Sharing my New Years Resolutions in February.

I think that new years resolutions can be very productive. It’s inspiring that people around the beginning and ends of the year are asking themselves who they want to be, and make goals to strive towards that. In the past I’ve made many a lofty resolution, and it’s basically a 50/50 shot if it ends up coming to fruition or not. This year I want to try something new, something I haven’t tried before: Creative KPIs!

In my last full time role I was introduced to the concept of KPIs, something that I’ve come to learn is just smart goals but for business people (I think). I liked the format and so today I will be sharing my creative goals, along with some real results I expect to have by the end of the year. I have found that being specific with my goal setting is what leads to actual change in behavior, and real results. So my goal today is to establish some vague desires I have for my creative practice, and break them down into something concrete and tangible.

How you can do it to:

Here are the basics of KPIs (told by a designer so bare with me if I’m not 100% accurate)

A KPI is a key performance indicator and is used to measure how well a business is doing in relation to the goals/objectives they’ve set for themselves. For our purposes, each of our creative KPIs will include:

• A Broad Objective: Something that you desire, this should be the easy part you don’t have to be specific (yet)

• Something to Measure: The reason you’re reading this isn’t because you’re good at manifesting, we want RESULTS and the only way to make sure you’re getting results is by creating a KPI around something that you can actually measure/keep track of. What is that thing?

• A Target: After you’ve picked WHAT you’re going to measure, we need to set a target for that. You’ll see how this works in the examples I show below.

• Checking Frequency: How often will you be checking in on this goal? Monthly? Weekly?

• Timeline: When will this be accomplished? For me, all of these goals have a timeline of one year!

Now time to get real

Please be kind.. I'm being vulnerable here!

Commit to the Bit:

Objective: I want to publicly commit to more creative personal projects. I’m someone who can set very lofty goals in terms of my personal projects and as a result, I have about a 30 acre wide graveyard for all my half finished ideas. This time it will be different. To start off I will be easy on myself and I’m almost certain I'll be able to accomplish this as long as I continually check in with myself.

Measuring: Amount of personal projects I post on my channels (Website, Instagram, and LinkedIn)

Target: 4

Checking Frequency: Monthly

Timeline: By years end.

So! By the end of the year I will want to have 4 personal projects up on my site, and posted about them on LinkedIn and Instagram. I will be checking every month to make sure I’m working towards those things.

Make Bad Stuff

Objective: On top of not doing enough personal projects. I’ve noticed my perfectionistic tendencies have begun to prevent me from drawing/creating even just for myself. I used to fill sketchbooks regularly with no expectations or self censoring and I miss that. So I want to use this goal as an opportunity to exercise that muscle, and reteach myself it’s okay to make bad stuff.

Measuring: Amount of sketchbooks completed cover to cover

Target: 5

Checking Frequency: Monthly

Timeline: By years end

In summary, I think forcing myself to complete a larger amount of sketchbooks than normal it will force me to go after quantity rather than quality. And be rid me of this perfectionistic mindset even when I’m just trying to have fun!

Direct my Work

Objective: Since I’ve started freelancing for almost a year now. I feel like I’ve finally found my footing and it’s helped me realize that I need to be more intentional with the message I’m signaling out to the world. In my free time I study countless creatives online, their portfolios, their social channels, how they present and talk about their work, and how they've been able to create a career unique to them and their tastes. And I learned that I need to stop making things that I think other people want to see - I need to make things that align with the type of work I want to get. Personally, I want to get more branding and illustration work, so my goal will be to get more projects in that area.

Measuring: Amount of projects that are branding or illustration focused.

Target: 6

Timeline: By Years End

In Conclusion..

I have a lot of hopes for this year! I think getting really granular and specific with my goals has helped me achieve more than I thought was possible. And so I’m stoked to get started on some of these goals.

If anyone tries making their own creative KPIs I would love to hear what they are for future inspo!

Until next time.