I’ve thought a lot today about what I want to include in this post. I realized pretty quickly that I have one encompassing goal for 2008:
Less planning, more doing.
2007, in my opinion, was a year spent figuring out who I am, who I want to be, and how I want to get there. I constructed a bunch of systems – both personal and public – to organize what I do in a more easy-to-understand way. The prime example? Collage. I launched Collage a little less than a year ago as a place to keep track of everything I publish, mark, and discuss online. Today, about 90% of my public work is included in Collage in an easy-to-read (and subscribe-able) format. I’m really proud of it.
I want 2008 to be a year of advancement instead of planning. I want to take the systems and practices I constructed last year and move forward. As it stands right now, I’m in a pretty good place to do just that.
Don’t get me wrong, I intend to plan when appropriate. In fact, I’m planning two new projects right now.
The first project is a new blog I intend to launch soon called Another New World. I’ve always debated whether Two Cents and a Thousand Words should be the random collection of personal tidbits it is today or whether I should focus a bit more. I realized last year (largely due to my columns in The Maine Edge) that I really do enjoy focusing on a topic. I tried for months to figure out what the focus of the blog should be; I wanted to find my true passion. I realized after some time that my passion in technology has always been looking at what’s new, reflecting on how we reached this point, and seeing how it may affect what’s next. ANeW will cover that. I’ll have more details when it launches, of course. I was originally planning to launch it today, but I just felt as though it wasn’t ready yet. I’m not setting a launch date now, but I hope to have it up fairly soon.
The other project is a new service by Sephone (and more notably, the Sephone Development Teamâ„¢) that we’re currently storyboarding. I can’t go into much detail about it right now, but it has the possibility of transforming Sephone (at least partially) into something new. It’s also more in line with my personal interests and philosophies than anything else we’ve ever done. We hope to have it ready by Q2 ’08, but it’s at a very tentative stage right now. I’ll update you as more details emerge.
As I said before, I’m in a good place right now to move forward. I’m already trying some new things this year; I’ll let you know about them as soon as they’re ready to go. Some of the projects I’ve done in the past may receive a little less attention as I carve out my ideal “brand.” But with a good understanding of who I want to be, a good lineup of tools to get me there (including my amazing new iPod touch – thank you Mom and Dad!), and some great ideas waiting for their chance to shine, 2008 will hopefully be a very fun and inspiring year.