My five digital resolutions for 2011. What are yours?

Planning. New York, NY, Dec 2010.

New Year’s resolutions are always the same, and the results are predictable. Eat less, exercise more, find a work-life balance, be a better person/husband/boyfriend/father/employee/son. And, predictably, we fail. So, how do you make your New Year’s resolution actually happen? Restrictions.

I’ve never really given myself any restrictions to my personal digital strategies, but in the spirit of owning what I do, here’s my five digital resolutions to guide my 2011:

1. Post less, structure more.

For 2011, I’m going to hold myself to a max of four blog posts per month and focus on one structured creative project each month.

The background: from 2002 to 2006, I posted a structured, themed photography project nearly once a month. Each project would combine words, pictures and interactions around a single theme (examples: Questions, Answered and In a NY Minute from 2007, Remix from 2008, and a slew of earlier ones that I encourage you to try and find).

Then, in late 2006, I started a blog, and although I started slow, in 2009 I wrote 350 posts across my two blogs (taylordavidson.com and Unstructured Ventures), and in 2010 I wrote another 173 posts on this site. Great, in a way, but I also found myself creating less projects and getting less out of my individual posts.

The goal: force myself to do what’s hard (create a themed, structured, thoughtful body of work) instead of doing what’s easy (post a single picture or a random thought).

2. Blog less, email more.

For 2011, I’m going to adopt a much stricter and thoughtful content strategy.

The background: I started posting projects and “blog posts” to this site in 2002, primarily posting the aforementioned photography projects. Once I started the blog, I branched out in writing about a wide range of topics. A very wide range. I created a separate blog, Unstructured Thoughts, to allow myself to segment my business, entrepreneurship and economic interests from my travel, photography and cultural musings.

In May 2009 I aggregated my two blogs, creating a truly diverse range of topics.

However, for the past six months, I’ve been craving a better content strategy and focus.

At the same time, I’ve learned a lot about email newsletters. From co-founding and co-editing NOLAlicious, to curating the New Orleans Startup Digest (since passed on to Chris Schultz), and to researching the topic endlessly, I’ve learned a lot about best practices and opportunities in email newsletters.

Therefore, I’m launching two newsletters:

• Finance and tech: My paid newsletter will focus on the intersection of finance and startups, focusing on the financial services and technology industries. Sign up now before the rates increases on Feb 1 and lock it in at $0.99 a month.
• Photography: Through Narratively, my business and event photography agency, I will run a free monthly email newsletter focusing on what I’ve shot, what other event photographers are shooting, and links to new and important photography industry discussions and resources. Sign up here. The first newsletter is here.

What will you miss if you don’t sign up for the newsletters? A lot. I’ll be still be blogging here, but a lot of great, timely, curated content and ideas will be in the email newsletters instead of the blog. Pick your interest and sign up now.

The goal: Restrict. Focus. And test and refine. The tactics may not be the same at the end of 2011, but the strategies will.

3. Do more, tell less.

I spent a lot of time and effort in 2009 and 2010 creating guides for other people. In 2011, I’m going to focus on doing it myself.

I analyzed the photography business extensively from 2008 to 2010, digging into the fundamental economics and technological changes, creating guides for photographers to help them adjust their business models and find new ways to thrive. I did talks and panels at SXSW, PDN PhotoPlus and CEPIC discussing the theories and ideas.

But it’s been a lot of “do as I say, not as I do”.

I had my reasons for doing what I did. But once thing I’ve learned from 2010: at the end of the day, I have more fun doing than telling. I have more fun creating than telling people how to create. I have more fun testing new projects, methods or ideas than telling people about them. I have more fun shooting than talking about shooting. Thus, 2011 is going to be all applying the ideas and guides to building business models of my own.

The goal: Focus on doing rather than telling, in all of my forms of work.

4. Convert, convert, convert.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about web design as a form of life design.

As in, if you can’t fit it above-the-fold, should you be doing it? If the navigation is hard to understand, do you have a plan? If the call-to-action isn’t clear, how can you do it better, easier, faster?

A poorly designed, poorly laid-out, jammed page is confusing and difficult to act on.

A poorly designed, poorly scheduled, jammed life is confusing, uneasy, disconnected and unfulfilled.

The goal: Build my websites to focus on conversions. Streamline navigation and content and focus each page, project and interest on a specific call-to-action. Streamline my digital activities to focus on specific goals and completing projects.

This one will take time. This site is huge. Be patient, please.

5. Be mindful to have fun.

The easy, knee-jerk resolution is less; spend less money, eat less food, drink less, etc. But instead of less, my goal is to be more mindful about what I do online.

I started using the web because it seemed like fun. I created a website in 2002 because I wanted to share pictures and make an online Christmas card. I shared pictures and ideas with friends to share, interact, and learn. I played with projects like Questions, Answered and Questions, Answered, Again because it was fun. I started using Flickr early on, but Brian taught me how to have fun with it. I wouldn’t be on Twitter if Lyell hadn’t taught me how it could be fun. And I wouldn’t test every service if I didn’t think it had the possibility to make my life a bit better.

The goal: In 2011 I’m going to remember why I started using the web. I’m going to be mindful about the time, energy and passion I put into the web. Maybe that’s less, maybe that’s more, but it will surely be different.

Lagniappe: Worry less about what I don’t get done. *

As I told a good friend, this isn’t rationalization. It’s an acknowledgment that part of the curse of being creative is creating lots of ideas that simply aren’t good enough for the world to see, to hear, to experience and understand. Some of them are meant to only be for you. It’s impossible to get all your ideas accomplished, a simple fact that execution is harder than creating ideas.

More importantly, some ideas are supposed to bang around in our heads for awhile until they see the light of day. The banging around makes them better, allows us to assess and allocate our time on what’s important and possible, and gets us to focus on what matters.

The goal: Don’t beat myself up over what I don’t get done. If it’s meant to get done, it will. And enjoy what I do accomplish.

What are your digital resolutions for 2011?

—

Thank you to Michael, Julien, Ethan and Valeria for pushing me to do more, whether you know it or not. Thank you to Ross and Jeremy being great sounding boards and helping me create my digital strategies. Thank you to Sloane, for everything, of course. And thank you, everyone, for helping and supporting me in every way you do.

* In case you’re wondering what lagniappe is, it’s a little gift, a little extra, given gratuitously for good measure.