2015, the definitive goals

The second week of the year is over, and just for the record, yesterday was the last day we were allowed to keep saying “happy new year’, is not new anymore, and it feels like it is already about to reach its halfway point, it is just going too fast, at least for me.

I’m not a fan of resolutions as I think they just represent a statement, something that is wanted to be achieved. Wanting is not enough and achievements need plans, a good plan needs structure, and that structure should be composed of smaller tasks or activities that will lead to that desired outcome. In this case those tasks are tagged as goals. Beside that, resolutions tend to be general and it is easy to give up or get lost during the process if there is not a roadmap available.

As goals are more than just wishes o thing that I’d like to do, require al little planning and realism, I spent the first two week doing that. This is the first time I decided to actually write them down, and as the best ways to stick to goals is to be accountable, here they are, my goals for the year 2015.

1. Wake up at 5am every morning.

No, I’m not crazy and I don’t think this is either. All my life I’ve been a night person and I’m actually way more productive, it was a struggle during my school years and even as a freelancer and was starting to become a problem again since August. It’s just not sustainable, the world has a structure and schedule and that cannot be denied.

What did I do? just turn in around, rather than finish my days late, I’ll start them way earlier.

I began last week and had about 90% of success. As every habit o behaviour, is not going to happen over night, so is about consistency, tweaking, revise and tweak again.

2. Go to bed no longer than 11pm.

(Or the adequate time in order achieve goal No. 1 successfully). This is the real challenge for me, I can deal with waking up early, my problem is that I tend to go to bed later than I should, for X or Y reasons.

Also, the fact that if I go to bed after 12:30am I just feel tired the next morning, even if I slept 8 hours, added to this the training/recovery factors.

3. Get a job during the first trimester.

Party is over. After several years working, the chance of a full year where the only thing I had to do was going to the University was amazing. It was actually really good, but one year is ENOUGH! Now is not only about time, is that I need to be back on track, getting super busy again and dealing with reality rather than case-studies.

So any help that I can get on this matter will be more than appreciated ;)

4. Finish my dissertation for the March deadline.

Different reason made me take the decision of delaying the dissertation for my Masters, somedays seems to be a good thing, others the opposite, but either way has to be completed.

I’m willing to push it and get it done for the March’s deadline in order to attend July’s graduation ceremony.

5. Run 1800 Kilometres.

2014 was the second year in a row I was unable to reach my distance goal for the year, both year due to injury, suffering or preventing it. Because of this I’m willing to be realistic and give myself an incremental but achievable goal, increasing 20% from last year’s 1500Km goal.

6. Run my first marathon (London Baby!) under 4 hours.

This is finally the year I’ll run a marathon. Another goal I’ve be not achieve for two year in a row is running a full marathon, so this year I’ll do my debut on a major. London 2015.

Aiming for an under-4-hours mark.

7. At least two side-projects.

Just for the sake of innovation and creativity. I have tons of ideas all the time that I would like to execute, and also fortunate to have very talented people among my friends with the same desire of do something else on their free time (if there’s such a thing). Any kind of project, size or discipline doesn’t matter, is about the purpose, and I’m pretty sure those who read this will understand.

8. Be on time.

Just for the record this never happens with a business advisor and other meeting, but the truth is that everybody’s time is worthy and that’s what I’ve been working on this to extended beyond meetings, as for an optimisation freak as I can be, my time management when it comes to commuting is far from efficient.

9. Procrastination.

There must be a way to kill it and I’m going to find it! So far I’m turning on the wifi and timing almost everything I do, just wanted to be able to do it on more natural way rather than keep thinking on the fact that need to avoid it.

10. Keep focus on what really matters.

I tend to think a lot of stuff pretty fast, even related to specific topic, which is good in terms of creativity and ideas but bad when it comes to the actual outcome as it sometimes tend to travel to far making me start considering thing that might be relevant for a topic/project but not necessarily at that time.

11. Controlled use of the phone.

I spend a lot of time on my phone, really more than I would like to, I don’t think the solution is just say I’m not going to use it anymore, as that is not the actual problem; the problem is the frequency. I’ve been cutting it for the last few weeks, dropping it during working hours and use it just on “breaks”. Somedays works better than others, but is more about reshaping a habit than suppressing it, rather than check the phone (for any reason, yes, email included) every time a notifications pops the screen. I pick it for 10–15 minutes every 45–60 minutes, and when at home try to leave it on the room while cooking or having dinner.

12. Read 3 books.

I like to read a lot and do it everyday, news, magazines, blogs and basically everything that comes across and generates curiosity or interest; but I’m not reading as many books as I’d like (should) to.

I started a couple of good books last year, another couple the year before and haven’t finished them. I know 3 is a very insignificant amount but is not about of setting goals with big numbers but something feasible that I can stick to. Is all about getting things done and improvement, what if I manage more than that? even better.

13. Watch 10 movies at the cinema.

Another that might sound like crazy, specially because I love movies, but just like the books I didn’t do the proper time management, plus other factors. As a matter of fact, I believe I didn’t see 10 movies last year as a whole, including home and if surpassed that number was by a closer margin.

14. Blog posts.

Want to make this on a regular basis, in order to avoid the same as books and movies, so I’m aiming to write at least three times a month on any of the two blogs.

15. Successfully 30

I will turn 30 this year. Seems weird and confusing at time, specially when decided to basically start from scratch 16 months ago. This would be a big milestone and as my birthday is June it will be a good time to check this list and see how it goes and what is required to stick to the plan.

As I see it, this is the year that will set the foundations for the next 10.

So it time to make some magic and make things happen. It’s show time!