Today is Groundhog Day!

Well, actually it’s Easter, and I am at the Tavern preparing to serve a couple of hundred people our buffet. But since I can write this in advance, and you can read it at your leisure, here we go!

It is time to review my Third Period Goals, then give a brief outline of what I have planned for the Fourth Period (5 April to 4 May 2010).

The Third Period was a little more challenging than I had expected. Most of my goals and projects that I had initially planned revolved around my own home business, rather than my work at the Tavern:

Period 3 – Due 4 April

1. Maintain exercise program – use Twitter or Facebook for accountability?
2. Read 1 book per week
3. Create 1 free product (Like the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People in Context)
4. Work on the Productivity Book

   • Write Conclusion
   • Send out for copy-editing
   • Prepare cover art
   • Contact possible reviewers
   • Brainstorm freebies and bonuses
   • Create outline for story
   • Brainstorm characters/roles
   • Map out basic plot
   • Start writing!
5. Brainstorm ideas for new training courses

Unfortunately, most of my work and accomplishments are not on this list. I got quite a bit of work done on assignments that “magically appeared” on my Kanban Board at the Tavern, but this list suffered a bit, especially the book.

So, here are the results:

Exercise program – “C”, I managed to get motivated to make this a part of my morning routine, sorta. I did the exercises at least 3 days a week, not as much as I would have liked – but it was an improvement over the previous period.

Read 1 Book per Week – “A”, I was able to complete reading 5 books this period (Moby Dick is still in progress). They were:

• The Non-Designer’s Design Book – a very good read, referred to me by my colleague David Seah. I learned some good tips about designing text layouts that I can put to use on some product ideas that I have coming up later this year.
• A Spectacle of Corruption – Historical fiction about election processes in 18th century England (much more interesting that that description sounds!)
• Prague – a twisty-turny novel about American and Canadian ex-pats living in Budapest in 1991. No one even goes to Prague, they just sit around in clubs and bars talking about going there. I should not have finished this one…kindof a waste.
• The Dante Club – more historical fiction, this time Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes and James Russell Lowell team up with 19th-century publisher J.T. Fields to catch a serial killer in post-Civil War Boston. Highly recommended.
• Rework – a “business” book, Jason Fried and David Hansson describe the surprising philosophies at the core of 37signals’ success. Well, let me tell you I am quite inspired to put them into practice. Highly recommended. A full review will be published later this week.
• Moby Dick – the eternal classic. I haven’t read this in years so I thought I’d go for a sail with Ishmael and Ahab.

Create 1 free product - “A”, This was a decent success, as I created the new newsletter for the Knowledge Exchange Summit. If you have not signed up, well, you will have another chance this Thursday as we will be meeting again to discuss our businesses and share best practices.

Work on the Productivity Book - “F”, This is where I get embarrassed, because I have not done a single thing on this project. Primarily because I did not schedule time to work on it, I did not do any of the research I wanted to do, and I am sorta scared of doing it.
I did not follow any of my own advice, tactics, or procedures. This means, of course, that the book project is going to get moved to the front of the line for the next period. Importance and Urgency have both increased for this and it deserves to get the attention.

Brainstorm ideas for new training courses – I did this at the beginning of the period, and will be sharing these later.

Third Period in Review

I would say that I did okay this period, perhaps a “C”? I definitely learned that I need to work smarter on planning/scheduling time for working on my book, or it will never get written.

My journaling was much better this period, and I am looking forward to managing my time at the Tavern better. Now that the good weather is here (to stay?) I will be adding morning walks to my exercise program. I also invested some time is setting concrete deadlines for my actions and goals outlined for this period, returning to the important words: Focus and Discipline.

Which leads into planning for the next period:

Period 4 – Due 5 May

1. Create 1 free product (please contact me if you have any ideas for products that you would like to see)
2. Create 1 salable product
3. Maintain exercise program
4. Read 1 book per week – Books on the list:
   • Making Ideas Happen (I actually got a jump-start on this one Saturday)
   • Race Through the Forest
   • Remarkable Leadership
   • Blind Justice (I can’t read only business books!)
5. Market and launch e-book, real book – This obviously must be changed!
   • Create outline for story
   • Brainstorm characters/roles
   • Map out basic plot
   • Start writing!
6. Prep for SOBCon – this trip to Chicago is canceled for me, there is just too much going on at the Tavern that weekend, I cannot get away.

There we are. Ready to rock-and-roll. Later this week I will post about my plans for writing the book, and how the research is going.
In the meantime, do you have any ideas for products that you would like to see as a free offering? Leave a comment.

The following are Amazon Affiliate links to the books I read this period that I think you may be interested in:

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