Frugally Green

It’s about that time.

For those of you with traditional day jobs like me, you’ve probably already scheduled a meeting with your boss for a nice little year end sit down.

You’ll sheepishly dismiss your accomplishments when asked to discuss them and Mr./Mrs. Manager will look at the floor, obviously uncomfortable, telling you what they think you could improve on in the coming year.

Eventually, like two young lovers exploring each others’ bodies for the first time, you’ll awkwardly wander through the motions until someone realizes they have another meeting.  You’ll both sit back, staring off into the distance and saying to yourself, “Glad that’s over.”

It doesn’t have to be that way

Well, maybe it does at work, but it doesn’t have to here.  Performing a self-evaluation each year can be an extremely beneficial process.  And, since it’s your review of yourself you can do it however the hell you want to. At last!  The autonomy you’ve always wanted!  I can’t take credit for the idea though. I must tip my hat to my friend Chris at The Art of Nonconformity.

I’m young.  Only 25.  I have all the ambition in the world with little experience in how to focus it.  For me, a self performed annual review is a way for me to come to terms with what I really want out of life and create a road map to get there.

If you read Frugally Green regularly, you probably have at least a few ideas about things you’d like to accomplish financially, environmentally, or both.

You can read read Chris’ article for an incredibly detailed post about how to perform your own review, but I want to give you an example of how my review will go this year – specifically for Frugally Green.

What went awesome?

Take note of the word “awesome.”  I used it on purpose.  Right now I don’t care about what “went well” or things that “turned out OK.” I want to focus on what totally rocked my socks off.  For me, these things will include:

Never missing a single scheduled post

When I started this site in April, I hesitantly committed to 1 new post every week.  I wasn’t sure if I could handle it.  I had a lot going on.

8 months later and I’m posting 3 times a week and have never missed a deadline. This post is the 69th article on Frugally Green. I almost can’t believe I made it.

Converting to a half-time vegetarian

I was so scared when I wrote about saving money by eating less meat. I was nearly positive that I would end up a total hypocrite.  But I didn’t.

I made a plan and I went after it.  I failed along the way, but got back up.  My girlfriend Jessie joined the cause, we reworked the plan and now I can proudly say that less than 50% of my meals contain meat.  That feels great.

Writing a guest post for Get Rich Slowly

This was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had this year.

My guest post on giving to receive was, for the most part, well-liked by a community that I really respect.  That gave me some serious warm fuzzies.

Also, in 3 weeks it doubled the readership that took me over 7 months to build. It wasn’t easy to write, but it was very well worth it.

What totally sucked?

Again, we’re skipping the boring and dull here and going straight for the mind-blowingly awful stuff that I screwed up. Jeer if you like, it’s all on the table.

I depleted my backlog

My “backlog” is my pile of posts that I can dig into when I am approaching a deadline and can’t or don’t want to spend the time writing something.  A few months ago I decided to take a little break and use a few of these posts.

Well, a few turned into “all of them” and I haven’t taken the initiative to replenish it.  This really sucks because I want to spend more time writing really awesome content, but sometimes end up with mediocrity to preserve the deadline.  You deserve better than mediocre.

I’ve lost faith in myself many times

I almost never show it here, but I can be a total emotional wreck.

I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve hit the publish button on a post thinking “Ok, this is the one where everyone is going to see that I am a total hack.”  Sometimes I even wonder if this is what I am really supposed to be doing – writing about sustainability.  I’m just an average guy, no different than any of you.  What do I really have to offer here?

This kind of thinking is emotionally draining and it has held me back when I’ve had opportunities to grow.  It must stop in the coming year.

Did I meet the goals I set?

I set only 3 solid, measurable goals for Frugally Green when I started.  Now that we’re at the end of the year, I can say I met* 2 of them.

Reach 100 subscribers

*I’m not calling this met, but I’m going to say it’s practically in the bag.

I’m currently sitting at 97, growing every day and there’s still 2 weeks left in the year.

Just to make sure I seal the deal, if you want to subscribe now, I’ll mail you an awesome book, The Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget,  if you’re the 100th subscriber.  That ought to do the trick. (Just send me an email letting me know you subscribed)

Write 34 posts

This is how many I would have written if I’d stuck to posting once a week and didn’t miss a deadline.  I blew this one out of the water. Satisfaction achieved.

