I’m not one for making rash statements about things I’m going to change in my life starting on January 1st, but I do frequently set myself goals and revisit them so the beginning of the year is a good excuse as any to do so publicly. I also find that sharing them publicly helps me stick to them. With that in mind, let’s see how I did on last year’s goals:
To work on CILIP Chartership (reflecting on achievements and updating wiki on at least a monthly basis)– I did even better than expected here and submitted my portfolio in August and received confirmation in October that I had been successful.To improve physical organisation, particularly in home office – notes and paperwork etc.– I’m definitely better at this too, essentially by making notes in electronic format where possible, or if in paper format I digitise them as soon as I can (either by photographing and adding to Evernote or typing up the main points).To achieve a more productive balance between different parts of my life ensuring I make time for professional, personal, and social activities– YES! This is the biggest achievement of 2012 for me. It took me most of the year to get there but I’m now finally at a stage where I feel like I have a sensible balance between different parts of my life, and am managing to fit in both professional and personal interests as well as the day job.To continue to blog about professional issues and ideas as well as reflection on activities– Yes, though I have blogged less frequently since finishing my chartership. I’m still planning to continue to blog but have a number of different types of blogs so probably won’t post to each as frequently.- To publish at least one paper (preferably peer-reviewed) – I’m leaving this one as I didn’t achieve my goal of publishing a peer-reviewed paper. I did publish a number of articles in other journals/magazines though, including one on my dissertation research which I was really proud of, and one on productivity which I really enjoy writing about. I have some more in progress (either waiting to be published, or still being written), and this year I have a regular column in CILIP Update.
So, I think based on a review of those goals and my current to-do list, I’ll be doing quite a bit of writing this year. Here are my specific goals for 2013:
- To write (and hopefully publish) a paper for a peer-reviewed journal
- To embed current awareness into working routine (e.g. keeping up-to-date with RSS feeds)
- To develop skills in training/coaching and put them into practice through workshops
- To continue to support other professionals via Twitter (by keeping an eye on the #chartership tweets, and joining in Twitter chats)
- To retain balance in life and ensure I continue to spend time away from the computer doing other things I enjoy and seeing family and friends
I have a number of craft goals for the year too so I should have lots to keep my to-do list populated – let’s just hope I can tick them off by the end of the year!
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