Post Mortem Goals - one month after !

Every year in January the gym is totally crowded, not a treadmill to run on without waiting for 20 mins. Come Valentines day, it is a different story. Why is that the case? Why do we as human beings set Goals every new year (without fail) and then do keep up with the goals but go back next year and set in most cases, the same goals all over again.

Baffling isn't it. The reason we set goals year after year is HOPE (not wanting to sound like POTUS). We hope that the stars will line up, the planets will move in our direction and we will stick to our goals. I made some notes on how to break this habit and did some research. Here is a step by step on making a better attempt at Goals.

Step 1- Set the Right Goals

What are most goals geared towards? Most of the goals can be easily broken down into Personal (weight loss, stress reduction), Professional (Career, School, Jobs), Family (home, kids, vacation), Finance (retirement, pension, savings) and Spiritual goals (church activities, social work).

The problem with most goals is that they are written to make it sound more as a habit change, but not really a goal. For example, Get in shape is not a goal, while Losing 20 pounds is a better Goal. A goal should be : SMART

S - specific, significant
M - measurable, meaningful,
A - attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented
R - realistic, reasonable,

T - time-based, timely, tangible, trackable

For Each category set one or two goals.

Step 2: Make your Goals Public

In order to ensure that you push the onus on yourself on setting your goals make your goals public. Let your closest friends and family know what you are striving towards. If your goal is to quit smoking, if your friends care about you, they will not smoke in front of you and might even kick your butt if you light a butt :D.

Telling your friends and family also helps because it might be an awkward dinner table conversation if you are totally straying away from your goal. This one thing can be a HUGE Motivation factor. You don't need to share all, but some you can. And if you are doing good achieving one, its a cascade effect - you will do good on your personal goals as well.

My 2 big goals of the year

- read one book every 2 weeks

- run the 7/25 San francisco Half Marathon

Step 3: Track your Goals

If you have followed Step 1 and 2 you should be able to track your goals. If you see yourself slipping you will be able to know what are the reasons why you are not able to keep pu with your goals?

You can use sites like daytum or joesgoals, while i still think some of them provide neat UI features - if you are decent with excel that will be the best bet. You then have the option to slice and dice the data as you like.

From Daytum - the books i have read for this month.

From Daytum - my mile tracker for the year. Also shows me the dates and miles i have run on those days.
The intent of this post was to make my goals more public and find out how others are doing for their 2010 goals. Looking forward to seeing your progress and comments on this topic.

My Getting Things Done Process

For Those reading some of my thoughts and ramblings know that I love reading productivity books, tips, tricks and have tried a few of them as well. While most of the productivity tips are usefull only if you make it into a habit or incorporate it into your routine, there is no denying the fact that you have to make any technique "yours" for it to work.

After reading about the Pomodoro Technique, Getting Things Done these are some of the best learnings that i have successfully implemented and created my own flavor of getting things done.

Step 1 - Brain Dump
- Make a list of all the projects (anything that needs to be done) that you can think of.
- Define goals or outcomes for projects that are not errands.
- Add a context to your lists (someday, priority, urgent, phone, email, surf, recurring ) etc.
- I have a physical inbox that i capture all bills and mail and have it on calendar to process my inbox as well.

Step 2 - Pomodoros
- I dont use a timer but i break these tasks into 30 min activities.

Step 3 - Calendar
- I extensively use google calendar and break my day down into chucks of 30 mins and everytime i have a 30 min thats open i go to my list and process one item at a time.
- All recurring activities find a spot on the calendar, so i dont have to worry about it anymore.
- One of the recurring tasks is to review the project list.

One of the keys to getting this to work is to stick to your calendar and make sure that your tasks are well defined. Like any process to work RINSE AND REPEAT.

Personal Vs Professional Networking

A common problem for those of us who have profiles on Social Networking sites like Facebook,Linked In is to draw a line between Professional and Personal Relationships.
There is little or no doubt that Relationship Matters and it's not What you know but Who you know. Lets take a look at the two most common scenarios that I have had to deal with.

What do you do when a coworker requests to add you on Facebook?

So you go out for a couple drinks with a bunch of coworkers to celebrate an official accomplishment. The next day you get a friend request on Facebook. You can choose to
a) ignore and have a few awkward moments at work
b) accept and have your coworker look at your personal life
c) set up a limited profile (sans the personal spice). but if your coworker is slightly net savvy they would know right away that the profile is a little bare.

Solution: DO NOT post anything on your profile you dont want people at work to see. If you live by this rule, you would not have an uneasy feel when you a get a coworker friend request. And who knows having your coworker on facebook might help them understand your personality and improve your working relationship as well.

What do you do when a high school friend requests to add you on LinkedIn?