Write an e-book

Utter failure here because, well, I haven’t even started writing it yet.

Since I completely missed this goal, I’ve revised it to read “finish the outline of an e-book.” I’ve finally gotten my butt in gear a bit and am right on track to finish this.

The best part of planning is that it doesn’t have to be rigid.  You should definitely take your goals very seriously, but if you fail, no one can tell you that you’re not allowed to revise them to get yourself back on track.

What are my goals for next year?

I haven’t set my goals for next year yet, but you can bet it’s center stage in my mind.  I’ll be spending a fair amount of time over the next few weeks really getting serious about what I want to accomplish in 2010.

Most importantly, I’ll be looking at the previous 3 sections we just went over and determining where my opportunities to really kick ass are.

A few things I know I want to focus on, though, are collaborating with other great writers, developing more content in other media formats (like audio and video) and making some more giant leaps in my own personal quest for a sustainable life.

Also, I’ll need to balance these goals with some other huge life goals that I intend to strive for next year.

Final Thoughts

I believe in setting attainable goals because it helps me stay motivated to achieve them, but I also believe I’m wasting my time if I’m not pushing my limits and trying to stretch the boundaries of what I’m capable of doing.

If conducting your own personal annual review is something you think would be a valuable experience for you, I really suggest you check out Chris’ how-to article.  It’s much more in depth and will lead you right through the whole process.

Do you make it a point to set goals or do any self reflection?  Have you ever considered conducting an annual review for yourself?  What did you accomplish this year and what do you want to accomplish in 2010?

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If you find annual reviews boring and dumb, leave a comment, or get free updates about other boring and dumb ideas.

Connect with me on Twitter: @tylertervooren

Image of business baby by megnut

This is a really, really, REALLY important lesson.  Anytime you decide to take on a challenge, you should spend some time up front identifying the tools you need in order to succeed.

I’m not going to lie to you.  If you fail to take this step upfront, you may very well still succeed.  The problem is, you’ll be so exhausted and annoyed by the time you reach it, you may not care anymore that you made it.

Heed my warning, for I know of what I speak.

I am writing this post at 10:00 PM on Tuesday night, furiously pounding the keyboard to create something useful, insightful, and witty for you to read when you wake up in the morning.

I’ve got a big smile on my face because I love writing, but damn it, I’m grumpy.  I’m grumpy because I decided to install a new dishwasher in our house on Saturday. By install, I mean rip the old one out and then wander around town looking for a new one.  When I finally found the right one for us, it wasn’t available until Monday.

“Oh, that’s fine,” I told the salesman as I clenched my teeth.  That was a lie.  While pulling the old dishwasher out, I damaged the water line, making it impossible for me to reconnect it while I waited for the new one.  The shut off valve is old and wouldn’t close all the way so my girlfriend, Jessie, and I spent the weekend bailing water out of the kitchen with a well placed plastic tub.

I picked up the new machine Monday night only to find that the fitting was different than what I had existing.  A 10:00 PM trip to Home Depot fixed that.  What it didn’t fix, though, was the fact that all of my tools are currently at a friend’s house, 50 miles from home.  Glad I remembered that before I got started.

Refusing to be deterred, I completed this daunting task thanks to a pair of pliers, a kitchen knife, a wrench I found in my driveway, and several youthful summers spent watching reruns of MacGyver.  If I had taken a second in the beginning to compile a budget and a schedule, I can assure you I would be well over on both.

So, you see, the task is complete – a success.  But is it really?  Jessie and I are irritable because it took a long time to finish, I cut my finger pretty well, and you have to listen to me ramble on about a dishwasher because I didn’t give myself the time to write the post I really wanted to (next week, of course).

Do you have an urge to change something about your life right now?

Maybe you want to build a compost tumbler. I’m all for jumping right in and getting dirty, but don’t forget to think for at least a few seconds before smashing your thumb with a hammer about why you’re going to smash it and what you’re going to need to smash it with.

Want to save $10,000?  Sure, you can do it without much planning, but with an average 3% rate of inflation, how much is it going to be worth when you finally get there at retirement age?

We green frugalistas are always looking for another project to complete that will boost us to the next level of enlightenment. Well, we can do any damn thing we want without much thought, but doing it well and doing it happily are more difficult results to come by.

