New Year’s resolutions are terrible because we are not a different person on January 1 (or 2) than we are in the last days of December, or November or June. They are also terrible because we over-estimate what we can do in a day, and under-estimate what we can do in a year. Today is […]
Tag: goals
Whose Expectations are Those, Anyway?

This is part 1 of a series of blog posts based on a talk I prepared called Successfully Derailed Product. It’s about the ways in which we define and talk about “success” influence what – and how – we build. There used to be a joke at a company I worked for that went […]

This year, my speaking goals were: Give a talk I’m proud of. Try something new. This came about because at the end of 2016 I realised I had (nearly) met the goals I set for myself, but I hadn’t really enjoyed the process. I stripped things back and tried something different. My guideline for this […]
The Goals Spreadsheet

At the end of the year, my coach had me make a list of 40 goals for 2017. They range from the very professional to the very personal. From the serious to the purely for fun. Of course, I broke them into sections and put them in a spreadsheet. At the start of each month I […]
2016 Speaking and 2017 Goals

Last year I set myself some speaking goals. They were: Six talks. Speak on three continents. Give a keynote. How did I do? Six Talks My idea was “no more than six talks” and whether or not I adhered to it depends on your definition of “talk”. I gave 6 conference talks: Try!Swift Tokyo, OSCON, […]

A year ago Chiu-Ki and I met up in Copenhagen and decided to start a newsletter about public speaking in tech. Technically Speaking has been going ever since. We’ve learned a bunch about speaking (of course!) which we’ve shared with our readers. But also about running a sustainable project, and (gasp!) self promotion. A year in, […]
Getting a Jump on the Day

I’ve determined that 6am workout classes are the way to prioritize and fit in exercise. As a result, I’ve discovered that there’s something quite depressing about oversleeping and thinking “because I did not get up at 5:30 I am not going to fit in everything I want to do today”. But on Monday I made […]

Mid- way through June, I paused, and wondered – why was I focusing on little things during a month of big things? I hope that end-of-May-Cate realized that this was something that June-Cate would need to stay sane. This month’s focus gave me permission to make time for small, unimportant (but important to me), things […]

This time last year, I made a list of what I wanted to happen in 2010. The goals I set were helpful and I met (or nearly met) most of them but next year everything is changing – I don’t know what goals I should be setting. How do I set professional goals for a […]
Giving Up On Goals

I’m not doing my weekly review at the moment. At first it was in part because I was ashamed to admit that I hadn’t yet unpacked my apartment (it’s done now). But also, I showed up to the coffee shop to work with my mentee and something exciting had happened to her, and she said, […]