Web Worker Daily

Most of us are accustomed to making New Year’s resolutions. We’ve been programmed to believe that because we turn a page on the calendar, that we can and should try to change ourselves and our lives for the better. Oftentimes, these resolutions are work-related: to be more productive, to manage our time better, or to meet professional goals. Yet research shows that 80 to 90 percent of those New Year’s changes fail to be permanent.

Would making our resolutions at a different time give us a better chance to create real change in our lives?

What if we made our resolutions to change at times when, instead of being comfortably settled into our usual routine, we were already in a state of change, so that our resolutions didn’t feel so out of place and had a better chance of getting traction?

I raise this question because for many of us, this may be the perfect time of year to make some positive changes and try to them permanent. Web workers who are home-based, and who have children, usually have their routine changed pretty significantly when their children return to school in the fall. Read the rest of this entry »

Are you writing resolutions for 2008? Even if you’re not, you probably have some goals or at the very least some projects that capture your dreams for the future. Here are 7 ways to keep track of the things you want to make happen in your life — which one suits you?

Sticky note on your mirror. Write your two or three most important goals or resolutions on a Post-It note, and put it on your bathroom mirror, where you’ll see it every morning and evening.

Social goal setting site. Try Goalmigo, 43 Things, or AimsVille. All these sites let you record, track, and share your goals with a supportive community of people going after their own goals.

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The popular 80/20 rule says that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. But the future’s uncertain, so it can be difficult to know which 20% of activities will lead to the lion’s share of benefits. Look to your past for lessons about what business activities hold the most promise for you.

As an example, consider conferences, which are touted for their networking and educational opportunities but often require big investments of time and money. Information Architect Stephen Collins muses that they aren’t always worth it:

You know, conferences, for all their imagined value sometimes aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. The signal to noise ratio ends up being way out of whack and you walk away after two or three days thinking you’d have been better off saving your money and staying at work. There are more than a few conferences that strike me as being mostly noise.

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