resolutions – Page 4 – Christopher Wink

2010 House Resolutions

Like my personal resolutions, I’m also setting up month-by-month priorities for my moving and developing my new worn house into a home.

JANUARY: Finish my office and bedroom — spackle, patch and paint
FEBRUARY: Finish the back bedroom for renting — spackle, patch, paint and fix closet
MARCH: Massively overhaul kitchen — with help, total renovation
APRIL: Move furniture and other extra materials from dad’s house to mine
MAY: Update dining room — sand, spackle, patch, paint, new light fixture
JUNE: Replace windows — with energy efficient models
JULY: Siding, roof and gutters
AUGUST: Living room — sand, spackle, patch, paint and decorate
SEPTEMBER: Host a housewarming; Seal and clean front of house
OCTOBER: Basement — organize, create workshop and laundry space, clean and partially finish
NOVEMBER: Bathroom — complete renovation
DECEMBER: Hardwood floors

Personal 2010 Resolutions

For the second year in a row, I aimed to both write and publish month-by-month resolutions. I find it’s a great way to create smaller goals that are easier to track, hold accountable and complete.

JANUARY: Sustainable income
FEBRUARY: Get a housemate
MARCH: Get over my bicycle being stolen and prepare another, flat-tired and dirty bicycle for riding.
APRIL: Move furniture and other extra materials from dad’s house to mine
MAY: Host yard sale
JUNE: Finish cross country journal
JULY: Get family history online
AUGUST: Go on a trip
SEPTEMBER: Host a housewarming
OCTOBER: Stand-up comedy open-mic
NOVEMBER: Take stock of sports cards
DECEMBER: Reflect and prioritize goals for 2011

But first: yesterday I shared my best read posts of 2009. Because ultimately I’m a freelancer, I thought I ought to share my best clips of the year, if only to satisfy my concern that 2009 was all for naught.

See my portfolio here.

Meaning they must have met a good portion of the four reasons a freelancer would write a story, below I list the best one or two clips from each calendar month of 2009:

Continue reading My best clips of 2009

Professional Resolutions for 2010

Update: Today, Dec. 19, 2010, I’ve gone back and looked at my goals. It’s interesting to see a split and failure to finish most of these. Three of these resolutions I succeeded in meeting definitively and met in spirit a fourth; I outright failed at three, and two became un-applicable as the year wore on.

I also created personal resolutions and goals to manage on my new home in 2010, but with a new year, I want to set goals for my professional self in 2010.

After all, 2009 was a brutal year, so 2010 should be plenty better.

Stabilize my income — Update: I did that in January 2010 in an unexpected way. It’s varied wildly throughout 2009. One way or another, I want to focus it.
A new, solid pitch at least once a week — Update: Did that until I got the above mentioned job. (to buttress other work and those fed to me)
Contact a new client at least once a month — Update: Did that until I got the above mentioned job. In writing, editing, multimedia or other
100 RSS subscribers for this site, up from 60 today — Update: Nope.
1,500 Twitter followers, from the 960 today (I hope a plurality of them can offer value in connecting to sources, ideas and content) — Update: nope, though, at nearly 1400, I got closer.
Distribute remaining 600 business cards — Update: Nope. I still have more than 400.
Bring Technically Philly to profitability — Update: By way of its parent company, we did do that, as I’ve come on full-time.
Earn grant funding for real journalism — Update: Yes, for both NEast and Technically Philly.
Write regularly on this site — Update: check! It’s a place to improve my web writing and connect with audiences. I want to perhaps write a little less but make the product more meaningful.

2009 New Year’s Resolutions

I’ve decided to do my New Year’s Resolutions by month this year for two reasons. For one, I can accomplish more with more specific, better timed goals. I also can look back at more concrete accomplishments than broad year-long hopes.

They are simpler but better appreciated, I think. I also intend to start them in the signified month, but, if they carry-over, to continue them throughout the year.

Below, see what I’m hoping to do, month by month.

Continue reading 2009 New Year’s Resolutions

Professional Resolutions for 2009

It’s a new year, so it’s time for resolutions. Here are my professional ideas, as I shared some more specific personal ones here.

Here are a few I’ve been thinking about:

Write: I want to write more here, journal more, more establish my freelancing career, get pieces into big newspapers and magazines and be part of meaningful journalism. Most important, I want to think I am a better writer, reporter and journalist a year from now than I am now.
Technology: I need to toe more into the obvious steps of tech, multimedia and web design. I want to invest time in using my point and click camera, editing video and audio and move this website maybe to a self-hosted version without the wordpress.com.
I want to make $30,000: Making that pre-tax total would mean I made more than I did as a post-graduate intern and allow me to save a little bit of money. I could do this freelancing, but I also might look for some writing and journalism jobs.
Make a book out of WDSTL: I created a lot of content with the cheap travel video podcast while backpacking in Europe, so I’d like to do something more with it.
I want to say ‘I don’t know’ more: All of us get trapped into making educated guesses and generally trying to answer questions or offer opinions for matters we don’t know. I want to stop that. If I don’t know something, I want to
Frame clips and diploma: I have some great newspaper clips and that diploma I paid so much for, so I’d like to display them to show them off a bit and be reminded of how hard I worked for them.
Update portfolio: I have a print portfolio that I’d like to update.

Those are my clearest objectives for 2009. What are yours?