Quarterly Blah-Blah-Blah with Goals, Benchmarking and Other Boring Stuff...

Greetings Hivetopia!

So, we have arrived at October 1st, which means a brand-new quarter and the end of the 3rd quarter and all that good stuff.

As I recall, it was @lukestokes who once upon a time remarked that these blogs we keep can also be used to keep track of our own progress... it doesn't always have to be about creating content for other people's consumption.

Fall harvest in our garden!

The (alleged) immutability of the blockchain is such that this might actually be the best place to keep an ongoing record of our goals and ambitions... and it's certainly safer than a file on random thumb drive we might lose, or a Word doc on hard drive that could get fried by the next electrical storm.

Goals and Ambitions: Spelling it Out vs "Just Thinking it"

The thing about actually writing things out — both where we have* been, and where we are hoping TO go — is that it ends up serving a dual purpose.

On one hand, it's a little more formal and "real" than just thinking something along the lines of "I'd like to XYZ," which tends to be subject to memory slippage and wishful thinking, as time goes by...

... but also, it forces you to sit your ass down and actually clarify what they hall it is you'd like to accomplish, and be a little more realistic about what it takes to get there.

In fairness, I should tip the hat to @jongolson whose #MyHiveGoals initiative encouraged me to give it a try, back at the start of July. Thanks Jon!

Part of what we also learn from this process is to set goals that make sense. What that means is that we often set goals that are too vague, like "write a book." Better to talk about "number of words" or "number of chapters," or whatever the heck it is that turns our respective cranks.

Looking Back: How Did it Go?

First, a look at how the 3rd quarter went:

Write 100 new blog posts and articles across all platforms I use.

SUCCESS! I actually created 134 pieces of content during the 3rd quarter. Interestingly enough, just 48 (35.8%) of those were on Hive.

Reach 6,500 HP staked here on Hive.

SUCCESS! I ended the quarter with 6,697.429 HivePower so I made my target, with an extra 197.429HP in the bank!

Revisit all my old blogs and either revitalize them, or shut them down.

IN PROGRESS. That was a very large goal, once I determined just how much of a "facelift" each of the old sites would need. However, I did succeed in figuring out the "keepers" from the "losers."

Create 1,000 new listings across all my eBay and other sales accounts.

EPIC FAIL! The actual tally was about 300 new listings and the fact that I am using the word "about" also tells me that my approach to even tracking this metric was inadequate. The goal was also too ambitious, running opposite trying to update blogs... my intentions were good though: I was trying to take advantage of eBay's Covid-19 incentive of offering sellers free listings.

Finish my bookkeeping loose ends for both 2018 and 2019.

INCOMPLETE/IN PROGRESS. This one bogged down in a good applied lesson about setting goals and benchmarking: Not having a good grip on the scope of a task before making it a goal. Turned out there was actually hundreds of hours of data entry involved in that one...

Finish "Phase II" of converting our lawn into food growing space.

IN PROGRESS. Got a little over halfway done on that one, and we even managed to grow some radishes, spinach, carrots and a few straggler beets in the space. I'm not displeased, but I probably chewed off more than I could handle.

Looking Forward: 4th Quarter Goals

It believe it's a pretty important part of goal setting to set our goals "in context."

For example, this is the 4th quarter, and if you have a family and live in the USA you should probably recognize that your capacity to get things done will be reduced between Thanksgiving and the turn of the New Year. Similarly, because of the time of the year, you can be a little more ambitious with indoor-related goals than with outdoor-related goals because the latter can be adversely affected by weather — over which you have no control.

What that firmly in mind:

By December 31st, it is my Intention to:

• Write 150 Blog Posts and Articles across all platforms I use
• Create 600 new listings across all my eBay and other sales accounts
• Reach 7,500 HivePower staked here on the Denmarkguy Hive account
• Create and finish at least 50 new Alchemy Stones
• Unpack/process at least 5 boxes from my large office closet
• Have our 2020 bookkeeping as close to current as possible by the end of the year

And I think I'm gonna leave it at that and allow the previous goals to become "floaters" because they were poorly defined, even though they still need doing.

And so, that's the first post of the 4th quarter. Thanks for reading, and have a great one!

How about YOU? Do you like setting goals and then checking back to see how you did? Or are you more of a "go with the flow" person? Have you any goals for this 4th quarter of 2020? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

---

Greetings bloggers and social content creators! This article was created via PeakD, an application that's part of the Hive Social Content Experience. If you're a blogger, writer, poet, artist, vlogger, musician or other creative content wizard, come join us! Hive is a little "different" because it's not run by a "company;" it operates via the consensus of its users and your content can't be banned, censored, taken down or demonetized. And that COUNTS for something, in these uncertain times! So if you're ready for the next generation of social content where YOU retain ownership and control, come by and learn about Hive and make an account!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly and uniquely for this platform — NOT cross posted anywhere else!)
Created at 20201001 21:38 PDT
0116/1343