Growing up

My secondary New Year's resolution last year (after "do less") was "let myself be a grown up." This one is a little hard to explain quickly, but in short: there was something about being the youngest in both my immediate and extended family (at least in my generation) that I was letting carry too much weight in how I presented myself; and I wanted to remind myself that that role was self-imposed.

Anyway, I was reminded of that resolution recently at work, when I started scrutinizing my emails and not liking what I found. These may have more to do with female social patterns than feeling inferior, but nevertheless, I am working on:

Eliminating or at least reducing qualifiers, such as "just" in "I just wanted to check..."
Not feeling the need to use !s

Omitting the omnipresent "Thanks," when it's really not needed.

To compensate and extend a bit of warmth, I've added what I hope is the neutral "Hi," i.e., instead of "George," "Hi George."