How did you do with your 2010 resolutions? Did you make it to the end of the year? I hope so.
2010 was the first year I decided to have public resolutions. Here are the results:
- Inbox Zero once a week. Success! I had no idea how challenging it would be each week, but I now have better control over my inbox.
Filters in Gmail help, but I had to develop a strategy for managing the messages that were filtered out of the inbox.
Photo by Robert Hruzek - Post a photo every day. Success! I think this was the “most fun” resolution. While the first half of the year, all my photos were taken with my Canon Rebel, it was a lot easier to take quick spur-of the moment shots after I bought my HTC Aria smartphone.
Due to unexpected issues (Comcast, host issues out of Momentile’s control), there were a few days I had to post my pic to Facebook.
Duck eggs in a next of twigs and leaves If you haven’t done a 365 project where you post a photo each day, give it a whirl! I recommend using Momentile, a free website for posting your pics.
Momentile is not like Flickr where you have a big community of people with all kinds of social interaction. Rather, it’s a small community, where you can take two actions on photos others post: add a caption and stash photos others have taken.
Momentile is a wonderful site for getting to know other photographers and everyday people who share their amazing photos.
- Read a book a week. Success! From web development books like CSS Mastery to Unmarketing by Scott Stratten (who I met in person when he spoke to Social Media Club Detroit) to The Kite Runner, my reading repertoire was all over the map.
I read technical books, romances, poetry, as well as some of my son’s books from when he was younger, like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
I was glad to return to reading each week; it’s something I’ve loved to do since I was in kindergarden.
Not sure about you, but I kept making excuses for the past few years: “I have no time” to read. Committing to reading a book a week was super ambitious for me.
I added two other resolutions that weren’t “official”:
- Attend two webinars a week. Success! Turns out I averaged 2.8 webinars a week. With sites like WebinarListings, AcrobatUsers, and Sitepoint it was easy to find webinars to fit my schedule.
- Write a blog post each week. Success! I was fortunate to have inspiration from Dave Murray, Meryl Evans, and Becks Davis, writers whose articles I enjoy several times a week. Their posts kept me motivated throughout the year.
As I mentioned, it wasn’t easy for me to achieve success with my resolutions. For me, writing them down publicly made the difference in whether I was going to achieve them. Stay tuned for my 2011 resolutions.
Have you set goals or resolutions for 2011? I’d love to hear them!
