Reviewing the situation . . .
There are moments in every project when we have to take stock. Suddenly, we have details evey where, probably in a big mess. Then, we ask ourselves, where exactly are we going?
It’s so tempting to walk away. And, if you work for someone else, it’s easy to blame them for blocking you in! The truth is that if you worked for yourself, you would reach the same point. But this time you would sort out your crisis of confidence for yourself.
An example of rebuilding your own confidence
Let me give you an example of my blog. Well, a blog is just a blog, you say. That is true. But if you are a knowledge worker, your blog is important. It shows off your work and it gives you critical Google juice!
As we get better at blogging, we have to fine tune the content and look. And we have to get a bigger bang for our buck – or better return for the time we put it!
So let’s use this as an example!
Last unsuccessful time
The first time I tried to tidy up my blog, my project was not a success! I just started with the list of posts and tried editing and re-classifing posts one by one. It was bitty and it was horrible.
This successful time
This time, I began differently.
- I sketched out what I want my blog to look like on a dummy server on my computer. I selected 5 topics that I think will be important in the next two years. I had something to aim at.
- Then I used some basic psychology. I began with old categories that had few entries, reread the posts, tidying them up a little, and sometimes added updates and some better tags.
- Then I reclassified the post into 1 of my 5 new categories. Sometimes it was hard to choose but to choose one out of 5 is not too much of a tax on working memory and doesn’t get overwhelming.
- When the category was empty, I deleted it! Reward ~ I can see progress as the old list of categories grows shorter quickly!
- Finally, I Stumbled my old posts, getting some basic traffic and learning a little about Stumbleupon as I went along.
I am enjoying my work!
- The work is going smoothly ~ I can see what I am doing as I do it!
- I am seeing progress!
- I do it whenever I have a break from other projects.
It’s not done though. I have 500 posts to sort and at a pace of 5 a day, which is a cracking pace, the job will take me three months. Is that too much to ask to sort myself out?
Maybe the trick is not to wait for your boss to sort out your job. Couldn’t you begin to sort out your job yourself?
Here are four basic steps
- Write out your perfect job description (and keep it private of course)
- Without disturbing your current job, take little pockets of your job (my small categories), and polish up those areas to match your future job description
- Submit those improvements to your boss for his admiration and gratitude (:-) being realistic of course what is worth someone elses admiration and gratitude.
- And plug on! You know where you are going!
The trick though is to write the perfect job description. That’s the hard part. Upcoming. Turn over! That’s next!
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