“What are your New Year’s resolutions?” As 2011 approached, I heard this question frequently. I usually responded with a cryptic answer about how I always have a list of goals, but don’t necessarily call them resolutions. The word itself usually makes people either hopeful or cynical. I tend to belong to the latter group. With the low success rates of New Year’s resolutions, who can blame us?

Last year, the New York Times published an article (login required) citing research finding that about 80 percent of people who make New Year’s resolutions break them by Valentine’s Day. A study from 2007 supports this, saying only twelve percent of people achieve their New Year’s goals.

Perhaps this means that before we list our goals for 2011, we should take a closer look at our own attitudes towards goal-setting. What misconceptions do we have, and what can we do to remedy them?

Myth #1: Tell everyone your goals so that you’re publicly accountable.

In theory, publicizing your goals with friends, or on your blog or Facebook profile, might force you to achieve them, so as not to be seen as someone who’s all talk and no action. But according to a 2009 study by goal-setting researcher Peter Gollwitzer (PDF), this isn’t always true. Most people state their behavioral goals in very general terms (“My goal is to eat healthier”) that gives the premature impression we’ve already done them.

Here’s what works instead: implementation intentions. Gollwitzer defines them (PDF) as a plan spelling out when, where, and how you intend to accomplish a goal. In fact, another study (PDF) shows that implementation intentions work so well that they can help you accomplish your goals despite the presence of distracting thoughts and emotions.

This doesn’t mean it’s easy after you establish a plan. You’ll need to check and update your plan often. It’s also important to start working on your goal as soon as possible. The more time your goal remains inactive after you’ve stated your intentions, the less likely you are to accomplish it.

Myth #2: Reward yourself for your progress.

Some people suggest that to keep yourself focused and motivated in your pursuit of a goal, you need to have rewards for accomplishments. For example, if you successfully stick to your schedule for a week, you’ll give yourself the license to go out with friends during the weekend. While there’s nothing wrong with rewards per se, you need to be careful about how you think of them.

Research shows that for large goals (e.g.. becoming healthier) that have many supporting subgoals (e.g.. sticking to a diet, exercising regularly), whenever you successfully achieve a subgoal, you should reward your personal commitment to the larger goal rather than to  your progress. Rewarding yourself for achieving one subgoal may lead you to ignore the other subgoals, because you’ll view them as substitutes. If you reward your commitment to the larger goal, the subgoals will seem interrelated, and you’ll be more driven to pursue each of them.

Myth #3: Focus on yearly goals.

By definition, New Year’s resolutions are goals that must be achieved within a year. While this tradition can work for some goals, it may not be effective to use such a long time-frame. First, even if we think we know ourselves well, we tend to be poor predictors of what we’ll need or feel in the future. Our perspectives, situations, and desires may differ greatly within a year. Second, most research (PDF) backs up the idea that setting short-term goals is more effective than looking at the big picture. This means that even if you have a list of yearly goals, it’s better to break them down into smaller monthly or weekly subgoals.

Given these goal-setting myths, we should be more attentive to how we set our goals, what works in practice, and what only seems effective in theory. By looking at our goal-setting behavior together with the goals themselves, we’ll be more likely to accomplish more this year.

Do you set goals during the New Year? Which tactics improve your success rate?

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I spent today ‘helping’ my son put together a new filing cabinet in my office. Once he’d left, I transferred all my filing and made beautiful, label-maker labels and arranged them in lovely diagonal lines. Yes, I’m a stationery and organization nerd. I love the feeling of going into the new year organized and ready. I have new calendars, new notebooks – it’s like going back to school. But, I can tell you, that on Monday afternoon, my office will be the usual ‘in the middle of 18 things’ mess. My to-do list will look like it’s had mice with inky feet running all over it and there will be post-it notes in random places.

I am no more organized than anyone else. What I’ve learnt though, is that it’s ok to start well and then let it slide. It’s to be expected. The secret is to make the time between starting shorter. You can start the new year with a clean and organized desk and slide till April. Or, every night you can tidy up before you leave and start every morning clean and organized.

What made me think about this today was a forum post (http://www.manager-tools.com/forums-4822#comment-64728). In it gazman says he started out well with O3s and other helpful behaviours and then let them slide and he was feeling bad about it. If you find yourself in this position, don’t feel bad. It’s natural to find new (and old) things hard and to slide. The secret is, as soon as you’ve realized you’re sliding, get back to the start. If you can make the gaps between good starts smaller, you’ll be closer to having continual new, desired behaviour. So, start tomorrow for the new year, and start again as soon as you need to.

