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TCB 2013!

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goals

To summarize this post:

Finding the process to achieve your goals is better than setting your goals. 

Happy New Year!

This is the time of year to take a look forward and figure out how to take care of business. Like most people, I have a lot of ideas in my head about what I want to accomplish this year, I realize as the year progresses so will my goals and resolutions. For the new year, I’m more interested in implementing new processes that will actually help me achieve whatever goals I set.

Find a Process
Learning a process that will actually help me achieve my goals is way better than having a list of goals. Since there are a nearly endless number of ways to go about reaching goals it will be important to find the right process that consistently works for me. This may involve trying several things out.

I’ve failed at achieving a lot of my goals in the past, instead of learning from my mistakes I’m going to focus on learning from my successes and try to implement new processes that work. This is something I picked up from a book called Rework that I recently read. They also had some other good advice about working and getting things done.

I have a variety of different goals or achievements I would like to accomplish in 2013 each may require a different process in order to best make them happen.

One of my resolutions is to work more on MoHDI.com for 2013.
A new process for me in order to achieve this is pretty straight forward and is what I’m currently working on learning and implementing.

List, Sort, Do.
Here is how this works.

  1. List out a bunch of ideas for MoHDI posts and content
  2. Sort through the list of ideas, categorize them and pick a handful to work on
  3. Focus on an idea for 15 minutes blocks at a time until it’s done.

Since MoHDI has always been a depository of ideas for me, it’s easy to list out a ton of ideas to work on. My thinking is to keep the list under 50 items in order to not be overwhelmed by a list of ideas.

I initially was going to do this list on paper but soon realized how much easier doing this on my phone would be.

I found an app called Paperless for my phone and so far it seems to be pretty helpful for me. I think I could do a lot of similar things in the free Reminders app that came with my phone and I’m sure I’ll use a combination of the two to actually make things happen.

Here is what one of my lists look like.

mohdilist

I’ve already sorted through and the top 5 items are ones I’m actively working on.

My next step is to pick one and work on it, ideally for a 15 minute block of time.

Most of the items on this list are for content that I would like to make for MoHDI. Some items might require a few minutes to write about and post, others may require a lot more, either way by working on items for small blocks of time I actually can make good progress.

Since I generally write about ideas or things, I really don’t have to do much more than to get the idea across. Ideally I can present ideas in a clear, concise manner with proper grammar and spelling but sometimes I may present something or write about something quickly to get it out.

If it was perfect it wouldn’t be mine.

For the kinds of things I write about and post about, it’s generally more important to get my idea out there. There are exceptions to this and it’s intrinsically rewarding to make things polished and nice. Locked up ideas have no value so it’s important to just get them out, good ideas will evolve and become polished .

Sometimes an idea can be explained with a simple doodle, this is my favorite way to present an idea. Long wordy posts are typically just that, long and wordy. As much as I like to explain and rationalize ideas and share my thoughts on them, I realize it’s more important to simply present an idea and allow the audience to come up with their own opinions and thoughts. No one likes to be told what to think, they do like to be encouraged to explore their own thinking.

The main thing is to keep creating.

I feel this is going to be a good solid process for me to regularly produce good content for MoHDI.

This listing, sorting and doing method might not apply to every goal I’ve set for myself but different goals might require different processes.

Reverse List

Another concept I have for taking care of business in 2013 was to create a reverse list or a count list. This is particularly helpful when it comes to job hunting as that is a crucial goal of mine for this year. Instead of having a list that you go through, you have a list you fill up as you go. For instance I might say to myself that I want to send out 10 emails with my resume and portfolio  on a daily basis until I get a job. The same list concept is super helpful for taking care of things at home too “I will do 3 things to make the house look cleaner daily” you would be surprised at how just doing a few things each day regularly really helps.

Working Smarter

When I think about how I’ve gotten things done in the past, the best processes are often the ones that require a minimal amount of time, energy and are actually fun to work on. When you make your process better, you are working smarter and can make way more things happen. Working smarter also means being more adaptable and be able to adjust as needed. The path to your goals and resolutions should be a process thats as easy as breathing.

Tracking 

In addition to creating processes, It’s going to be important to track progress and actually see some sort of headway and have measurable results, documentation and recognition is crucial in the process of achieving goals and resolutions. While writing on MoHDI the results are easily viewed by page visits, comments and interactions. Even a small step forward is progress and is way better than making no progress at all.

While I know my goals will change, I feel that once I find good processes that work for me, I will be way better off in this coming year than just having a list of goals far out of reach.

There are a whole lot of ways to do things and articles and tips on going about them. Without a good process your goals and resolutions will remain out of reach.

 

 

 

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