This series, published on the first Monday each month, is aimed at personal improvement through the public sharing of goals and targets. In this post I look back at whether I achieved the last month’s goals and come up with some targets for the coming month. 🙂
Looking back…
There’s three core things I’m doing terribly with at the moment:
- Biting my nails – well I have done it for about 25 years…
- Losing weight – being away from home so much makes it difficult
- Writing my thesis – I’ve had so many other priorities on this month (although I have chapterized it now!)
My targets for last month were:
- Go camping with my 3 year-old son, Ben, in our smaller tent.
- Compose an e-book on Google Earth in preparation for Google Teacher Academy.
- Comment on at least one blog per day (other than this one!)
- Play golf with my Dad (who’s back from the UAE for the summer as of Friday)
- Sort out benbelshaw.com, the domain I bought for my son, with some useful content.
How did I do?
- Done! It rained more than I thought possible in one night, but we went (Beadnell Bay) and we enjoyed ourselves.
- I decided against an e-book, but created a Google Earth for #GTAUK wiki and wrote an e-book called #onfire: ignite your productivity. I’m happy with that!
- I’m certainly commenting on more blogs than I was. Perhaps not one per day, but the idea was to kickstart the habit again.
- I played golf with my Dad and my father-in-law yesterday (technically the 1st of August…)
- I’ve only added one thing to Ben’s website as it hasn’t been a high enough priority in the scheme of things!
Looking forward…
July was a busy month work-wise for me. I had several conferences to attend and a number of presentations to make. August, on the other hand, looks like it’s going to be a quiet month. Therefore I’m going to set myself one main target:
- Write 10,000 words of my Ed.D. thesis
If I don’t there’s no way I’m going to get it finished for my self-imposed deadline of 21 December 2010! 😮
This series, published on the first Monday each month, is aimed at personal improvement through the public sharing of goals and targets. In this post I look back at whether I achieved the last month’s goals and come up with some targets for the coming month. 🙂
Looking back
I had some stuff rolled-over last month. How did I do on those?
- The horror of the Edexcel standardization meeting made me chew my nails off. Gah.
- I’m down to under 13.5 stones now. Which is good, but still not 13 stones flat.
So I need to roll both of these over again!
Continue reading “Calling myself into the office: July 2010”
‘Endgame’, like ‘aftermath’ is a term with a defined meaning that we borrow for everyday usage:
In chess and chess-like games, the endgame (or end game or ending) refers to the stage of the game when there are few pieces left on the board. (Wikipedia)
This can be used as a powerful metaphor for different stages of life – and the productivity and motivation required to get there. I’ve got an endgame in mind that’s comprised of three parts. I want to:
- Be writing and presenting on a freelance basis by the time I’m 40.
- Spend as much time as I can with my family.
- Have a stress-free (or at least low-stress) lifestyle.
It’s all about priorities. I’m not about to turn down potential high-risk opportunities without deep consideration, but they have to – long-term at least – fit in with the above. I’m not going to flog myself like the proverbial dead horse for things that don’t fit in with these. Have you got guiding statements like these to help focus you?
You may be wondering what this has got to do with productivity. Isn’t this just deciding your life’s priorities? Well, as I argue in #uppingyourgame, productivity is always productivity for something. There’s not much point streamlining and making more efficient something just because you can – especially when it’s something that you value.
Take, for example, Saturday mornings with my son, Ben. We could be in and out of the swimming pool after doing pre-planned training and then straight home. But why? Instead, we enjoy a different sort of productivity. It’s a productivity that is focused on our relationship with each other and our own happiness and enjoyment.
So have a think about your productivity ‘endgame’. Are you headed down the right road?
