Blog Indiana 2008

2007-12-12 Groundhog Day Resolution Review

About ten months ago, I completely stole an idea suggested by Dave Seah. Tired of committing to New Year’s Goals that were forgotten by mid-January, he suggested a new take was in order. Starting on the second day of the second month, or Groundhog’s Day, instead of the crazy first day of the first month, we can set goals when our minds aren’t caught up in the egg nog, Christmas Gifts and New Year festivities.

Subsequently, on the third day of the third month and the fourth day of the fourth month (etc.), we review those goals to ensure we’re still meeting them.

I’d like to cover two aspects in this post. First, the results of my actual goals as they stand. Second, my thoughts on this experiment and where it can go from here.

Schools, Relocations and Temporary Housing, oh my!

By mid-November, we had enough of living apart. The Wife was sick of traveling each day, and I was tired of running the household by myself. We moved pretty quickly to secure temporary housing — a nice 3-bedroom apartment in Fishers, Indiana. We moved in the Monday following Thanksgiving after a snafu that set us behind a day. We even set up a Christmas tree to ensure our kids would have as normal of a holidays as possible.

I’ve gotten the kids enrolled in school. We’ve started to settle into a good routine which I think should be able to work going forward. It has been tricky, though, getting into the swing of things, especially when my work place is currently the middle of the living room.

This wasn’t a goal explicitly listed during last month’s review. It was something that needed to be done, though, so it made priority.

Business dealings

The collected sum of business for the past month was staying billable. I’ve moved from on-site consultant, to off-site consultant working for the same client I did in Wisconsin. The challenges of keeping focused on the project has been difficult when facing all of the issues involved in making a cross-state move. It has been particularly difficult as I’ve picked up where The Wife has left off: her new job is occupying much of her time. I’ve been picking up the slack on both the relocation and parenting. It has made things very challenging.

This has left me with zero time for marketing and business development. Somebody once said “If you aren’t marketing, you’re not in business”. I don’t think it is that drastic, but I haven’t made efforts to do so. It feels like I’m leaving a flank unguarded.

Servanthood Leadership

The time leading up to and after this temporary move (we’ll be moving again in January, out of corporate housing into the house we bought) hasn’t provided a lot of quality family time. I’ve discovered that my personal devotion time directly correlates to my ability to parent well, and the devotions have been lacking.

Be fit

I don’t have a scale. I don’t have exercise equipment. I have a pantry full of snacks. You do the math.

Write More

I haven’t really done much journaling, although I have started to pick up blogging a bit more again.

Groundhog Day Resolutions: Thoughts and Opinions

This has been an interesting 10-month experiment. I’ve mentioned in other posts (and below) the other fine folks who have taken Dave’s challenge to create better resolutions. It has been good to see how other have worked with the system and overcome obstacles to their success. Reading their posts have encouraged me to continue the process.

I’ve never been satisfied with the results of my New Year’s Resolutions in the past. Over Christmas break, I am usually asked by family if I’ve set any New Year’s Resolutions. Put on the spot, I usually throw out the same half-dozen lame goals that look good on paper. By February, real life has left these swirling in the eddies of some dark alley.

But shifting to a February start date, that is just enough of a perspective shift to make this work. I had enough time to get over the insanity of the holidays and can put my mind to work on what it is I really want to get done. I wish I had taken more time to implement my strategy.

Strategy verses Tactics

I looked back at my goals from February. At the time, I had whittled down a list of 26 goals to the top 6 I felt were most relevant. Some of them were still my standard New Year’s Resolutions. Looking back, I don’t think I put a lot of work into really thinking about where I wanted to be by the December review date. It shows. I lost some goals to apathy. Others fell to busyness. Others just didn’t fit my mental model of the world and what I do in it.

At each month review, I set very tactical goals: “I want to do [x] by xx/xx/2007″. The following month, I either had it finished, or more likely, hadn’t started. The ones I never started concern me. If I’m never starting them, why list them as goals? Considering these goals, I may have had a breakthrough. The tactical goals don’t match the strategic goals I’m really running under. Understanding where I am going strategically will help me better determine the tactical operations to accomplish this. The bigger picture of my personal goals, like my company’s business plan, sits in a drawer unused while I do the day to day things to keep things running. Both tactical and strategic need to be focused in the same direction. The tactics support the strategy.

Accountability

A giant benefit to a monthly, posted review of my goals is a bit more accountability. It isn’t nearly as beneficial leaving accountability to random readers on the Internet as it is having a real person holding your feet to the fire, but it is better than nothing.

Fall Reset

By autumn, I was feeling like the goals I had set in February were grossly out of sync. This lead to a “fall reboot” as it were, where I tried to change the goals to more accurately reflect my life. I wasn’t the only GHDRRer that had this problem. Corrie Haffly also reset her goals this fall. Either its poor planning on each of our parts, or we just need to realize that these goals need flexible within a six month time frame.

Coasting into the New Year

Officially, I don’t need to set any more goals until February. There are a few things, though, that will be coming up that I’d like to keep my mind wrapped around going into the Holidays. A quick bullet list:

  • Enjoy the holidays. With the craziness of this move we haven’t gone all out decorating the house for Christmas. Moving south meant we don’t have the snow we’re used to having, either. For me, it has diminished the holiday spirit a bit. I need to deliberately keep it alive.
  • Get this move over with. Our belongings are still in Wisconsin except for what fit in two cars. After the Christmas break I’ll be supervising the packing and loading and the delivery to Indiana. After that comes the unpacking and the insipid tasks like buying curtains and decorating the new house. Lots to do there.
  • Keep up on billables. My work has slowed with all the rest of this and I need to start to focus on it in a major way again. At a minimum, I need to start billing at least 30 hours a week.
  • Freshen up my websites. I was hoping to do this in my “free time” in November. I got started, but I really need to give my sites a freshening. I want to start a couple other blogs focused on specific niches, so getting the software set up for those is on my checklist for the break.

Doing it again

The big question when trying any productivity experiment is whether or not to continue. I say this is a keeper. I like the mechanics of this system, it’s mystique (Groundhog Day needed a good purpose), and the ability to be a schemer with Dave on this productivity hack. So sign me up for GHDR08!

The GHDRR-ers

Previous series posts

Here are my previous posts on the subject.

D.V.

Posted on December 12, 2007 in GTD and Lifehacks.    

One Comment

  1. Corrie said:

    Great insights! I think my goals needed a revamp partway through the year partly because some of those goals, while they seemed thought-out and strategic to me, ended up just being extra plates for me to spin. I’m glad that we have two months to prepare and think about next year’s goals; I’ll need it to refine my goals in the context of my values and vision — and clearly define some of those values and vision while I’m at it! I also resonated with what you said about not having a clear picture about where you wanted to be by December — that’s something I’d like to think more about, too.

    Thanks for sharing!

    December 12th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
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