• eCommerce is going to get bigger and better. Additional services like delivery, gift wrapping and warehouse renting are going to be needed. Improvement on marketing, SEO, merchant services and other areas are going to be crucial and the companies getting there first will have lots of advantages.
• Social Networks will personalize companies more than they already have. Careers on internet branding, PR consulting and social network management are going to be required more than ever.
• Personal Branding will start to become a must. Companies are outsourcing and downsizing more than ever. If you want to be hired or if you want to be able to sell your services you will need to be known.
• Telecommuting and freelancing will get more popular. Companies outside Guatemala keep looking to hire talented people or to outsource to reduce costs. Workers are looking for jobs where they can spend more time with their families and generate better income.
• eLearning will turn more popular. The need for more techy teachers is going to increase. People want to be educated for less and educators want to reach more students. Webinars and LMS are going to be the perfect combo.
• SaaS will appear on our market. Buying personalized software can be very expensive, some companies don’t even have a budget to go that way. Some others did the investment 10 years ago and still use that software. The improvement of the software and the customer service has gotten worse and worse over the years. New companies offering easy to implement software, for cheap monthly fees will find a very welcoming market.
• Legal IT services, consultancy and other will be needed specially to offer digital goods and services outside Guatemala.
• Internet security will be more than a must. In order to offer services out seas, customer will have to be able to trust our security.

2012 will be full of new opportunities in the midst of our economy. If the new government supports any of the previous topics we shall see a good tomorrow for our country. The more we develop a culture of quality, hard work and customer service the better we are going to be prepared for the local and global market.

Now a days you can use many different apps and programs to keep track of the things you need to do. Some of my favorites are basecamp, evernote and reminders. I use them all on a daily basis but my favorite ToDo list is just a small piece of paper and a pen.

When I was in high school I used to forget homework all the time and that would get me in trouble constantly. If I was lucky enough the teachers would forget to ask for the homework or do it at the end of the class, giving me enough time to finish it. But not my German teacher, he never forgot and always asked for it before hand. I hated his system because it was almost infallible.

And that’s why I work with it now. I like infallible processes. I like to be sure that things will be done. I like to be in control of my work and I believe this is the system that adapts better to my needs.

So how does it work?

Very easy. At the beginning of the day I sit next to my computer and read emails, check the different collaboration tools and start taking notes on a piece of paper (normally a receipt I get from the super market, restaurant, or anywhere else). Each item is something I have to work on in the immediate future (aka today) if there is something for next week I don’t annotate, because that’s what the project management tools are for. After I’m done I just take a look at the list and decide on which item I will tackle first. Once I’m done I scratch it and choose which item I want/need to do next and so on until the list is done. If for some reason I wasn’t able to finish the item will go on tomorrows list.

It’s as simple as that. There are no due dates. There is no priority (because in a list of just a few items you just know what is more important) There are just things to do today. 

I guess I can scratch the item that said “write a blog post for today”

The best ToDo list

The process of measuring how good or bad I did in a year is not something that I have been doing my entire life. This is actually the second year that I do it after reading an extraordinary post by Chris Guillebeau

What went well:

• Traveled for about 60 days visiting 5 cities: Vienna, Miami, Washington DC, New York and Mexico City
• Hired our first employee in SWS
• IBS is doing much better after I reduced my red meat consumption
• Improved my skills on Ruby On Rails and Vim
• Increased my monthly income a 7%
• Read 12 books (The 4 Hour Body, The Thank You Economy, The concept of anxiety, The hidden link between adrenaline and stress, The Power of eye contact, Poke the box, Increment your financial IQ, Thrilled to death, Anything you want, Make her chase you, The Magic of Reality)
• Met one of my heroes: Tim Ferris
• Saw one of my favorite bands Live: Dream Theater
• Got an apartment

What didn’t go as expected:

• I wanted to start a business that is not technology related but didn’t find the inspiration/time/money
• I didn’t find the time to get involved in an open source project that I was invited to participate with the jQuery team.
• I didn’t exercise regularly
• I didn’t learn as much Japanese as I wanted
• I didn’t write on a constant basis

What went wrong:

• Started having some problems with my back
• Very low energy in the last months of the year
• Got robbed
• Had a very unproductive month when my main machine got broken

Being able to perceive how things went through the year makes me happy because I feel successful and helps me define what are the things that I’m doing right, how I can implement a bit of that in the things that didn’t go as well as expected and also focus on fixing the things that went completely wrong.

First things first: “Well done me! You had a wonderful year and improved so much, keep the good work.”

Now that I’ve congratulated myself I can think on how to get better at the goals that didn’t go as expected and the things that went wrong. On 2012 I will focus on the health related issues. I think I can recover my energy and feel healthier through the first quarter so I can use that extra energy and sharpness for the other goals that I didn’t manage to finish and the new ones that I’m going to set.

Having finished so many goals let’s me dream big and plan for better things but I also have to be realistic and realize that no matter how productive I try to be, there won’t be enough time for all the goals in the new list. I will try to manage my time better but it’s ok if some of the things don’t turn out completely as expected.

I still have to work on the 2012 plan but there are already a few big personal projects that will go in that list. Doing this annual review gives me closure and lets me use the last days of the year to plan accordingly.

Merry christmas and happy new year!

1. When using tumblr I got used to the idea of being able to write anywhere I wanted. Octopress is a little limited about that.
2. WP is the tool that we sell our customers at Scream. We truly believe is one of the best CMS out there and I want to know the tool the best I can in order to know what our customers are experiencing.