Stay Connected

A recent survey of New Year’s resolutions found that workers are not interested in being out of touch in 2011. Less than one in five workers (19 percent) resolves to unplug from email or voicemail in their time off from work.

The findings lead to the notion that American workers are focused on getting more done in 2011. With an estimated 247 billion emails sent daily (according to Pingdom), Americans are focused on how to become more productive in our post-recession economy and how to get more out of their business communications.

The survey also found that workers resolve to get organized, and respond more quickly to business communications.    

More Organized

The number-one resolution in the survey is to get organized. Sixty-one percent of those polled pledged to keep their business emails and documents more organized in the new year.

The folks at Intermedia give these suggestions:

• Work off your business priorities, not your email inbox. Highly productive workers use email as a communication tool for business results, rather than responding to emails as they come in. Focus on what needs to get done for your job and prioritize email review and response with that in mind.
• Collaborate online rather than simply sending messages back and forth. Email is great for communication, but not always the best tool for collaboration. Tools for document management solve this problem and are available online.
• Unify communications to get back one hour of your life per day. Rather than use separate tools and devices to check email, make phone calls, and instant message colleagues, businesses increasingly use “unified communications” to combine them in one tool. Sage Research estimates this system can increase productivity by over 12.5 percent, or one hour per day for each worker.

Respond Quicker  

Workers want to get organized, stay connected, and respond more quickly to business communications. Thirty-seven percent of those surveyed say that they will resolve to be more prompt when responding to business emails and calls.

What are your New Year’s resolutions? How do you plan to get more organized in 2011?  How connected do you want to be while away from work in 2011?   How do you plan to manage your work life in 2011?

This survey was conducted online in December, 2010 by Harris Interactive on behalf of Intermedia. Respondents were employed US adults who have a New Year’s business communications resolution.

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I recently had a conversation with a friend about how much fun it would be for her to open a bakery. We imagined ideas for desserts she might serve, and how she might run her business. But the conversation ended with her saying, “Maybe someday I’ll do something like that.” Immediately, I knew that she probably never would, and I felt very sad — for her, for myself, and for so many other people who sit on the sidelines dreaming, but who never make an effort to pursue their dreams.

Certainly, some of us make half-hearted attempts to accomplish a few of our life and business goals. But how many people do you know who put everything on the line to pursue their deepest, most life-changing dreams? What are the rest of us doing, and what are we waiting for?

Choices and Challenges

Of course, circumstances get in the way. There are challenges, setbacks and detours. But each of us has a choice. Although it won’t be easy to navigate back to the right path, if we say that we can’t find our way around obstacles, we’re making a choice to leave things as they are.

Last night, I was reading about Roald Dahl, author of such hopeful and imaginative books as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. That might be my absolute favorite story about an underdog who overcomes obstacles while continuing to believe in something, even when all is stacked against him.

It turns out Roald Dahl was a lot like his character Charlie. Dahl’s personal life was filled with hardship and tragedy. In spite of all the challenges he faced, he remained positive and achieved great things. As it says on his website, “The series of misfortunes and tragedies Dahl… suffer[ed did not] made him more bitter. Loss and physical adversity seemed to stimulate his enormous energies to positive action. He fought misfortune as if it was a dragon to be slain.”

Time to Dream Big

I hope that 2011 will be a year of great progress toward achieving our deeply-buried dreams, and a year of doing things that require us to step out of our comfort zones and test our abilities, even if they lead to failure or, even more frightening, success.

I challenge you, as we begin 2011: dust off those gutsy dreams and ambitions you’ve kept to yourself until now. Dare to put yourself out there; do something big this coming year. It doesn’t need to look big to anyone else, but you’ll know it is, because it will require you to go out on a limb and do things in an entirely different way.

For 2011, live the way you truly want to live, and achieve what you’ve only ever dreamed you could achieve.

What big, audacious goals do you have for 2011?

Photo courtesy Flickr user Neal

What are you doing this holiday week? Many of us are sitting back, playing with new gadgets and eating things we shouldn’t. But quite a few workers take advantage of the break to focus on new or ongoing personal projects that spark their passions.

It’s no wonder. When else do we get a good ten days (or more!) off work, and can actually spend that time at home? For me, this is a good chance to make serious progress on projects, try ideas I’ve been toying with but have had no time to work on, and fuel the inspiration that will kick-start the new working year.

If you’re working on a personal project, or you’re considering resurrecting one over the break, here are a few ideas to help you stay focused and motivated, while enjoying the holidays at the same time.

