Category: Productivity & Effectiveness

As a long-time executive assistant and project coordinator, I continually search for ways to eek the most out of my time. This is my collection of tips and tools to master your time.

Thoughts on Yearly Goals and Resolutions

Carl Setzer2 Comments
close up photo of yearly planner beside a pen

A blogger I respect, Pooja with Life’s Fine Whine, posted a few days ago a review of 2025: How Many Of My 20025 Goals Did I Keep? For most of my blogging tenure, I have not posted such things. The closest I can find is this one, from 2015, “Growing Healthier“, where I express my concern with my weight (Follow Up: I was successful with getting my weight down 20 lbs, though I recognize that I have more work to do).

With that, I’m wondering if I might find some value in doing so. For instance, have any of you found the public accountability helpful? How many of you have posted either your yearly plans or an evaluation of your year’s results per plan? I do make plans and evaluate things, so creating a post would be relatively easy.

Anyway, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Today’s Bit o’ Wisdom

Carl Setzer

I liked this quote, but thought I’d add to it. Yes, “surrounding yourself with people who fight for you in rooms you aren’t in” is a powerful way to build up your psyche. However, I see something even more powerful. Surround yourself with people you would fight for in rooms you ARE in. And, a corollary, BE the person who fights for those people.

Thinking about effectiveness

Carl Setzer1 Comment

I came across this quote from Steve Jobs this morning:

“Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.” — Steve Jobs

I’ve found answering the question “what do I say no to?” the hardest. Whether it’s because I loathe disappointing people, or simply letting fascinating ideas go, saying “no” is highly challenging for me.

What about you? Does “no” flow easily of of your tongue? How do you go about de-selecting work? Oru time is limited, so it’s our focus that’s golden. How do you protect that?

Recommended Reading: In search of kindness by Richard Branson

Carl Setzer
Richard Branson and Eve

Richard Branson is a leader I’ve looked up to for years. And his recent blog post adds to that:

In search of kindness – Richard Branson

I deeply value the idea of “look for the best in people”. And how that leads into “…embrace failure as essential to our journey…”. If you want people to push boundaries, to innovate, you need to accept that failure will come of it. Build processes that maximize the learnings from that. Then move on.

One idea I’ve held for years is simply “it’s more powerful to build people up than to tear them down”. This mindset doesn’t seem to be highly valued right now, but I think that it holds true. And it is how I lead.

Welcome to February!

Carl Setzer2 Comments
woman explaining position to african american husband

So, we’ve made it through the first month of 2025! Congrats so far!

As I’ve noted earlier, I’ve lost a lot of my energy in January to sickness. This week I’m finally feeling solidly on the mend (though my cough is still annoying, but every day a bit less so).

I’ve spent this morning weeding through a backlog of email, and getting a few neglected tasks into my planner. I’ve also been able to do a bit of edification type reading.

This morning’s email about Complaining from Seth Godin struck me. I occasionally struggle with it, even though I find it (mostly) a waste of energy. Seth made some good points about it’s purpose.

  • “The obvious reason to complain is to make a change happen.”
    • That one is often not really the point. Though, if it is the goal, we need to “…focus those complaints where they’ll do the most good, and be prepared to do the work to have an impact”.
  • He does list of other reasons, which is worth the minute or two it takes to read his post.

He also points out that complaining is the “evil cousin” of whining. And that whining is pretty wasteful in terms of effectiveness. Both are often simply functions of the entitled mentality.

His last point, which I’m going to embrace, is ““The best way to complain is to make things better.” At least, if positive change is your goal. If it’s simply to deflect blame, conceal fear, or anything else, then, well, go and do you.

Do you have strategies to keep complaining/whining at bay?

    Good Morning, Everyone

    Carl Setzer 
    tell me what it is
    that brings joy into your life?
    fill your days with that

    May your day fill you with delight and joy.

    Quote of the day: everyone’s contribution is important

    Carl Setzer

    One thing that I need to do better: value my contributions. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of “my work does nothing”. This mindset sucks life away. Contributes to depressing destructiveness.

    Remember: you have value. Your work matters. Your life matters.

    My Plan

    Carl Setzer2 Comments
    two women holding pen

    As we approach the middle of February, and the middle of Winter Quarter, I think it’s a good time to talk about plans.

    I have one more quarter: spring 2022. My goal is to land a new role promptly after that. More specifically, late June/early July. I intend to focus on project manager/coordinator or systems analyst roles. Though I’ve spent the past two years focused on learning web development, I see my greatest value add is in the convergence of that with my project and team coordination history. I know the language of the different project stakeholders, from financial to operational to technical. Being able to keep disparate groups of people engaged, on the proverbial “same page”, is something of a superpower. One that I’m looking forward to using.

    Skill Acquisition

    Carl Setzer

    I was chatting with one of the baristas at my favorite local coffee shop earlier today. I like how she described her current, I guess I’d call it “focus”: the acquisition of skills. She’s gained barista skills, store manager skills, she’s now working on hair-dressing skills. There was far more to that, but you get the drift.

    This describes much of my career life. I’ve loved learning, new skills, new business types, new business functions (you can see the range of work I’ve done over on my resume). I relish breadth of knowledge. However, I did get to a point where I wanted depth, to become an expert in something. Much of my mental effort over the past few years has been seeking that something.

    As I love so much, and focus requires denying, saying “no”, this has been a painful challenge for me. But I’m making progress. I do have something of a focus now. Something.

    When I started down this web-development path, I assumed that at the end I’d be good at making websites and, well, then I’d make websites. Oh, my goodness, no…it’s been far more than that. I’ve studied data systems, systems analysis and design, graphic design, programming, project managment…so many things, and I would argue I have explored databases and system analysis in more depth than I have HTML, CSS and JavaScript. So, even while refining my focus, my opportunities have expanded.

    Back to my friend, and to anyone else out there in a similar place: there’s value in focus. Maybe, to start, just start compiling a list of what you want to study/learn. First, having a list is the first step in a plan. And having a written list makes it much more likely to happen. Also, you’ll start to see patterns. Within that will be the first inklings of a focus.

    I’m working on the same. I’ve started journaling on paper again (I’m using a Leuchtturm 1917, if you’re interested). And that’s where I’m working on this sort of thing. Paper engages the brain differently, which I find important. It also slows me down (I type pretty darn fast). Right now, I’m focusing on the kinds of work I want to do. Do I want to code? Do I want to design? Do I want to dig into data? Manage projects? Figuring out these elements, I can then craft a plan to achieve them and build the next phase of my career.

    Have you done anything like this? What do you think of this notion? Let me know!

    A Cloudy Summer’s Day

    Carl Setzer
    a cloudy summer’s day haiku
    cloud's gentleness
hints of healing rain
summer's respite

    I took this photo this morning after hearing of the possibility of rain. Haven’t seen any yet.

    I decided to experiment with animated text. This was created with Canva. What do you think?