2018
A new year starts tomorrow, so I’m going to keep up my tradition and set a few goals for the days and weeks ahead.
This year, I want to be all about focus. I recently read a post from Nathan Kontny about focusing, and its message was clear to me: set one priority, not many. The simplicity of the “one thing” resonated more when I discovered the Ivy Lee method for productivity, which boils down to doing the most important thing first each day. So these two approaches will drive my goals this year, both personally and professionally.
Last Year
In 2017, I wanted to:
Write more: I set out to write more, both on my blog and in my newsletter, Accessibility Weekly. I accomplished that goal with the newsletter, sending out 45 issues during 2017. I also wrote 31 blog posts, with a handful of those being photo posts. Even though I didn’t blog often, keeping up with Accessibility Weekly on a regular basis was an important goal, and one I’m proud to make.
Run personal/productivity experiments: I ended up doing a few of these. The main one ended up being completing bodyweight exercises for about eight months. I fell off this goal the last quarter of the year, but I still managed to make a lot of progress. Recently, I also uninstalled Facebook from my phone, creating extra time for hobbies like reading and more fun stuff like playing with my daughter.
This Year
This year, I’m setting one professional and one personal priority. Everything else will stem from there.
Professional: The priority for this year: Be a better leader. I recently became the lead of the Theme Team at Automattic. So this year, I want to focus on activities and goals to help me be a better leader for my team. That means some leadership coaching, leadership training and more.
Personal: The priority for this year: Read more. Ditching most of social media on my phone has helped me find more time to read in the last month or so. I want to continue that. I read nine books in 2017, so if I can get to 12 this year, I’ll be happy.
Happy New Year!
Previous years: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2012, 2011.