New Years Resolutions... ish

posted at 16:59:53
By Flipping Heck!

Posted In
Personal

I've been looking through a few GTD websites and a lot of people seem to be making New Years Resolutions of some description or another.

Personally I've never really gone in for these as I know that firstly I'll fail and secondly I never like to make a promise I can't keep. But, in retrospect, I think there are a few things in my life that warrant "tweaking" (for want of a better phrase) so here we go:

Personal Goals

1) Organise my CD collection:

I have now run out of storage space in my room so it's time to start ripping and stashing my lesser used CDs. I've not been avoiding this, it's just something I haven't wanted to do as I like being able to grab a weird 1980s CD at 3am in the morning if I want to, but now I have a brand-spanking new Hi-Fi I can rip my CDs in an organised manner and then burn the rips in MP3/WMA format to a CD, 10 albums on one CD will certainly save shelf space.

2) Get into the Mac Habit:

I've been "uming and ahing" about getting a Mac for a while and could never really justify the expense. However with the new iBooks available I can't see why I shouldn't go for one of those instead of an over-priced Windows-based laptop. Now that I've paid off my Ipaq I'll be putting a deposit down on an iBook as soon as my finances allow.

3) Finish my Pro version of BlogIt!:

The problem is, the more I use the software I've built for this blog, the more I find I want to add to it. My plan is to release the first version of BlogIt! in the first quarter of this year to get user feedback on features (along with the dreaded bug reports). At some point I was hoping to charge for the download but now I figure I should embrace the open-source model and just bask in the knowledge that people are using a tool I developed to send their blogging messages to the world. I may set up some form of hosting service to go with this as well depending on how well the beta tests go.

4) Write more relevant and "interesting" Blog Posts:

The past 6 months has seen a huge change in the way that I use this blog. Orginally I built it off the back of a News Content Management system I developed and simply used it as an online diary (check out the archives for some choice posts). Now I've decided that I should concentrate on spreading the things that I have learned in my everyday life related to the Internet, Web Design and Getting Things Done and help other people find information that in the past I have found difficult to find myself. Whilst I'm happy with my level of blogging per se, I feel that I could perhaps start a run of articles over a week or a month that would require me to sit down, do some research and then allow the user to download a white paper or ebook at the end of it (this basically relates to the Bonus Resolution). I just have to come up with a couple of interesting ideas that I think people will learn from and want to come back to the site to keep reading... no biggie then!

5) Go to the Cinema more often:

I can't actually remember the last time I went to the cinema. It was either to see Collateral (pants) or Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (not as good as the book) which both came out in 2004. I must have been since then but it obviously wasn't memorable. I have to drive past the local cinema to get home and on a Tuesday it's a cheap film night so it seems silly not to pop in (this is again related to the Bonus Resolution!). Seeing as I studied film at University I should have to be dragged out of the pictures but it seems it's a job to drag me in! So, I plan to go at least once a month (probably on my own as no-one loves me *sob*).

6) Keep track of my spending:

Since starting my new job I have a stupidly high disposable income, which is basically disposed of as soon as it hits my bank account. I am no longer going to buy things because I can; I will buy things because I really, really want or need them and will seriously think about this before making the purchase. For example, I've thought about the Mac for 6 months and still want it, plus have found a good use for it so to me that justifies the purchase now.
No more stupidly large rounds at the pub because I can buy them, I am no longer being that generous - not out of spite but you get hangers-on who always seem to pop to the toilet or make an "urgent" 'phone call when it's their round and to me this isn't fair.
Oh, plus I'd like to save a bit so I can actually go on holiday this year (which'll be the first time since 1998).

Work-Related Goals

7) Proper Weekly Reviews:

I know I can't schedule any time for this in the office so I will set aside some time Friday night when I get home to clear my head of all the junk I need to. This will help me enjoy my weekend better as I won't be thinking "Oh, I need to do x on Monday" and will also allow me to hit the ground running first thing on Monday morning. The ultimate benfit of this will be that I will be able to have a better overview of my various projects and know where I'm headed in terms of timescales and goals.

8) Weekly organise of my "Hipster PDA":

As part of the weekly review I will reorganise my Project folder, print out the necessary sheets and generally tidy it up. I have been considering purchasing a Time/System but it's a bit pricey - especially considering that I can make my own thanks to the brilliant DIY Planner site. The only thing they don't have which I'd love is a better "Project Management" sheet but I'm working on that so hopefully we'll see one here soon!

9) Handle Emails GTD-Style:

I'm getting quite proficient dealing with emails, using my Rules and Flagging system and clearing the wheat from the chaff quite often; I even managed to have an empty inbox when I went on Holiday (not sure what state it'll be in when I get back so that'll make for an interesting post!). However, I'm sure there is a much more efficient way of using Outlook and integrating tasks and project within that. I've bought Take back your life using Outlook by Sally McPhee courtesy of a voucher I received from Tech-Recipes.com, so I'm hoping to use this and apply the techniques not only to Outlook but to Thunderbird and Gmail as much as possible. I guess this relates to Resolution 4 in terms of posting about my progress.

10) Write a GTD/Project Management Program:

I was debating whether to put this in the "Personal" or "Work" section but it seems more relevant to work as I'll mainly be using it in a work-based context. Hopefully I'll be able to come up with a scalable solution that I'll be able to provide to others on an Open-Source basis. I've a few ideas and a basic project outline so hopefully if the Bonus Resolution takes off then I'll get it ready by March (I wish!).

Right, and Drum Roll please!

Bonus Resolution

Spend Less Time In The Pub!

Currently I'm spending a good 5 nights a week in the Pub. One night is dominoes so that's okay but the rest is unforgivable. My plan is now to go to dominoes on Wednesday and go out either Friday or Saturday unless something exciting's happening (doesn't happen very often in this village!) that way I'll save a wadge of cash, be able to go on holiday, and post more - yeay! I'm not sure how successful this'll be yet - it gets awfully boring in the village - but with the cinema, programming and blogging I should cover most of my free time..... in theory!

Anyway, Happy new year - 6 and a half hours and counting. I'm not sure if I'm going out yet as I am a sad case and have no friends. More to the point, I have no money as I've yet to be paid thanks to the Banks Holidays (Like a computer shuts down on a Bank Holiday) so I'll have to blag some cash if I want to par-tay.