Make Sure Your Break Is a Break

First and foremost, you’ll probably appreciate the break more if you accept that this is holiday time. For me, recharging the batteries is imperative — that’s what holidays are for. So if you can afford to, don’t force yourself to work if there’s something else you’d rather do. The idea of the passionate personal project is that it fills you with a sense of adventure, fun, and excitement — not that it feels like work. If the thought of working on your project seems blissful, do it. If it doesn’t, do something else.

The fact that you’ve decided to work on a personal project doesn’t mean you need to dedicate the entirety of your break to it. The thing I love about this time is that I can work when and as I feel like it. If I wake up and the sun’s out, I might spend the day outside instead of at my desk. On the other hand, if I get right into my personal project and want to pull an all-nighter, I can. Don’t force yourself into a timetable.

Experiment as Broadly as Possible

It can be good to use this time to experiment with the peripheral aspects of a project, as well as with its focus. I’ve found that this approach can help me understand what motivates and supports my work, and can make my money-earning tasks more enjoyable.

So don’t just experiment with your discipline, experiment with everything. As a remote worker, I like to change my work location while I’m focused on personal projects. Instead of sitting at the desk I use for the other fifty weeks of the year, I move around, and the simple change in location somehow alters my perspective.

I also rely entirely on my level of interest (rather than any of the usual motivations) for getting work done. I’m trying a different approach to milestone setting, as well as testing various discipline-specific techniques I’ve never used before. Doing things differently gives me more interest in continuing my personal project, because I’m not just creating something, I’m learning all the time. What I learn can be applied to my day job after the break.

Find a Balance

Working as you feel like it is great, unless you get to the start of the new year and feel like you need a holiday to get over your holidays! Giving yourself over to your passion for a personal project can be extremely fulfilling, but it can also burn you out. Balance is important.

Don’t forget to take time off, see friends or family, and have fun doing other things. By mixing things up and pacing yourself, you can maintain the impetus for your project without running yourself down or squandering valuable opportunities to be with the people you love. Balancing your desires can help you get more out of your project than a rigorous work schedule might.

Share Your Passion

When I’m working during a break, I tend to hole up, shut down my email and phone, and immerse myself in my project. That’s great, but occasionally it’s good to come up for air. One beneficial way to do this is to get in touch with someone else who’s also working on a personal project.

This gives me a sense of support and solidarity. Although I might be tucked away in my own world, I feel connected to others who share the same sense of passion (even if their areas of focus are completely different from my own). But finding out what others are doing can give me ideas for experimenting with my own approach, style, or project — all of which may improve the outcomes of my efforts.

What’s helping you stay inspired while enjoying the benefits of time off during the holidays?

Image by stock.xchng user pepo.

“We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves.  The book is called Opportunity
and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.”
                           -Edith Lovejoy Pierce

The new year brings with it endless possibilities, limited solely by the confines of your imagination.  If you can imagine where you ultimately desire to go, it is infinitely easier to chart a course to reach that destination!

The new year is a time to set new goals.  Whether professional or personal, no goal is so large that it cannot be attained with a clearly defined roadmap, hard work and perseverance.  Goals, whether large or small, can be life-changing.  Start today by defining your goals for 2011 and creating your roadmap to success!

From Leadership Moments, www.leadstar.us

Last weekend, I disconnected from the web completely. I wasn’t on holiday or caught up in an all-consuming weekend adventure, it was just that over the last few months I’d been working weekends as well as full-time during the week, and I’d decided to carve out a little time off.

Unlike a holiday, though, I still needed to go about my ordinary activities. This experience revealed to me how much I’ve come to rely on the web, and highlighted some unexpected ways it’s changing my lifestyle.

Information

When I woke up Saturday morning, I wondered what the weather would be like. Along with things like local farmers’ market locations and times, film screenings and daily news, the weather is something that I tend to check frequently online.

But since I wasn’t connected, I realized I’d just have to wait and see. If I wanted to hear the news, I’d have to plan my information consumption around the television or radio schedules. Or (gasp!) buy a newspaper from the nearest shop, six kilometers away.

Yes, the web gives us access to information on demand, but over the weekend, I realized I’ve come to expect this as a given. Losing that access made me seek alternatives where I could, but mostly, I simply went without the information.

In some cases, this actually curtailed my activity: If you can’t remember — or find out — when the local farmers’ market’s on, you’ll probably forget about it, rather than driving an hour or more to discover it’s not actually on this weekend.

Ultimately, not having access to information forced me to take chances, or to forgo activities.

