At the beginning of every year, like most people, I set out my general goals for the year.  In the past, I’ve infrequently made resolutions, especially given the small percentage of resolutions that are kept, so my goals are not usually in the form of resolutions.  

Instead, I prefer to have two general buckets: (1) a few daily activities that will reinforce things I know to be good for me that I don’t do often enough and (2) my big lofty goals across professional, personal, and health.

When the year seemingly quickly entered July, I realized that over half the year had gone by and I hadn’t made enough progress.  While some of my big lofty goals were on track, my handful of daily activities were nowhere where I wanted them to be. 

My three key areas for daily activities are: 

1. Read at least two books a month

2. Write at least two articles a month

3. Develop my course syllabus

Between providing operations management for healthcare multinationals, ensuring the smooth running of my diagnostic laboratories, and moving our entire family out of country twice, it was no surprise that I hadn’t been on pace with my reading and writing goals.

My personality is one that REALLY likes to accomplish her goals, no matter how small or seemingly stupid.  The fact that I hadn’t made significant progress burned in my mind every morning beginning July 1.  So, around mid-month, I decided that drastic times call for drastic measures.  I performed a time audit on myself and decided that nearly every minute I was neither performing duties for work nor taking care of my children, I would be actively engaged in accomplishing my goals.

Here, I’ll be sharing the process of how I am approaching accomplishing these three goals before the end of the year.  

I started with the low-hanging fruit—reading. Now, I like reading and all, but it’s no small feat to read two books a month in the face all the other commitments you have.  Luckily, my June books—The Almanack of Naval Ravikant and Designing Your Life—began the process of shoving me down a rabbit hole and forcing me to rethink my own viewpoints on time and work. I thought I would read a chapter or two a day, but instead, I devoured The Almanack of Naval Ravikant in less than two days, and listened to Designing Your Life as an audiobook.

The audiobook was a surprise to me.  I’ve tried to read a few audiobooks in the past, but it hadn’t worked well for my reading style.  When it comes to fiction, I prefer to read the words with my eyes and visualize my own dream of the scenes the author paints.  It’s unlikely I’ll ever listen to fiction books as audiobooks

However, when it comes to non-fiction, such as books on business or productivity or management, I can now listen to them while simultaneously doing some mundane task much the same way I listen to music.  I listen to books while I drive, as I’m washing the dishes (but not while cooking), and when I’m running.  I think the difference is that now I’ve trained my mind to proceed on automatic with whatever task I’m performing, while focusing intensely to what’s being said in the audiobook. In the past my mind would easily wonder.  Now, I’m able to focus fairly easily.  Also, I have far less time now to get everything done.  I’ve adapted my ability to focus with the needs of my environment.

So that’s my current approach to (1) reading at least two books a month.  The combination of visual reading and audiobooks has supercharged my reading to the point where I now get through at least 4 books a month.  In the coming Working On posts, I’ll continue with my approach to (2) writing at least two articles a month and (3) developing my course syllabus.

Hope you’re also making progress in the things you’re working on, both the big heavy long-terms lifts and the smaller everyday habit!