The Manager 168 - Annual Review 2021
View this email in your browser
"The Manager" Newsletter
Hi
I hope you are safe and well.
Things are slowing down here at Lambert Towers. My youngest is isolating (oh dear) and work is drawing to a close for the Christmas break.
As such, its the perfect time for my annual review.
This is a longer than usual newsletter with no "interesting links".
Last year, when I shared with you my annual review, I got lots of you lovely readers emailing me to say how much you enjoyed that edition and how you may do something similar yourself.
So, this newsletter is dedicated to this year's annual review.
Before we get cracking though I’d like to share two initiatives coming up this next couple of months.
Firstly, many of you know I’m the co-host of the stationery freaks podcast. It seems to have hit a niche and the downloads are doing well. Starting today we are doing a special 12 days of stationery goodness - an advent calendar of sorts.
Every day for 12 days there will be a mini episode of stationery joy. I do hope, if this appeals to you, that you’ll consider joining us.
Secondly, starting on January 1st, 2022, I will be publishing a pop-up newsletter about creativity on LinkedIn.
It will launch this week, but the 31 days of content will not start until 1st January. Every day there will be a nugget of content around the creative process at both work and home.
It will run for 31 days and then disappear. I’d suggest you copy the posts to read them at your leisure or join me every day. There are ways to turn notifications off also. 31 days, then boom, gone. Deleted. Closed.
Annual review
Let’s start with a sense of feeling.
How did 2021 go for me, on a personal feeling level before we dive into the data?
It felt like a good year. Despite the state of the world, I had work, we moved house and I posted plenty of content. I’ve not felt great this year health-wise, so do need to focus here in 2022, and my income has come mostly from trading my time rather than from products.
Finances
I’m not going to share exact finances, but it’s been a good year. No complaints really. Had gainful consulting work for all of the year, so happy with that.
Savings are going well and we’re in a good position to renovate our house.
Emotional and family
In a nice place here too. Didn’t journal as much as I’d like and got distracted at various points in the year from my path. I let a few people affect me more than I’d like but worked through that reasonably well.
Family life is good but worried about the toll the lockdowns are having on my kid’s mental health. Life has been weird for them for most of this year. They seem to be coping well with it, but time will tell.
One of my major goals this year was to get the boys their own rooms. My youngest two share a room and have done since my youngest was born 8 years ago. My middle kid is neat and tidy, the youngest is not.
We hoped to buy a house ready with a room each, but the market was not good, and the village has few houses of that size. So, we bought a house with potential, and have architecture plans to decide on...... then a stressful year next year as we build.
I bought more camera gear than I needed but have a studio set up now. Simplifying my gear now the studio is right. Looking forward to getting more content done next year.
Learning
I finished my CIPD HR course which was tedious but worthwhile.
I sat several courses on Domestika which were very enjoyable. Added about 25 more to my wish list..
Read several good books but put on hold many aspects of learning so I could focus on the HR course.
Content
Had a great year creatively. I didn’t publish the books I wanted to but explored my video happiness (more on that later) and thoroughly enjoyed podcasting with Helen on stationery freaks.
Parent brain went nowhere.... again, and it plagues me, but 2022 has more in store for that content brand.
Goals - how did I do?
I set many goals and many readers may find this overwhelming. It works for me and these all feed into my five-year goals, which ultimately lead to my painted picture of life.
Here is a mini review on how I did this year against my plans.
Goal 1 - Complete Red January (exercise every day for charity)
Done. Missed a couple of days due to putting my back out lifting too heavy, but lesson learned there. Broadly happy to say this one is done.
Goal 2 - Publish 50 videos to channel
Abysmal. Only published 18 videos!! And many of them did badly in terms of numbers. But I let other aspects of life get in the way. And this is a marathon when it comes to growing a YouTube channel. Some videos have thousands of views, some just a handful.
Still finding my feet with YouTube and I have plans for a slight shift this year. I also need to remind myself why I’m doing this; it is to create a body of work and a tiny legacy for my kids.
It’s also a way to learn more about video making with the potential for a complete pivot, but we’ll see. I have 250 videos to create as part of a long-term plan.
Not to worry - keep going
Goal 3 - publish 20 parent brain posts
Hmmm. Not good on this one. Next year maybe?
Goal 4 - Publish ‘Take a day off’ book
The draft is done. Need to review and get it proofed. I expect this to be live in January.
90% complete
Goal 5 - Publish ‘Zero to keynote’ book
Mostly written. Pivoting on this next year. More coming soon.
70% complete
Goal 6 - Publish ‘Squirrels who ruined everything’ book
I may have been slightly ambitious publishing three books in a year.