Self-focus

A lot has been written about the self-obsessive tendencies of those who spend time preening online personas rather than interacting with the real world. For me, without external information and entertainment (for which you could read ‘distraction’), the focus seemed to narrow considerably. It narrowed to whatever I was doing at that exact moment.

By losing touch with the world outside, I was able to hone in on the present, and on myself. Instead of reacting to external information obtained online, my own motivations became clearer. They became the driver for my day.

A very simple example: Since I didn’t know what the weather was going to be  like, I planned my weekend solely on the basis of what I wanted to do at any given time. This self-focus and self-motivation extended into other areas as well, and it was different from the norm.

I wondered if that feeling of ordinarily being motivated or driven by what I find online applied to other workers. I wondered if it may contribute to the sense many workers experience of being at the mercy of technology and information.

Without the web, I had much less outside impetus to do things; everything depended on my mood and internal motivation.

Contact

As you’d expect, lacking access to email and IM meant that all my contact had to be personal. Unless I could fit my communication into a text message, I’d have to call — or visit — someone to communicate with them. Of course, I always use the web to look up phone numbers I don’t know, so it was just as well I didn’t need to contact anyone whose number I hadn’t already saved to my phone.

As someone who values space, the idea of having to call four different people to try to organize a festive season gathering really didn’t appeal, so I put it off until I was back at my computer during the week. As it turns out, I’d rather delay contact than be forced to talk (as I saw it, endlessly) on the phone.

Of course, I received contacts from friends and colleagues online over the weekend, and missed them all. Miscommunication and general confusion ensued — proof that the horror of disconnection is probably justified. After all, this was just one weekend.

The instant, always-on nature of the web has made timeliness a priority, and an expectation: People expect to be able to get in touch with us at the last minute. I expect to be able to do the same.

Being disconnected restricted my contact to the immediate — phone or face-to-face communications — and reduced the amount of flexibility I felt I had.

Preoccupation

As my disconnected weekend progressed, I found myself less and less preoccupied with anything — any event, person, or piece of information — that wasn’t within my immediate physical realm.

In short, if it wasn’t hitting me in the face, it didn’t matter.

Without my calendar, I had no idea which social engagements I was supposed to be anticipating. Without email I had no expectation that anyone would contact me without my knowledge. I had nothing to check, nothing to confirm, nothing to concern myself with.

This was a relief. Naturally, being less preoccupied with an external world allowed me to focus more closely on what I was actually doing. Without the thought that I should check my mail, or the inclination to look at the news as I passed my desk, I was free to put my whole mind to the tasks at hand. This was a great thing, even if I had no idea what was happening in the news.

Occasionally I wondered what might be happening elsewhere in the world — including online — but I did enjoy having a clear focus on the here and now.

Planning

Ultimately, being disconnected highlighted how easy the web makes coordinating events with other people, and obtaining information that helps us stay organized.

I realized that to plan a family lunch without the web, I’d have to call a bunch of people, which made it seem like an awful lot of effort. Sending an email to five people takes maybe ten minutes. Calling those same five people would take at least fifteen minutes apiece. Planning social events is much more time-consuming without the web.

Almost all the other tasks for which I’d have used the web that weekend were to search for information that is available in newspapers, on town calendars, and so on. If I had to live without the web, I’d still be able to access the information I need, but it would need to be a much more planned, less spontaneous proposition.

The web reduces our need to plan ahead, and to anticipate potential needs for information.

Does this image depict the common person today?

Someone who:

• doesn’t (or can’t) anticipate needs for information or plan contacts with others
• is happily distracted from their immediate circumstances by the web
• relies, to some degree, on the web for inspiration or motivation
• feels a sense of missing out, preoccupation, or an ongoing curiosity about the online world as a result of these three factors

This description does seem to define, in some part, many of the people I know. While I’m not saying this is all we are — not by a long shot — I do think that some time spent completely disconnected from the web probably isn’t a bad idea. I think the aspect that surprised me most was the fresh sense of motivation I felt; I enjoyed relying on my internal motivations for once, rather than seeking information to inspire me to take action.

Do you disconnect completely from the web sometimes? Have you found that it changes your expectations or behavior?

Image by stock.xchng user Ayla87.

It’s not uncommon to hear about businesses shutting their doors within the first year, but lack of “stick-to-itiveness” isn’t just limited to the actual businesses themselves. Blogs, podcasts, newsletters and a slew of other efforts are pushed to the back burner long before they’ve had time to make a blip in the world’s radar. The reason? More often than not, we get disheartened and so physically and mentally drained while getting our ideas off the ground that we give up long before they’ve had time to gain traction.

