This is the time of year when we vow to improve ourselves in some way, perhaps by eating less, exercising more, or getting more organized.

These perennial goals are of course laudable, but how about making it a point to exercise your brain and improve your writing and speaking skills? And the best parts of this particular New Year's resolution? It's easy, painless, and even fun.

One of the best ways we've found to do this is to visit the Grammar Girl webpage and subscribe to her podcast.

Each day she publishes a short podcast - typically no more than five or six minutes - that gives a quick lesson on some useful point of grammar or language. Her style is informal and her examples are often downright funny. If you're fortunate enough to have an MP3 player, you can download them and listen on the way to school or work.

You can find her webpage by clicking here and the links to her podcast here. Just look under the "subscribe" section on the right hand side of the page.

If Grammar Girl's daily offerings are for you, you can sign up to receive her email newsletter and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

Happy listening!