This is not half as bad as the Scenario 1, but things can get a little messy when your friend decides to write you recommendation about how he helped you with your Math Assignment in School. Well firstly that is not something you would like on your LinkedIn profile. If your friend does send you a recommendation, I would send him a friendly reply declining the recommendation but thanking him for the thought. Similarly, I would refrain from sending recommendations to people that I haven't worked with or wouldn't recommend on a professional capacity. He might be a great guy to hang out with but that is not what LinkedIn is for.

Finally, setting up personal rules such as limited profiles on facebook, or a general rule that I will not add coworkers on facebook might help if you stick to without prejudice. Similarly on LinkedIn, connecting only to known people and reducing the noise might help you fulfill your goal for using the tools. At the end of the day, what you get out of it is totally dependent on how you want to use it. The tool is only as good as the toolsman.

The Unemployed States of America

The Unemployed States of America: "

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Although pace of mass layoffs in the U.S. has slowed, there are an average of six unemployed Americans for each job opening. Long-term unemployment is the grim reality for 5.8 million workers who have been idle for more than six months. Here is a graphic look at The Unemployed States of America.

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Source: Business Pundit

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CauseWorld Lets Users Give To Haiti Via Their iPhone

CauseWorld Lets Users Give To Haiti Via Their iPhone: "

CauseWorld (iTunes link), an iPhone app from Shopkick, is off to a strong start. They first launched in December, and they quickly got the coveted featured spot on the iTunes app store. Yesterday, they started letting users donate to the American Red Cross for Haiti relief.

The application gives users karma points for checking in to certain retail stores. Those karma points can then be converted into donations to various charities and other good causes (water in Sudan, food for the poor, trees in the Amazon, etc.). Big brands supply the cash for donations (and get lots of advertising exposure). Users decide how that money gets spent. see our original launch post for more details.

We’re waiting patiently for user and usage numbers for the CauseWorld. The app combines the addictiveness and gameplay at FourSquare and Gowalla with actual good deeds, and we’re hoping it’s a winner.

In the meantime, Shopkick has added donations to Haiti via the American Red Cross, and Shopkick is matching all donations. So after you’ve donated cash directly to help that desperate situation, and have text messaged some more money in, download the CauseWorld app and go check into some retail stores (no purchase is required). Shopkick says that as soon as they added Haiti, the “entire feed was filled with Haiti contributions.”

Shopkick has raised $2.5 million in venture capital from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Reid Hoffman. The company is based in Silicon Valley.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

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Apple Stunning customer service

When was the last time, you got served by a customer care representative at a major store and you walked out of the store with a feeling that you were actually taken care of ! It happened to me, not once but twice in short time intervals at the,wait for it ---- APPLE STORE.

A few months ago, I accidentally dropped my iphone, out of warranty and no personal care program, and the screen cracked. Even though I could use the phone, it was a major pain. Went to the Apple store showed them the phone, they said, no problem they can replace the phone for me. I was amazed and I said to myself, well screens are probably cheap, but still no additional labor charges, and the usual bunch of hidden fees that we get slapped with at most other stores. It was a very pleasant 10 minutes at the store and I walked out with a brand new phone. Impressed but not stunned.

Over the Christmas holidays, we had left our 2 year old Mac book open on the floor. With a bunch of people at home, someone accidentally stepped on it and crushed the hard drive. I took my Macbook to the apple store, and explained to the geniuses @the genius bar, the situation. The Genius, asked me about the data, which was thankfully well backed up with a time machine, and said it needs a new hard drive, but you are out of warranty. I asked him if there was something he could do to help out, he looked at his screen again and said, WE WILL TAKE CARE OF IT THIS TIME. Totally Stunned !

He also mentioned that Apple doesn't carry 120gb hard drive anymore so they will have to replace it with a 160gb, is that fine with me? I looked at him and said are you kidding me?? sure !! I got a receipt with a number to track the service request online. I was told it would take 3-5 business days. Before I could find time to get online and look at the status of the request, I got a call this morning, 24 hrs later that the laptop was ready for pickup and oh by the way they also replaced the wearing out keyboard skin, without me for free. Got the mac back home, hooked it back up to my time machine and I was back where I left out only with a bigger hard drive and a new keyboard skin at no cost.

I was so excited that I told all my coworkers about it at work, I am now blogging about it and also posted a "god bless apple" status on face book. I'm sure the marketing guru's at Apple are aware that this is the kind of viral marketing, word of mouth buzz you get when you spend a couple hundred dollars to make your customer happy. Will it dent the pile of cash sitting at apple, maybe not, but it sure got made an apple fan boy a season ticket holder.

What's next islate ? Bring it on guys - I will succumb for it.