Resolve

I’m thinking about next year. I’m not wishing away this one even though there are lots of people on Twitter who think 2016 has been the worst year in a while; I'm just giving myself an excuse to plan and wrangle some ducklings into a line.

A new year always feels like a clean slate; a fresh start. 

This feeling isn't unusual but I always think that this new year will be different, which is stupid because it's just time marching on and, like horoscopes and Myer Briggs Personality Indicators, means absolutely nothing in IRL. I start thinking of check boxes that include exercising more, sleeping better, finally learning about web analytics for reals.

Inevitably by February the year ends up looking the same as every other year - working too hard, stressing out, spending too much money, achieving a fraction of my hopes and dreams I had in January #captainDisappointment.

Insert some quote like "if you always do what you've always done" or the definition of insanity or something //comment left here intentionally.

Photo by MT 23 used from Flickr under Creative Commons. 

While I really do know I won't/can't change, I really do love this feeling of fresh new fields and adore over-planning for them. So I'm going to run with that.

Reading

I want to read more. That’s going to be a relatively easy goal right there because right now I’m not reading complete texts at all. Over the 12 months of 2017 if I read one book from start all the way to the finish, I will be stoked.

Moving

Wow I was so good at moving my body in the first half of 2016 so I know I can do it again. Each day after work I will lace up my walking shoes, hook the dog to her leash and walk the circuit that includes a really big hill. I do okay with repetitive tasks like this, I don’t need variety :) right up until I get bored and/or the “exercise” is proved successful, then I’ll stop.

Eating

This is more about planning meals than restricting food types or counting calories. Partly because I just love planning, and partly because I want to get a handle on grocery shopping which I hate. By planning my meals in advance, knowing what I have in the pantry (a successful project earlier in 2016), I can order what I need online and have it delivered while still buying leafy vegetables and fresh meats in person.  

Blogging

Of course keeping a blog going takes lots of work and energy - I know, it look effortless, doesn’t it? #wokeUpLikeThis - so why not start another one! Actually I’ve always had michellepark.me but I feel really energised to write there in 2017. I plan to do it as part of my day job and, if nothing else, it will be a catalogue of how we’re solving our problems with web content production in a university environment <= I know right? Everyone’s gonna want to read that!

Planning

Lord knows I love to plan. I also like to prove my plan works. It’s the ongoing execution that gets me in the distraction bucket. For a while I’ve been using a Midori Travellers notebook and LOVING it. Utilising a blend of task and bullet journalling, it works very well for me. Where it falls down is all the times I don’t use the Midori for work as I use Microsoft Outlook for scheduling day job stuff. So for 2017 I am going digital for appointments and syncing my work calendar to my personal Google one so I don't miss anything, while using the Midori for personal day-to-day tasks and my blog editorial calendar.

I’m pleased to see the following items are missing from my list for 2017 (if I had such a list). There are no references to:

• weight loss
• joining a gym
• becoming a morning person
• skincare regimes
• promising to finish every(any)thing
• taking lunch to work
• NaNoWriMo/100 Days Project/VEDA/ et al project promises

Instead of trying to plug gaping holes in my adultness, I'm going to build my strengths and doing things I enjoy. I'm also not giving myself a hard time for never sticking to anything either, because apparently not sticking to anything is a “thing” now; they write books* about it rather than letting us keep believing it’s a personality disorder.

*Well one. They wrote one book. I started reading it but never finished it.

I do like planning though. That’s my jam #hipToTheLingo I like thinking about something, planning it out, executing it long enough to prove my planning was correct or tweeking the planning to achieve enough success before moving on to the next thing.

For a moment there I was going to try and bluff you into thinking that was "MVP mentality" but for my plans to bear MVP they need to produce a P(roduct) and well, we all know that doesn’t happen. So around here we don’t think of MVP meaning “minimal viable product” anymore: replace the product with planning and BOOM! 

Welcome to the Land that Projects Forgot (LPF).

Take me down to the Acronym City, where the GIG and the GAP.

Do you like looking forward and planning? How do you do that: daydreams in digital format or pretty planners and pens? 

Yes: you can draw

I was talking to some work colleagues the other day. They were complementing me on my work-sketchnotes. I'm currently seconded to a web project for most of this year. When I started the project, I decided that a) I would dedicate one notebook to all my analogue notes so I knew where they all were and b) I'd make them sketchnotes.

Sketchnotes, if you don't know, is a style of taking notes that incorporates text, drawings, icons and visual hierarchy to capture information and make it easier to relate to at a later date, while trying for visual attractiveness too.

Nearly everyone can sketchnote, if they want to.

The most often used comment to why people don't or won't try to sketch their notes is that people believe they can't draw. This is an excuse I've never been able to hurdle. My counter-argument that:

• if you can hold a pen/digital stylus, and have some paper/tablet; you can sketchnote.
• If you can draw a square, a circle, the alphabet; you can sketchnote.
• If you can take typical notes in a lecture, or when you brainstorm, or in a meeting; you can sketchnote. 

To which nearly everyone then says "Oh no, I really can't sketchnotes. I can't *draw*!"

At a talk I listened to many years ago - and sketchnoted, actually - from Scott McCloud who gave talk at Webstock 2011 entitled "Visual Communication: writing with pictures". He challenged those who protested their abilities to draw an elephant. He said, sit down, draw an elephant. When you're done, get up and show your drawing to another person and if they say "That's a terrible elephant!" then you have succeeded. You drew an elephant and someone recognised that as an elephant. The quality of the drawing is irrelevant.

Or irrel-aphant.

Visual Communication (2011) by Scott McCloud 

There are some hints and tips and pre-loaded skills that can make sketchnoting easier, such as learning a few decorative alphabet styles; simple icons to represent commonly used words; thinking about how to layout information; listening out for typical talk structures such as when a speaker says "There are three ways to do [whatever]" and prepare for that.

I thought maybe I'd collate a few examples of these pre-loaded skills so if you'd like to start bringing visual note-taking into your life, we can make it as painless and enjoyable as possible.

What do you think? Good idea?

Sketchnote flip-thru