2023 - Gaining Focus and Bringing Ideas to Life

At work, I am a big believer in “you get what you measure”, but I am also very aware of the undesired consequences that can arise from measuring the wrong things (see The Hawthorne Effect if you’re that way inclined!). For example, I know that setting a goal of ‘finished projects’ is utterly wrong for me. It will lead to inevitable failure and disappointment. I have to embrace my multipotentialite nature and measure something that will solve the original problem. I want to hobby more than I did last year because it wasn’t enough. So I am going to measure the number of days on which I paint (or otherwise work on miniatures). Doesn’t matter how long I hobby for (because no minimum will encourage me to sit at the desk, and I know that if I do sit then I am likely to stay a while).

Outcome goals are easy for me to fail, whereas process goals are easier for me to achieve, and will move me towards the desired outcomes.

So the goal is simply: hobby on as many days as possible, and the key performance indicator (the measure) is # days hobbied. 

That’s all. I don’t care if the projects are finished or not, but if I have progressed them all significantly, and hobbied significantly more than last year then I will call that a win. Soft target is 188 days i.e. more days hobbied than not.

I also know that my multipotentialite nature will mean that I should naturally cycle between projects. So by having the projects I want to focus on readily to hand, in theory they should all get worked on without having to set any other targets or goals. We will see!

As I sit here on the 8th January, I have done some painting on all 8 days. So far so good!