Weekly Dwell #5
I read today in Shane Parrish of Farnam Street's blog the following quote:
"The most important thing you can do in 2024 is to distinguish between what is within your control and what is not — and focus all your energy on what is within your control."
This is the year of focusing on what is in my control. For me, that involves staying organized, and taking on a few new tools to help me achieve those goals. I'm planning to dive a bit more into Notion, with the help of a colleague to build out a dashboard that will assist me in improving project management for the new role I've recently taken on tracking faculty projects. I plan to utilize this tool to not only manage my to-do lists, but provide project updates as well as track progress over time. While I typically feature myself as a very organized person, this will be my first experience taking on the creation and maintenance of a dashboard - I'm excited for how it will allow me to better understand the progress I've made but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't daunting. Part of the organization process is accountability to the tools, so I am working to achieve that throughout the first few months as I figure out how this tool can best be useful for me.
Additionally, outlining my broader themes for the month will allow me to keep on track with where I am hoping to go. My overall theme for 2024 is "Growth" with supplemental related but distinct themes are gratitude, connection, power, and strength. I am hoping to grow not only in my career, but as a person this year, focusing in on a few hobbies that allow me a distinction between my work and home life. I also hope to grow a project I've been thinking about for a long time, and see if there is a way to build it to something successful. Lastly, and importantly, I do hope to grow in my career, taking on certifications that will allow me to expand my insight into how I can move projects forward and align them with key stakeholders' goals.
In 2024, I am hoping to further expand upon all the work I've done for the past few decades and become more fully involved in the type of work and world I want to be part of.