’s resolution; she was going to make daily resolutions, which is really a New Year’s resolution (the decision to make daily resolutions).

Although I do like to commit to some small change in my life at the beginning of the year, I like the change to be invisible to those around me. Like last year I resolved to go through the mail as soon as it came into the house. It was the kind of resolution where no one but me cared; unlike resolving to lose weight or some such other visible thing where people can check up on you.

Who would come up to you and say, “So? How’s that mail resolution going?” I’m sure anyone who read that column last year immediately forgot about it. Oh, and by the way, it went quite well.

I’m convinced that when we announce resolutions like losing weight at the beginning of the year people are taking bets on the odds that we’ll fail, again, because it’s the same resolution we’ve made for the past 20 years. I’m not saying people are mean (unless they’ve already blown their New Year’s resolution to lose weight; it’s human nature to want others to fail where we have failed), I’m saying making a resolution that people can check up on sets us up for failure. It’s way too much pressure.

I also don’t believe in waiting until the New Year to make changes. Why wait? I started my walking routine in October. If I had waited until today to start, I never would have gone walking in the torrential rain storm that is happening right now as I write this (yes, I’m headed out as soon as I finish this column).

All that being said, I do have a New Year’s resolution. It’s one I’ve tried to instigate many times at different times of the year: make office hours. I need dedicated hours where all I do is write. But because I have no one but myself pressing a deadline on me, and no concrete contract to actually produce the writing, I let myself get distracted.

People have suggested I make myself a deadline, but there’s no consequence to missing a deadline I’ve made myself. However, if I’m ever going to get anything accomplished with my writing, I’m going to have to be my own best deadline.

Although this is a resolution where people can technically check on my progress, I’m sure they won’t. But if nothing fantastic gets produced in the next month, they’ll probably have guessed that I failed to keep my office hours.

The funny thing is, I enjoy writing. I can’t do it for eight hours, but I really enjoy the process for a couple solid hours. Even if what I’ve produced isn’t visible to those around me, I feel productive and the rest of my day and evening goes a lot better. Maybe I need to do something similar to my cousin’s daily resolution plan: every evening set my office hours for the next day according to the other tasks I need to accomplish or scheduled appointments.

It’s easy to get distracted when working at home. There’s laundry to do, dinner to plan, animals to juggle, stuff to clean, piles to pick up. And the mail. There’s always mail to sort.

Gretchen Leigh is a stay-at-home mom who lives in Covington. She is sorting the mail. You can also read more of her writing and her daily blog on her website livingwithgleigh.com or on Facebook at “Living with Gleigh.”