Revisiting my digital resolutions, one month in.
Brooklyn Heights Promenade, Brooklyn, NY
No, this isn’t about checking into places and experiences via Foursquare, Yelp, Facebook, One True Fan or Hot Potato (now part of Facebook), a fascinating topic in its own right, but about me checking in with you.
At the beginning of January I wrote about my five digital resolutions for 2011. Here’s how I’m doing after one month:
1. Post less, structure more.
Post less, done. I haven’t posted many shots to Flickr, and I haven’t written many random blog posts. The structure you’ll see a bit more once I post January’s photo project. It’s hard to not just press publish whenever I feel the whim, and Tumblr is really good at fulfilling the urge, but overall, I’ve done and felt better.
2. Blog less, email more.
Four blog posts and fourteen letter.ly letters in January, and the readers of my letter.ly continue to grow. It’s fun. And if you’re trying to figure out if it’s worth subscribing, trust me, the good stuff is over there.
(And add in the growing Narratively newsletter, and I’m happy with this one.)
3. Do more, tell less.
This one I struggle with, because for everything I get done, there’s always something I don’t get done. But despite that, I’ve focused more on getting things done than telling other people how to do it. And I’ve enjoyed it.
4. Convert, convert, convert.
Working on it. I updated my Unstructured Ventures site to focus more on selling (pay-what-you-want) my financial model templates for entrepreneurs. I installed an E-Junkie system to run the sales and digital delivery process (trust me, I did a lot of research into e-commerce and shopping cart systems before I made this choice). I installed KISSinsights to poll site visitors, and I installed Typekit to add a better look and feel to my sites. I streamlined the navigation and tweaked everything to focus on one or two actions.
What’s next? A new financial model template, an affiliate scheme, and a couple other projects that I’m looking forward to telling you about when they’re ready. And of course, more tests.
5. Be mindful to have fun.
I had fun this month. I’ve had great conversations through email. I signed up for Health Month, and I’m playing this month with three simple rules to help develop my mindfulness. I’m continuing to use my Fitbit, a device I badly want to love but just can’t quite yet (I’ll explain why later). I cut down on my feeds and read through the ones I kept more than I used to, and generally enjoyed using the web.
Sometimes it just takes a little change to remind you who’s in control and regain a bit of balance.
