That was January

We all talked about our objectives back at the start of the year. Just like we did last year. And then we all moved on.

Not this time! I’m going to hold you all to account. I want to know how you did. Not the detail, just a general feeling please.

I’ve just finished my month end accounting. I break it down into three areas:

Income

Did I hit or exceed my plan? Yes I exceeded it.

Expenses

Did I stay within the budget I set myself? Yes I did, by quite a long way.

Objectives

How did I do against all the annual objectives I wrote about? This is where I had a problem. I have 13 pretty specific objectives which relate to elements of this blog, that I want to achieve by the end of 2010. I broke them down into monthly objectives and compared those against actuals, this morning.

I failed

Of the 13 I achieved just 5. Another 4 were close, but the remaining 4 were well short of what I wanted.

As you can see, it didn’t have an impact on earnings, but if all these smaller elements don’t grow as I want them to, it will cause a financial problem later in the year.

I know exactly where I need to redouble my efforts during February, and that’s the benefit of checking progress every month without fail.

So, what about you? How was January? Did you achieve what you wanted? Can I help with any of your objectives?

Some other posts:

1/ Review – 1 Shopping Cart

2/ How to create and use a “Pull-together” list

3/ Actually, you can follow thousands on Twitter

Mike Robertson said:

I’m not necessarily a blogger by nature, but it’s something I want to improve upon. In my field, becoming a great communicator is a must.

Beyond Blogging is a fantastic resource for bloggers new and old. I love the background information on all the various authors, and it’s really motivated me to take my blog to the next level.

Thanks for the great resource!