I’m no rocket doctor, but even I could have taken five minutes to get out a note card and jot down the tools I would have needed and the order of operations to follow to make this project a happy success.

No doubt about it, my dishes are now impeccably clean.  My language over the last few days was not.

Have you ever found yourself in over your head due to poor planning?  How do you make sure you’ve given yourself the right tools for the job you want to complete?  What’s your favorite swear word when everything goes wrong?

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Connect with me on Twitter: @FrugallyGreen

Image of woodworking tools by Robert S. Donovan

The giant, blue abomination to the left has been the monkey on my back for the past 5 months of Frugally Green.  I first got the idea to start this website after deciding to build a compost tumbler to reduce our kitchen and garden waste.  It was going to be awesome.  The only problem was that I wasn’t really interested in food or gardening, but I sure was interested in a hands-on project.  So, I found a way to make the whole idea more exciting by making it more complex than it ever needed to be.

The beginnings of a frugally green failure

I scoured the internet for the most interesting composter designs, I sat down and drew up my super-awesome-and-improved plan in AutoCAD, making a detailed materials list and then headed to the hardware store to pick up the materials.

I came home and set to work, taking pictures at every step.  I just knew that millions of people were going to want to know how to build this thing and have the most fun of their lives spinning their rotten food around. It was going to be a how-to of the century.

5 months later, I have yet to write a single word or share a single picture of this contraption.  Why? Because I never should have built it in the first place.

Sure, I do use it every day.  Yes, it does work (as far as I can tell).  But, the truth is, there is nothing frugal or green about this thing beside the fact that it is, indeed, a compost bin.  It’s a giant, plastic barrel that carried soy sauce half-way around the world propped up by an unnecessary chunk of metal that’s supported by more wood than needed to remain sturdy. Failure!

I took on this project for all the wrong reasons.  At the time, I didn’t actually care about the function of the composter, I just wanted a green project to busy myself with and I wanted to flex my mental muscle and do something complex.  As a result, I ended up with a less than perfectly functional product that used a ton more material and cost more money than what was ever necessary to get the job done.

The awakening

If I had actually cared about compost at the time, I would have done a little research and found out that turning it is not very important.  I would have also learned a number of other things about it that would have influenced my design to a simpler and more effective result.

What I failed to realize while dreaming up this contraption was that anyone can take a simple idea and make it complicated.  Real innovation occurs by taking something complicated and making it simple.

So here’s my new how-to article for building a truly frugally green compost bin:

• Step 1: Make a pile.

…

Yep, that’s it.  That is all you really need to make good, useful compost.  You don’t even have to spend a dime.  Don’t feel guilty that your composter isn’t as nice as your neighbor’s (if your neighbor even has one). Just revel in the fact that it works just as well.

If, you have pets or nocturnal visitors that will make a mess of your compost pile, we can add just 3 more steps to solve that problem as well:

• Step 1: Screw a few scraps of dimensional lumber together to make a box.

• Step 2: Find a piece of scrap plywood and mount it to the top with a couple hinges.  Add a latch to the front if you have raccoons with he-man strength.

• Step 3 (Optional): Paint the entire assembly to satisfy your aesthetic needs.

• Step 4: Fill with compostable materials.

Now, we’ve added 300% more complication to the process and if I were one of those sleazy marketers, I’d substitute the word ‘complication’ for something sexier and make it sound like the greatest thing since tumbled compost, but I won’t, and composting really is as simple as making a pile.

There is nothing fancy required.  I wish I’d realized that before I spent a whole weekend driving around town buying all these things I didn’t need.

The real lesson learned

There seems to be a common perception these days that the more complicated an idea or product is, the better it must be because it’s had more thought and effort invested in it.  This is patently false.  The best ideas in life are almost always the most simple.  Think back to the most enjoyable, memorable, or even productive times in your life.  Were you doing something complicated or something relatively simple?

Many times we overcomplicate things because we want to impress others or feel like we have to prove to ourselves that we can do something we’re not sure we’re capable of. Testing your limits is the fastest way to grow, but don’t take the wrong approach.  If you really want to stand out and prove something to yourself, take your most complicated ideas and simplify them.  Anyone can do the opposite.

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