I have just one bad habit. Besides lying, I mean. In my defense, I didn’t realize it was bad until recently. At my last appointment my dental hygienist asked me if I’m one of those people who walks around the house while they brush their teeth. Doesn’t everybody?
I told her, “Occasionally.” Like I said, my other bad habit is lying. I actually do it all the time. Walk around the house while I brush my teeth that is. Not lie.
The hygienist told me that people who do other things while they brush risk doing a poor job of brushing. I happen to know they also risk having to change their shirt sooner than they intended.
I not only stroll, I pet the cat, sort the laundry and do other one-handed tasks while I brush. My electric toothbrush alerts me after two minutes and I can get a lot done in two minutes, though none of it well.
So there in the dentist’s chair, I made my New Year’s resolution: Beginning January 1, 2026, I would stand still while I brushed my teeth. It’s not a lofty goal but given my past success with resolutions, it seemed like one I could manage.
But then I forgot all about it and I didn’t think of it again until today when I noticed toothpaste spots on the sliding glass door to my deck.
It’s too late to start working on a New Year’s resolution now. This is, after all, the time of year set aside for breaking them. Instead I’ll make a note of it for next year. And while I’m at it, I’ll come up with a few more resolutions for 2027. It’s a good time for it because I still have that glorious feeling of ambition you get when whatever you’ve decided to do doesn’t have to be done for a very long time.
So here are two more resolutions for next year that I should have made this year. Turns out I have more bad habits than I thought.
One resolution has been summed up by time management experts with the acronym OHIO, “only handle it once.” In other words, deal with paperwork the minute you get it by tackling it, tossing it or filing it, and not just in Ohio.
I currently practice the IDFLDTN or “I don’t feel like doing this now” method, which isn’t as efficient. Consequently there are stacks on my desk, filing cabinet and kitchen counter and some of the paperwork in them may no longer even be relevant. Businesses have shuttered. Accounts have closed. People who sent me birthday party invitations have grown old and gone on to their great reward.
I do deal with the stacks occasionally—for two minutes while I’m brushing my teeth. But it’s OHIO for me in 2027. By then I’ll have some really big piles to practice on.
Starting in 2027, I’ll also stop wandering around the internet. It won’t be easy. Writing an insightful column takes research. At least I think it does. I know for sure writing my column takes research. In fact I just did a search on the question of whether other people walk around while they brush their teeth. I came up with 12,000,000 results, so clearly I’m not alone.
That was as important for this column as it was reassuring to me. And it would have been fine if I’d stopped there. But for the next hour I followed links to articles about various toothpastes and toothbrushes as well as a fascinating one about why some brushing techniques make you more likely to spray toothpaste. I was interested given the issue with my sliding glass door.
Still I wasted time I could have used going through stacks of paperwork, writing a better column or cleaning my glass door. There’s always next year.
Dorothy Rosby is the author of ’Tis the Season to Feel Inadequate; Holidays, Special Occasions and Other Times Our Celebrations Get Out of Hand and other books. Contact her at www.dorothyrosby.com/contact.