Category / Starting

Book Reading Goals

I don’t do new year’s resolutions. Not in years. I find them worthless. I think it’s the term ‘resolution’ itself that’s a problem. If I’m aiming to do something I’ll set a goal instead and if I want it to actually work I’ll plan out how I’m going to go about achieving it.

Unlike a new year’s resolution most of my goals are not linked to the start of the year. If I decide I need a new goal it can be started anytime and can have any time-line that makes sense.

The biggest exception to this is my book reading goal which I first set several years ago and have reset every year since. It’s an exception because it goes from the beginning of the year and runs to the end. At this stage it’s more of a standing goal than a yearly goal.

All throughout my childhood I loved books. I read as much as I could. Even going so far as to read by torchlight, under the covers of my bed, after my bedtime. I read at least a book a week, usually more. That continued until college when the number of books I read dropped dramatically into single digits.

After college I started working but the number, with a couple of exceptions the number of books I read each year stayed low. In 2009 I read thirteen books. In 2010 I read eleven.

It was then I decided that I needed to read a minimum of twelve books a year. A book a month. A reasonable goal.

The first year I put the goal in place I read forty four books. I considered bumping the goal up to twenty four or fifty two for the following year. From the first year I knew I could manage it. I kept the number at twelve in the end. Mainly because reading is something I enjoy and not something I want to feel under pressure with. I’ve kept the goal the same every year since, hitting a low of sixteen book and a high of sixty three along the way.

Not that the number matters. It’s just a way to remind myself to read when it would be easier to watch tv. Easier doesn’t mean more enjoyable, simply that it provides the path of least resistance.

Goals are guides to help us decide where to focus. They are, at least for me, different than resolutions. Resolutions are just talk. A goal has to be more carefully planned and thought out. It might just be a difference in terminology but I find it means all the difference in how I think about it and therefore go about achieving it.

by Colin Brosnan

Only-Do List

I’m starting an experiment with a different kind of to-do list – the Only Do List. It’s a list of the things I’m restricting myself to doing. A constraint list. I’m telling myself I can do anything I want as long as it’s on the list.

My hope is that it will force me to do things I’ve been avoiding.

There’s a challenge in the list of course. It must be written in such a way to include everything I might reasonably do but also puts restrictions on what I can do. The list must keep procrastination at bay. So it can’t simply be a to-do list with the item(s) I must get done. It must be a list that keeps my interest rather than fuels my disappointment. If working on something is not going well for me the list needs to be able to provide an alternative that also somehow helps me make progress in some way.

I’m only at the list-making stage so have yet to decide what to allow or not allow. No doubt as the experiment evolves some things will be added and some dropped or restricted. I think the Only Do List needs to include things like watching television where under normal conditions there’s no explicit restriction on. Including watching television for x hours per week restricts it and prevents unstructured watching. Including it also allows me to know that I can watch something if I want.

Success and failure are equally likely. Let’s find out which it is.

by Colin Brosnan

Work Start

There’s work to be done. You need to start. But wait a sec.

It can be tempting to sit down and start working on the computer straight away. But sitting in front of that computer screen, thoughtlessly, can be a recipe for disaster.

Better to take a few minutes to see what you should actually be working on. Even looking at a pre-written list is not enough. You may have forgotten something or simply realise that certain items are more important.

The work is important only if it is the right work. Take a few minutes to look at it fresh each morning. Determine what’s important to get done. Then get to work.

by Colin Brosnan

Stop Spinning

You’re told you can be anything. If you can be anything you want to be everything. In wanting to be everything you become nothing. You spin in place.

Round and round you go without ever moving from the spot on which you started. Round and round becoming dizzy and disorientated. More and more confused. “Which way to go? Which way to go?”

Take a step. Any step. In any direction. Now you’re moving. Now you’re working.

Now take a second step. Any step. In any direction but one. Do not step backwards. Do not cover the same ground.

Your path need not be direct. Go straight ahead. Go right or left. Spiral outward. Spiraling outward is not spinning in place. Spiraling outward is you learning in many areas, a generalist. Or take the straight path forward. Or zigzag.

Your path is yours. Unset, but waiting for you to take the journey.

Stop spinning.

by Colin Brosnan

Next

After a lot of hard work you’ve finally finished that project.

What now?

Find a new project and start straight away. Start the next day or even the same day if you can.

You’ve built up all momentum with all that hard work. Over days, or weeks, or months, or years. It doesn’t matter how long that project took – it built momentum. Don’t kill the momentum, harness it, put it to new use.

You’ve finished that project. Start the next, now.

by Colin Brosnan

First Draft

The first iteration is just a draft. Get it done as quickly as possible. Don’t spend too much time on it.

It should be changeable. Nothing that can’t be added to or deleted.

That first draft is important – but not so important that it should take you until the project deadline.

Maybe your first draft is some bullet points. Maybe it’s a rough sketch.

The quicker you get it done the longer you’ll have to edit, to revise, to improve. Go through as many iterations as possible as quickly as possible.

Once the deadline hits you’re stuck with what you’ve done.

Don’t get stuck with the first draft.

by Colin Brosnan

It Takes Longer Than Expected

That goal. That project. Getting to where you want to be. It takes longer than expected.

Start out on that journey and someone should be there to tell you upfront. You’ll get there but it will take longer than you expect.

But that’s okay. All you can do is take the first step. And the next. And the next…

Eventually you’ll get there. Don’t give a damn about the time it takes, the work it takes. Keep taking steps. With each step the journey is getting shorter.

by Colin Brosnan

It’s Monday

When it’s time to start, just start.

Don’t grumble cause it’s Monday. Rejoice in it and start. You have the whole week ahead.

If you have something against Monday, the problem isn’t with the day, it’s with what you do on the day. If Monday’s a problem then change what you do.

The whole week’s ahead.

by Colin Brosnan

Fight the Blank

Starting from scratch is difficult. Anything is possible. Too much is possible.

With so many possibilities there’s no clear direction to take. There’s a blank space you have to fill. That’s daunting. The blank is a problem that’s possible to have when starting almost anything.

How to beat it? Just start. Put something down. Put anything down. Just start.

Fight the blank.

by Colin Brosnan