I’ve just finished reading BJJ GRRL’s post, Progress Report – 2010. She talked about how she lost focus on her 2010 Goals. One of the problems that she noted was the length of the list. She also stated that she quickly started ignoring her prominently displayed list. Before you attack me for knocking THE GRAPPLE GIRL, I am not. The girl kicked some serious but, in tournaments and class. Major props for her. I’m just saying that she’s right. We all do the same thing. We make a grand list of goals and then quickly shuffle them under the carpet, bed, cat litter box, insert favorite “please forget I wrote that place”.
I’m guilty as well. *the worst actually* I think that I’m going to look at my big yearly list, and break it down into little Snicker bites. (I keep thinking about chocolate?) I’ll pick a few things to focus on for January. I’ll call it Task List – January. I’ll write them on some pretty card, maybe with some cool ink. *There is a girl gene running around in there somewhere* Maybe post a copy on my car dash-board, so I see it before and after I train. Another copy for my pocket, to carry around at work, grocery store, doctor’s office… You know those unpleasant places that you find yourself. If it works, I’ll do a monthly task list.
I’ve got dinner plans, so I have to go for now. However, I will have that Task List up by tonight.
Combat Sports Review Blog 
I think part of the problem is exactly that it was such a prominently displayed list. It became part of the scenery. And I’d feel slightly guilty when I did look at it (such as when someone posted a comment there), so I’d usually glance right past it and skim down to the rest of the blog.
That gave me an idea, though — write a list of goals/projects for 2011, and then break them out in Scheduled posts (posts that will automatically show up on a specific date). WordPress lets you do that in the Publish section. So I can write a few goals for, say, the first quarter and have that pop up by next weekend and are stickied, and then have a different set of goals pop-up in a few months. And set a limit for number of goals per post! (since I tend to throw in everything I can think of all at once. I have good intentions, but little follow-through.).
On “scheduled posts that will automatically show up on a specific date” I like that idea! I’ll have to figure out how to do that. I think that will be a big help for me. I don’t have an inner compass so I get misplaced most days. That means that I have no follow through either. Scheduled reminders will help me stay on target. Thank you so much!
On a new post, where it says “Publish immediately” right above the Publish button, click Edit. Enter the date and time; click OK. The Publish button changes to say “Schedule.” Click Schedule, et voila, the post will automatically publish at that date/time. You can continue to edit it, of course, and can also change the date/time again whenever you want. (You can even make posts publish in the past, if you wanted.)
@ Leslie – Scheduled publishing is going to be a big help. Thank you. I’ve already got some ideas racing in my head. Next question – How do you “sticky” a post? I’m such a dummy sometimes.
Right above the “Publish immediately”/”Scheduled for…” line, there’s a line that says “Visibility: Public.” Click Edit there, then check the checkbox for “Stick this post to the front page.”
(And to undo it, go back and edit that post and clear the checkbox. The post will then be shuffled back in to the regular blog lineup at the date and time at which it was originally published.)