When there’s so much vying for our attention and especially when we’re feeling more than a little burned out with our current efforts, a little “stick-to-itiveness” can go a long way. Here are a few ideas for developing the trait.

1. Allow yourself the occasional slip. There will be times when you simply don’t have the motivation or inspiration needed to stay on track and moving forward with your vision. On those days, it can be hard to break away from email, blog feeds and social networks long enough to make any kind of progress with your business, but an occasional slip doesn’t have to mean total failure. Make a resolution to get back on track tomorrow. In the long run, the occasional off day won’t be what determines whether you make it or break it, but rather the overall consistency that you manage over time.
2. Find ways to encourage patience and consistency. For a lot of business owners, it’s hard not to chase after every new opportunity that comes along. Whether we’re talking about new marketing tactics or altogether different business ventures, “entrepreneurial attention deficit disorder” is common for many a small business owner. Finding creative ways to encourage patience and consistency can keep E.A.D.D. at bay, while helping you keep your current efforts on track toward success. One solution is to consider starting side projects that build up over time and that won’t distract you from your main goals. Having several ventures or ideas at varying stages of development can keep your interest levels up, while allowing you to move your attention to and from projects as demand and priorities change.
3. Create “built-in” backup. One of the best ways to keep projects moving forward, while allowing you to focus on those areas of your business that most interest you, is to build in reinforcement through a team. By having more than one person concentrating on the key responsibilities within your company, you can feel confident knowing that the most important jobs are getting done, even if you’re not the person doing them. One tip is to use a “divide and conquer” mentality to separate your core responsibilities into chunks that can be outsourced, one at a time. As new responsibilities come into view, you can either create new roles or see if they fit within those already created.
4. Take a break. Often those feelings that show themselves outwardly are only symptoms of an underlying problem, and treating them will only mask or temporarily relieve them. If you’re feeling distracted or overwhelmed, there’s a good chance that you could simply be overworked. Don’t feel guilty about taking some much-needed R&R. By having some time completely away from the business, you might find that you’re able to regain your focus and motivation without having to make changes in projects or commitments.

So many great business ideas go by the wayside simply because the people behind them burn out and give up too quickly for the ideas to take hold. Developing a few insurances to help you stick with your plans and maintain consistency might be all you need to see your big idea to success.

What tactics have you found for increasing “stick-to-itiveness”?

Photo courtesy Flickr user mccun934

How to Create a Strong Password

I conduct pretty much all of my business online. I use a dozen different web applications on a daily basis. I rely on these tools to get my work done, which makes it absolutely crucial that I do everything I can to protect my information. I do my best to find trustworthy applications, but in the end, some of my security comes down to something I do for myself — choosing good passwords.

A good password has to balance security with our ability to remember it, because minimizing the number of places that a password is written down or otherwise recorded is a good idea. It’s a tough line — the most memorable passwords are the easiest to crack, while the most secure are a jumble of characters that are impossible to recall. But there are some steps you can take to create a reasonably secure password that you’re less likely to forget.

1. Forget about amusing passwords. Among the most common passwords are those that seem to amuse the person creating them — there are plenty that use profanity or insults. Some sites, such as Twitter, have actually created lists of words that are banned from use as passwords. A surprising number of them fall into this category. Passwords such as these aren’t secure, if only because they’re relatively common and more likely to be tried first if someone is trying to crack your password.
2. Try longer phrases. Most of us have an easier time remember actual words and phrases than random assortments of letters and numbers. Using just one word, perhaps with a number tacked on to the end, is often less secure, however — certain methods of hacking passwords include simply running a dictionary through the password system. Using a longer phrase — especially if it includes numbers or other characters — makes it significantly harder to guess.
3. Use a minimum of eight characters. Longer passwords are better. Most sites require you to have at least six characters in your password these days. Some are moving up to eight, but if you can go for longer, you should. That’s another benefit of using a phrase.
4. Choose related, but not identical, passwords. You want to minimize the chances you’ll forget a password, but using identical passwords means that if one of your accounts hacked into, you’ll run the risk of having other accounts hacked as well. One option may be choosing phrases about the same topic, while another is changing key parts of your password to reflect the site you’re using it for.
5. Don’t use personal details. In the event that someone is hoping to gain access to your personal accounts, details like your phone number, employment details and important dates in your life will be among the first passwords typically tried. Instead, you want to use something that may have personal meaning for you — at least enough to help you remember it — but that won’t be easy for anyone else to guess.

How do you create secure yet memorable passwords?

Photo by Flicker user akeg licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0