2005.01.06
January Blogging Challenge
Uncle Roger presents this month’s blogging challenge: come up with an evaluation of last year’s goals and a new set of goals for this year.
This is going to be a sucky one for me because generally I am not keen on making goals of this sort, but he has some astute advice:
This should not be a facile collection of cliches like “I will lose weight” or “I’m going to save some money” but carefully thought out, significant goals for your life. Don’t just list indefinite, non-specific platitudes, but specific, achievable goals. Include a plan for accomplishing each goal with concrete milestones and dates.
He goes on to give many examples.
There are two parts to the challenge. First is to list last year’s goals and rate their success. Jason Clark did this admirably on his site, and I’ll use his template. The second part of the challenge is to set realistic goals for this coming year, with specific dates for those goals. With that in mind, here we go…
Last year I made my first New Year’s Resolution in at least a decade, which I won’t go into here for a variety of reasons. I failed in achieving it anyways, so it’s a moot point. If you’re really interested, contact me and I’ll let you know. Goals for the coming year:
Personal
- Stop typing in all lower-case letters. This was my standard for a very long time. I broke this habit here on the site, but I still type all my emails and many other documents in all lower-case and need to stop. Complete by the end of January. (It looks like I managed this. Woot! 2005.02)
- Write at least two short stories. Complete one in the first six months, the second by the end of the year.
-Ancillary to this is participating in this year’s Nanowrimo. This happens in November. Just participating will be enough, really! I’d like to have a clear idea and an outline done before November, however.- Write at least two new good songs. Any time before the end of the year.
- Ancillary to this is performing at least twice with Not Bill. Perform once in the first six months, the second performance anytime by the end of the year.- Read at least a book a month. Proof of this will be in my short reviews of the books found in the books section of this site. (This one isn’t going so well but should change now that I’m taking public transportation to work; I’ll catch up and have at least 12 by the end of the year. 2005.05)
Professional
- Same goal as last year (how’s that for a clue?). Anytime by the end of the year, the sooner the better. (Completed; I’ve got a new job! 2005.05)
- Make a decision on my political future.
- First determine which field/avenue of approach. Before March.
- Start working in this political avenue. Before July.
Web Related
- Help create the Aziza Manga websites and collaborative tools that Jon E. needs for a successful business. Ongoing and deadlines will be determined by Jon E. (One-third complete; the collaborative writer hubs are built and online, now I need to work on the artist hubs and the public sites. 2005.05)
- Create a new weblog. This is something I’ve been thinking about for months now. It will be a group blog that deals with politics. Start the site in March.
- Create at least four new flavours and put them up for distribution on the Unofficial Blosxom Users Group site. Post one per quarter.
- Post at least 365 articles to this site. I came very close to this last year… Keep in mind that many posts will be in the private sections, and does not denote daily posting. (On track so far despite posting less than 30 in May. 2005.05)
There we go. I have the frightful feeling I will be refering back to this article often in the coming year. Worse I have the feeling that a few friends out there will, too… Here’s a mildly visual representation:
January | |Book| |
| |
| |Stop typing all lower-case| |
February | |Book| |
| |
| |
March | |Book| |Make political goal| |
| |
| | |First Blosxom flavour|
April | |Book| |
| |
| |Perform with Not Bill first time|
May | |Book| |
| |
| |
June | |Book| |
| |Write first song| |
| |Complete first short story| | |Second Blosxom flavour|
July | |Book| |Start political "job"| +
| |
| |
August | |Book| |
| |
| |
September | |Book| |
| |
| |Perform with Not Bill second time|
October | |Book| | |Third Blosxom flavour|
| |
| |
November | |Book| |
| |-Nanowrimo!| |
| |
December | |Book| |
| |Write second song| |
| |Complete second short story| | |Fourth Blosxom flavour|
Not listed:
Aziza Manga goals.
One professional goal.
Posting 365 articles.
4 Comments Categorized: geek life projects work
You can follow any responses to this entry with a RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
4 Responses to “January Blogging Challenge”
- douglas.nerad » Metamorphosis says (October 1st, 2006 at 14:59:09 )
[...] Many things in my life are changing, both directly and indirectly. If last year was the year of stagnation (which is very much how I see it now) then this year is already turning into a potential catalyst of change. I’m hoping I can direct some of these changes and at least have some sort of general plan. I’m not sure I’ll complete a lot of it, especially the deadlines for getting politically active, but the attempt is being made. [...]
- douglas.nerad » Blogging Systems and the Future says (October 1st, 2006 at 15:20:28 )
[...] Anyways, lately I’ve been thinking I should really learn at least one other blogging system. Most of them use PHP and MySQL, and I don’t know either. If someone were to ask me to set up a blog for them with something besides Blosxom I would be seriously hindered. One of my many goals for this year is to set up a new blog, and I’ve decided to do this with a system besides Blosxom as a learning experience. [...]
- douglas.nerad » May Roundup says (October 1st, 2006 at 19:02:44 )
[...] I think I’ll also try to clean up and catch up with my 2005 goals, too (January’s Challenge). I’m behind on a few for no good reason… [...]
- douglas.nerad » December Blogging Challenge says (October 1st, 2006 at 21:53:57 )
[...] Also, as a reminder to those of you who took part in last January’s challenge, it will soon be time to make an evaluation of how your goals for the year panned out. Looking at mine I can see that I’m not going to do too well… *sigh* [...]
