Hola Todos!
We are 31 days in or 1/12 of the way through 2012 and one of the tenets of strategic planning is to review the plan on an ongoing basis and make adjustments when needed.
As I will emphasize all year, three key tips to accomplishing your goals are
#1 – Big Rocks First (click here for full blog post), #2 – 30 Days is Key (to Make it a Habit) (click here for full blog post), and #3 – Share Your Goals. In the spirit of #3, here’s the update:
#1 – Focus & Simplify – Its not easy to shake the multi-tasking myth (e.g., that a human can actually juggle and be effective with more then one big rock at a time) and drill the “Less is More” mantra into my brain. Perhaps that is one of those phrases I need to tattoo to my arm. The key to focus & simplify is to (a) say “no” more often, (b) try not to add anything additional to my Big Rock lists and (c) review those Big Rock lists more often to stay on top of them. I’d say, so far, so good with item #1. Stay the course….
#2 – I need 2 academic research articles published this year – Of the 5 goals, this one is the most important and I am happy to say I’ve seen progress with goal #2. I have been very active on two particular articles and I was hoping in early January that one of them would have been under review. That didn’t happen but one is close (e.g., I will be very disappointed if it is not under review by the end of February). At the same time, I have been pushing the petal to the metal on the other one too. I’m not sure if that one will be under review at the end of February but it should be close.
#3 – Run the Broad Street Run – Of the 5 goals, this is the one that I have made the most progress. I’ve dropped a little weight but more importantly, I have been maintaining my Long Slow Distance (AKA LSD) runs. LSD runs are exactly as they sound, (a) slower than your race pace, (b) longer than your normal daily runs, and (c) key to building up endurance and muscle. In my mind, the 10 Mile Broad Street Run is a 90-minute race and my last LSD run in January was 45 minutes. Today’s LSD run, aided by the good winter weather in the Northeast, should be 50 minutes.
#4 – Take a Deep Dive into Twitter – Let’s just say, I have taken the “deep dive” and boy does this pool seem odd. Twitter is not how I thought it would be (e.g., something akin to Facebook/email hybrid). The big lesson or nugget I can pass along is…. don’t think of Twitter like email. I’m only following four-dozen people right now and its impossible to keep up with everyone’s stream. To be honest, I’m still not comfortable with the idea that I’m missing out on something but I’m starting to get the feeling that Twitter more of a merry-go-round then a roller coaster. In other words, if you miss seeing someone on a merry-go-round then you will see them the next time around (e.g., it will be re-tweeted) but if you miss someone on a roller coaster, you will not see them until you get off the ride (e.g., more like email). I, as well as my graduate social media class, are reading “The Tao of Twitter” (click here) by Mark Schaefer and I have even had a Tweet back-and-forth with Mark.
#5 – Double my DigNuggetville Traffic – Of the five goals, I have worked the least on this one and not surprisingly, I have the least progress to report here. The numbers have held steady and I did have my largest 1-day spike of unique users. In addition, I surpassed 1,000 unique visitors for the first time since starting DigNuggetville. I still do not have this Big Rock worked out yet. Journal articles come first.
Thank you all for listening. Stay tuned for the Leap Year February edition in 29 days.
Best regards,
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