HOW TO EAT AN ELEPHANT - Goals for 2016

In place of Teapot Tuesday (no recipients this week), I thought I'd introduce you to a cool book by VJ Schultz.  The book is called "How to Eat an Elephant" (Available on Amazon)

I have found that most 'creative' people are either OCD, ADD or a blend of both. We like to know where are tools are (even if they are in a state of chaos) and we have as my hubby lovingly calls 'oh shiny things' moments. 

VJ's book helps reign in those moments. If nothing else, you have them written down to refer to when you need to find your ground again so that you can move forward.

The book is broken down into 3 sections:

1 - Elephants 

      These are the (no more than 3) major goals you want to accomplish this year

2 - Monthly

      You take each of your goals and break them down into 'monthly' steps

3 -  Weekly

      Take those 'monthly' steps and cut them up into weekly, 'doable' goals. 

My Elephants for 2016 revolve around 3 areas of my life:

Author/ writing

Creative

Health

If you want to know about my 'Author/ writing' Elephant, you can check out the post on my Author Blog - Angela Drake

My Creative Goals for 2016 encompass three things:

Participating in more Challenges

Keep up with All Occasion Card Challenge (I host)

Keep up with Christmas Card Challenge

These are not huge elephants but they do require time and planning. 

I've already begun the 'more challenges' by taking part in the Tim Holtz 2016 tag challenge. Once I get things in a routine, I would like to pick up at least one or two more challenges from other blogs. 

The All Occasion Caror AOCC and Christmas Card  or CCC challenges are part of the Splitcoast Stampers forums. Both of these are 'encouragement' forums. The AOCC is a reminder to get those birthday/ anniversary cards made AND mailed in each month.  For the CCC, we estimate about how many Christmas cards/ tags we'll need for the coming Christmas season then divide that by 11 months - giving us the number we need to make each month. This enables us to have all of our cards ready for mailing and tags ready for packages before Thanksgiving. I've accomplished this goal two years out of the many I participated in and I have to tell you, you will thank yourself if you join and follow through with this challenge.

Once I pinpointed what my 'elephants' were, then VJ takes you through breaking each one down by month:

JANUARY:

Finish the big stuff in the studio

Take part in Tim Holtz Challenge

Research 3 other blog challenges for future months

Set up the AOCC threads for the rest of the year.

From there, we break each month down into the individual weeks:

I failed to do this part. I got side-tracked by the holidays and January is almost over. But with good reason. Bob always comes first and since he was gone for the holidays, the first three weeks of January have been our Christmas vacation.

However, I have done the first 2016 tag and linked up at Tim Holtz's blog and I've set up the AOCC threads for the year. Next Monday I will post their challenge to get the group thinking about their February birthday/ anniversary cards. I'm not sure I'll get much 'research' time as I have a couple other deadlines and Bob's only home for one more week. He is occupying himself on FB now as I type this. 

So tell me, how do  YOU eat an elephant?  VJ suggests one bite at a time...

Creative Blessings!

~Kelly