Resolutions to Be a Better Actuary

I’m actually not the New Year’s resolutions-type. Why wait until an arbitrary date to commit yourself to improvement? Instead I make resolutions as they become necessary. This year, however, the two happen to coincide. Here, in no particular order, are my resolutions for my professional life in 2012:

-Obtain Fellowship in the Casualty Actuarial Society. I have filed the necessary paperwork to become an Associate, and I already have credit for Exam 7. Just 9 and 8 left!

-Read one industry news article every working day and one research paper each month (outside of papers for exams).

-Go to sleep earlier and wake up earlier. My office is full of late-risers, but I’ve been working more and more with East Coast folks, not to mention traveling east quite a lot. It’s time to shift my schedule a bit- that, and learn to cope with jet lag.

-Write my blog posts in advance and schedule them to post at 0900 EST on the first Tuesday of every month. Although I barely had to post in 2011, I was late twice, and I’m late again at the start of 2012. Not again!

-Produce two brief research papers, and publish them here.

-Beginning studying earlier. I originally said New Year’s Day for Exam 9, but that didn’t work out. Instead I will assemble my materials today and read my first paper by Saturday. For Exam 8, I will start after the July 4^th weekend.

-Re-read and thoroughly implement David Allen’s Getting Things Done. If you haven’t read this book, I highly recommend it. It’s relevant to far more than just business.

-I’ve said a number of times that I would buy my team at work copies of Getting Things Done if I passed my next exam. This year I will commit to doing this after I pay my taxes.

-File, archive, and otherwise properly keep track of emails. I’m tired of being the person who always has to ask someone else if they have that email or that attachment or some important bit of information. I’ve already filed my email back through September.

-Keep thorough notes on my projects. I’ve often dealt with inheriting projects from people who left the firm. Without adequate documentation, it’s a miserable process.

-Learn Visual Basic. There are a lot of career-improvement things I could commit to, but more and more I find myself thinking it would be really useful if I were fully comfortable with VB code. So this is the year for that project.

-Last, but not least, enjoy my time on the Candidate Liaison Committee. It’s been a great experience so far. I’m wrapping up my first co-authored article now, to appear in the next Future Fellows. If I do obtain Fellowship this year and can no longer serve as a candidate representative, I will try to remain on the committee in another capacity.