On the first of June I published a summary of my aims for the rest of the year. The plan was that these were 6 month goals, but that I had a cheeky extra month to start working towards them, test them out and see how realistic they were. So now that I’ve had my extra month it’s time to review these goals, and adjust them to make sure they are both realistic and challenging.
Get Fit
- jog steadily for 30 minutes
I haven’t been for a jog in several weeks. Rugby takes up a couple of hours twice a week, and I haven’t yet found the motivation to go for a jog on top of this. I am getting fitter and healthier, I just need to go for a jog and see how I’m doing with my goal.
Conquer Javascript
- Write my own application from scratch
- Become familiar with at least one Javascript library
So far I’ve had very little free time to dedicate to this cause, however work has provided me with some opportunity to get familiar with YUI. I feel like I’ve had quite a breakthrough, and goal no. 2 is certainly going well. Therefore I’ve decided to add a third JavaScript-related goal – To learn & write an application in Objective J.
Make this blog successful
- Publish at least one post per week
- Publish a full Symfony tutorial
- Complete at least one of my personal projects
- Increase visitor average to 50 a day
- Increase comment average to 10 per post
My first month of attempting these goals really hasn’t gone so well, mainly because the fitness thing is taking up so much of my free time. On the other hand, I have been slowly increasing my comment and visitor averages so I think I’m all set to reach my targets. I have re-written my blog css to make it easier to write posts without having to think about styling.
All-in-all I’m off to a slow but steady start – I’ve still got plenty of time to achieve these goals. Rebalancing my life in a more healthy fashion (read: getting off my arse and doing some sport) is going to take some getting used to, but should lead to my having more energy and motivation. I think the most important thing to work on is setting aside blog time & publishing something each week because without doing that nothing else will ever get done.
12th Jul
Melissa says:
Great resolutions. May I ask what action steps you’re talking to increase commenting on your posts? I’d like to get more comments on http://nonpretentious.com.
12th Jul
ErisDS says:
Hi Melissa,
I believe there are three things that are important when trying to increase feedback on your blog:
Firstly it depends on the size of your audience. If no-one is reading your post then no-one will reply. Therefore you need to increase visitors by building an rss feed following, twitter following & building links to your articles.
Secondly it depends on the content of the post, is it commentable? Is there anything to question, discuss or add to what you have said or have you asked any questions? For example this post is quite personal, I doubt many people will have much to say. But other posts here have been debatable and have had much more feedback.
Finally it depends on your level engagement with your readership. Is it a conversation or a one way communication? You should comment on other people’s blogs, and link back to them where the content is similar or relevant. Engage with people via different social media & you will find they engage back – this is not a quick and easy process – you have to be genuine and build real relationships with people.