Good grief, I love to nerd out over some New Year's resolutions. Let's get started...
1) Be on time.
My sweet boyfriend came up with this one for me. Touché, love.
I'm a big fan of things that are measurable, and going the extra mile so I'm going to revise this one to "Be 5 minutes early."
Alongside that, I'm a realist. I can't be 5 minutes early to everything, like say, happy hour. But the following are mandatory: work, client & organizational meetings, dates, family gatherings. I'm not going to put a timeline on purely social meet ups, unless of course I'm hosting them.
2) Stop procrastinating.
3) Read voraciously.
In fifth grade, I was my elementary school's top reader, neck and neck with our eventual valedictorian. Not sure exactly how that worked out for me. But I hope to be in the public library at least once a week, whether reading some of my favorite magazines or finishing a best seller. If it wasn't closed for holiday, I would be there right now.
Here are some others that didn't make the Top Three Goals for 2012:
 |
| Zach and I before going out for NYE12 |
1) Be on time.
My sweet boyfriend came up with this one for me. Touché, love.
I'm a big fan of things that are measurable, and going the extra mile so I'm going to revise this one to "Be 5 minutes early."
Alongside that, I'm a realist. I can't be 5 minutes early to everything, like say, happy hour. But the following are mandatory: work, client & organizational meetings, dates, family gatherings. I'm not going to put a timeline on purely social meet ups, unless of course I'm hosting them.
2) Stop procrastinating.
Typical writer/former journalist. We perform best under pressure, then we complain about the pressure and become gray-haired alcoholics because of it. In order to alleviate this, my best solution is a system.
- Don't just abandon a current task to hop to another one that seems more interesting. Write down tasks as they come up in a consistent place, such as Reminders app on my iPhone. Need to have a paper back up as well for affirmation. Return focus to the task at hand.
- Shut off the talk box. For tasks that require a concentrated amount of focus, turn off the phone. Because I'm a realtor, turning off my phone for any length of time seems counter-intuitive. But if 20 minutes here or there will gain me some real productivity, the cost is worth the reward. That's what voicemail is for. (As I write this entry, I've received probably a dozen dings and notices from my little talk box. Off it goes.)
- Mark it off the list. If it wasn't on the list, and I've finished it, I'll write it down anyway, just to cross it off. Feels good huh?
- Say no to something every day. I enjoy saying yes. To a certain extent, I enjoy juggling tasks. But reality is, when I say yes to something at random, I'm saying no to several other, probably much more important opportunities. For big decisions, I should probably sleep on it before haphazardly agreeing to anything new.
3) Read voraciously.
In fifth grade, I was my elementary school's top reader, neck and neck with our eventual valedictorian. Not sure exactly how that worked out for me. But I hope to be in the public library at least once a week, whether reading some of my favorite magazines or finishing a best seller. If it wasn't closed for holiday, I would be there right now.
Here are some others that didn't make the Top Three Goals for 2012:
- Record all expenses for January and make a legitimate, usable budget for the year.
- Use no debt for one year.
- Lose 5 lbs permanently or stay same body weight but reduce body fat by 3%.
- Go to NYC.
- Treat my desk like a desk.*
- Double our clients for Freedom Cleaning in Q1.
- Double real estate sales for 2011 by Q3.
- Journal every week.
- Blog every week. (I always blow this one.)
- Use digital rather than paper records for work, whenever possible. (See * above.)
