I drove past a church a while back that had the following tidbit on the sign out front:
“Goals are dreams with a deadline”
Since then I have been trying to give myself deadlines. I need to do a better job of hitting my deadlines, but I am getting there.
Anyway, I don’t really have any New Year’s resolutions per se, but I am starting to think about some new goals.
For instance, I really want to get more efficient at using my computer. Ever since I switched to a Mac I find that I use the mouse more, jump around in a constant state of distraction, and listen to more music. I am grateful for the more music part, but I either have to get more efficient on my laptop or I am switching back to linux (even though it is not nearly as “good”). The good news is that the problem is not my laptop or OS X. I just need to take better advantage of the tools that are out there. I have hewn this desire into a goal yet, but I am getting closer.
I also need to finish a bunch of loose ends on various projects. Somehow in December I found myself on the 5 yard line on 6 different projects. I don’t care who you are there is no good way out of that. Some of it was bad planning and some of it was just weird luck. Regardless I am still digging out and it requires me to jump around moving the ball forward one project at a time when they all need my total attention right now. I dropped out of a couple of games and will complete another one this week. After that I am going into a full on post-holiday assault. I think the first step will be to set the deadlines and knock them out one by one.
So here is my goal: I am going to be back to solid ground by February 1. Until then posting here and interaction on social networks will be limited.
Happy New Year!
Seth Godin and Joel Spolsky are also thinking about goals (though more coherently) today.
