Must Try Harder

Welcome to 2005, year of the supercomputer. Technorati has a New Year's Resolutions feature. I don't normally make them but Iet's make an exception here. There's also no guarantee that these will be my resolutions this time next week, but there you go. 1. Budgeting Time. 2004 was a good year for sorting out money management, but the most precious resource is still leaking out of my schedule. This is the year to finally tackle the time management problem seriously. It'll probably take a few months to get started, but I hope to end 2005 with the sort of reserves of time that'll begin to allow me to tackle some serious stuff for more than a few hours at a time. Any tips are extremely welcome. What's the Excel equivalent for timeflow? 2. Buy more stuff. I keep being accused of updating my technology more frequently than everyone else does. It's not true; laptops go 3 years or more, phones 12-24 months, my favourite digital watch hung in nearly 22 years before recently succumbing to the ravages of time (remind me to link to my new one here). Ok, so we bought 3 iPods this year, but that's an exception, and it's time to begin living up to my reputation. I end the year having just paid well over the odds to get my hands on a Nintendo DS before they ship here (March? April? May?), and I have my sights on the PSP too. If Apple gets the iTunes phone together (please let it have a decent camera and an interface better than Moto's usual crud) and upgrades all my favourite software next week then I'm hitting the Apple Store. Preferably with someone else's money. 3. Work on the details. If there's one thing I consistently find difficult it's this. While I do the big picture pretty well I've left too many of the details to others. I'm not suggesting pulling back on trusting others and delegating, but there are certain aspects of detailed implementation I now need to make my own. The selection and follow-through on this is critical to the success of my contribution to the VRU this year, and I'll need all the help I can get. 4. Articulate the vision. Seeing the big picture isn't the same thing as communicating it effectively. As the extraordinary professional events of 2004 played out I became increasingly aware of the over-complexity of what I've been trying to articulate. The vision needs simplification, and I need to use every means possible to get this vision across in as direct a fashion as possible. 5. Be kinder.. Most people are fighting a hard fight, and I forget that too often. I might still make some exceptions to this one though, so watch out.