Life is getting back to normal after the year-end break.  The Daily Show is out of reruns; traffic has picked up; gas prices are going up; and I had four conference calls today.

What wasn’t normal was having all but one call end early; usually, all of my calls run over (and start late because the previous call has run over), but today, that wasn’t a problem.  Even the call that ran late didn’t cause me any problems.

And having big blocks of unscheduled time is letting me make progress on cleaning up “stuff” at work, as well as planning what I need to do this year. 

I know it won’t last, but I’m enjoying it so far.

Things are definitely getting back to normal at work; I had my first conference call of the year today, and, of course, it was at lunchtime.

IBM changed their health plans for 2006; they no longer offer a $150 “rebate” for not smoking; instead, they’ve taken that money and made it available to employees who go through a “Preventive Care” assessment and commit to taking at least some of the actions recommended. It worked on me; the assessment reminded me that I needed to schedule a physical (well, a screening) with my doctor, and I did so.

They also offer a $150 rebate for following an exercise program for at least ten weeks; the requirements were very low last year, but they’ve beefed them up a little bit for this year. You either have to exercise four days a week or exercise two days a week and do an online assessment and coaching. The required “exercise” is not hard to attain — 20 minutes a day is sufficient — but I’m doing the assessment and coaching, too. So far, it hasn’t been as effective at changing my behavior as the Preventive Care one was.

Tomorrow, my schedule features four conference calls. It was nice while it lasted…