I’ve written a lot of this, but it will take some dedicated time to get this finished.
40% complete
Goal 7 - Finish HR course
The course was 14 months long so bridged two years.
I had no control over my results just my effort. I maxed on this, which is why I didn’t complete many of the other goals but passed with flying colours. Which was a surprise as I disagreed with most of it.
100% Done
Goal 8 - Run a local zero to keynote
On hold due to lockdown and it makes sense to publish the book first.
This is essentially a meet-up about presenting. Pushing out two years as next year is looking full.
Goal 9 - organise a conference
I was programme chair for ExpoQA so was hoping to complete this. The current state of the world put an end to this and next year I can’t make the dates.
Not done. Void.
Goal 10 - speak at two conferences
Done. I spoke / did video talks at five this year. Need to do fewer next year.
Goal 11 - Publish 20 stationery freaks podcasts
Done! I’m proud of all of them and the listeners and subscribers are growing.
Very happy.
Goal 12 - Publish “The Manager” newsletter each week
I think I missed three weeks this year due to travel, moving house etc but happy with that. I hope you’ve enjoyed it and are looking forward to 2022.
Done
Goal 13 - Learn how to photograph and share on Instagram
A vague goal for sure but I sat three courses about photography on Domestika and put the learning into practice. Happy with how my skills are moving ahead and enjoying the learning process.
If you're interested I'm on Insta.
Goal 14 - Stop using social media and focus on stocks
Stocks are things that last the test of time. Flows are social media. I was using social media more than creating stocks. I was flowing more than creating stocks in the early part of last year.
I've done well on this.
I’ve pretty much avoided Twitter all year. I only go on Instagram for 15 minutes each day. I still post to LinkedIn occasionally.
Next year I plan to reduce LinkedIn usage a little more. Did ok with this goal but could do more.
Goal 15 - Stick to my fitness routine
Didn’t do so well on this. Had spurts of sticking to my routine but didn’t do well.
This needs to be my focus for 2022 as I feel weaker and older.
Goal 16 - Set up Etsy store as an experiment
Did this and sold some stuff but wasn't worth the effort in the end.
I do have plans for this next year. The store is there, just need to fine tune my offerings. Big plans for this.
It was a worthwhile experiment though and learned a lot about this platform.
Goal 17 - Declutter
Did well on this. Another vague goal as it’s not measurable but I have a minimalist wardrobe of clothes, have parted with loads of things I own and am reducing my video production gear. I’ve got rid of many books and old bits and bobs.
It’s tricky with three boys but I’m happy with my own efforts.
New goals added throughout the year
Goal 18 - 31 days of creativity pop-up newsletter
Written all the content - as mentioned, will post in January 2022.
Goal 19 - 100 squats a day for charity
Completed this in November. Saw it advertised and thought, why not? Raised a couple of hundred quid. Could have done more but I always feel bad asking people to sponsor me.
Goal 20 - Grow vegetables in our new greenhouse
Done. Grew some veg. Enjoyed them. Was harder than expected. We will be getting rid of the greenhouse next year as part of our house plans. Took up way more time than I thought, but those tomatoes were delicious.
Finishing up
As you can see, I completed a lot of things but also missed the mark on others. I’m very happy with what I got done though.
I need to spend less time on work that adds no value and more focused energy on those bigger projects. The videos are important to me, so I need to get cracking with those. Parent brain is still bothering me, but I plan to take my time with that next year.
I’m very happy with how the year has gone but I also need to get my health back as a priority.
Many of these goals will simply move on to 2022 but I have a couple more to add to it. Many of these, like the videos and podcasts, are part of a longer 5-year plan, so I’ll just keep ploughing ahead.
I hope this has been helpful and useful for you - to see why a reflection on the year is so important for me. This annual review is a great process for me to go through as it helps me think through what I am capable of and how my year has gone.
I’ll be setting goals next week and tidying up my painted picture and 5-year goals.
With that let me know whether this is something you do and how you do it. Always keen to make this process even more effective and learn from others.
I hope this has been as helpful as last year's annual review.
Have a great week - next week’s newsletter will be the last one until the new year.
Big plans for 2022 with this newsletter!
Have fun.
Rob
Support Cultivated Management
Thank you for reading this week's edition of The Manager.
This newsletter is a labour of love. If you enjoyed this newsletter, then please consider supporting me:
Cultivated Management is better with friends - share the love by sharing this newsletter. Subscribe page is here.
Subscribe to my YouTube channel for weekly insights
Consider sitting my Communication Super Power Workshop
Maybe you'd like to buy a book?
Thanks
Rob..