NYRs January Check-In

Alright, for those of you who were checking out those goals I set for myself at the start of the year, you’ve probably been wondering either how long I’d last or when I was going to fess up and admit to just not being able to get anywhere on them. To keep myself (reasonably) honest, I’ve decided to check in every month (possibly each quarter if it’s too boring) to keep myself honest (as well as a bit of a lifehack to make sure people keep me honest).

Well, shockingly (even to myself), January has been really great on the setting em up and knocking em down front and I have to admit I’m super happy with my progress this month on just about all things. Very few have slipped to the side at all and overall, starting things, which I always find one of the hardest things (along with maintaining them in the fact of other things going on) is always a trick.

So, how’d I do ?

More mensch – Join a Board and Give Back
Surprisingly, this one has been going a bit slower than I would have thought though have got one serious bite after two other dead ends (and one “we really need a techie but we’ll call you a Board member” offer.). If you do know of anyone in Aus/NZ/HK/SE Asia or even back in Canada (timezones willing), please let me know. About to send a raft of emails out harassing people about who they might know in the field. BTW, if this ends up being a dead end by my BDay, I’m planning on just volunteering somewhere local.
Travel somewhere every third month
Off to a rather inauspicious start, my boss kakked both a trip to Thailand/Bali over New Year’s and Chinese New Year in HK, so I’m a little bit worried about this one despite what I said before coming on board about vacation time. I’m still planning a trip around my BDay to do some snowboarding in New Zealand and seeing Angkor Wat is a big push after we get past the Ausse election, but still trying to figure out a first not-bank-account-breaking trip somewhere between now and June. Ideas ? (and besides small little trips around Oz which I’m already on top of).
Learn to Surf
Managed to sign up, make the first lesson and, despite a near cracked rib, been back to take another swing. Bought lessons in advance so I just need to get my butt out to the beach (and avoid bluebottle stings) but felt like I made massive improvements the second time. If this lags, might get a private lesson or two as well. I do suck at this much more than I would have thought possible. Determined, I am.
Languages – Learn Mandarin
Again, this is going pretty well though wondering about the wisdom of Saturday mornings. Learning characters are also kinda killing me since my brain still likes Pinyin. Still, this does actually feel like progress though need to set aside some more study time and get some sort of flashcards program for identifying the damn characters. Anyhow, I’m impressed I’ve managed to get this far on top of last year’s lessons.
Health – Get back into shape and back to a martial art
Spent most of January checking out kung fu and capoeira clubs before finally settling on a capoeira club I liked. Was really hard getting back in there and surviving the first and second classes, but managed to hang in and do ok so far. It felt great too. Really noticing how out of shape I am, but this combined with surfing and some much better food habits (lotsa fruits and veggies, bed by 1am, only 2 cups of caffeine/coffee a day, no red meat, cooking at home more, walking to work as much as possbile) I’ve already lost weight and gained a bit of strength that I can feel. Energy levels are up to, so super happy about this one.
Get back into cooking and add to my repertoire
Surprising even me, I actually cooked at home quite a bit and really enjoyed it. Forgot how much I liked doing it (not to mention how much more money it saves than dining out). The weird thing is that most of the really good dishes I know how to cook I’ll no longer eat because they were meat ones though my amazing greek salad has been a favourite standby as well as my breakfast pita eggs (recipe posts pending). February’s goal is to do something I’ve never been able to do before which is to ace one amazing fish dish that’s local, easy, super nutritious, environmentally sustainable and nummy.
Financial Sustainability – be smarter with money
So far have managed to hold to 80/20, though seriously need to rejig the budget and do some projections to make sure that the money I’ve outlaid to get these resolutions started is sustainable (so yeah, not sure about deficit reduction). Also, haven’t done so well the first month on that second source of income besides dropping up a few plans and doing a lot of reading on startups (which is not the same as action in my opinion.
Start an online company around one of my applications
Again, if you just read the point above, did a lot of reading, did a bit of design work and thought about some other ways to do things, but again, that’s not the same as getting to an MVP and having something online. Feb needs to do better on that front. Did do some more programming though (see below) which definitely ought to make this stuff easier. BTW, if anyone knows how to set up a company completely offshore and have it integrated with payment services (so it doesn’t matter if I move countries), could use advice.
Reduce and completely offset my current carbon and environmental footprint by 200%
Surprisingly, this one has been harder than I thought despite a lot of effort and research. I’ve yet to find a good surrogate measure for what my total envionremental impact is, or at least a non-biased one (jump in here if you’ve got pointers or ideas). For example, I’m looking for some sort of calculation which can give me an idea of how much damage I’m doing by saying having 75% of my groceries Australian grown versus say 25% that come from overseas. As well as giving me an idea of what I really need to do to offset the inevitable airplane rides I’ll need to take this year. So, while the idea is one of living more sustainably (for example, I’ve dropped to 2 coffees a day (rarely store bought), walking to work (or wherever I need to go) wherever practical (though think I need one of those razor scooters), and committed to buying only Australian produce, completely eliminating red meat from my diet and only eating fish and chicken, and eating in restaurants I know have sustainable meals or sources, I’m still a long way to figuring out what my impact is, let alone offsetting it. The problem seems to be that most of the places that seem to want to help me with this are also trying to sell carbon credits at the same time, so…

Still… I feel pretty good on this front. Done lots to reduce my footprint overall and trying to do more. This month I’d like to actually get a benchmark calculation versus the start of the year and then figure out what I need to do to offset it by the end of the year as well as someone else like me. Read my “Less Impact Man” post for more details.
Keep up the good habits of 2009 – Don’t Lose My Gains
Doing pretty well on previous gains as well. Can’t say that I’ve done too badly. Just for review, the ones applicable to this month and on-going are :
- Blogging, journalling and GTDing once a week
  Definitely a checkmark here… though haven’t been journal writing as much as I should. Blog and GTDing like a fiend. GTD has definitely been easier using TaskPaper I’m finding and planning weeks rather than days. Interested to see how also using Notation Velocity makes me more efficient (especially both those apps combined with their iPhone versions and the SimpleNote service.
- A cultural outing every month
  OD-ed and went overboard on this one. Hamlet, Mindreading acts, the Sydney Festival… Jan was a blur of cultural awesomeness. February needs some planning. Had planned on Chinese New Year in Hong Kong filling this slot, but with that nixed, need to figure something out.
- Polishing development skills
  Actually, programmed a little app in my spare time (mostly) for work to handle TOIL and vacation tracking which I released last week. We’ll be open sourcing it very soon. Good practice though as I need to work on the little online business app shortly (like tonight).
- Read – at least a book a month
  Surprised myself and knocked off three books this month as well as knocking off a fourth in the first few days of Feb, so awesome for me. One being a prize winning novel instead of non-fiction as well.