I’m guessing that most of us have spent at least a little bit of time recently deciding what we will focus on, and what skills or interests we want to develop in 2013.
I don’t know about you, but one of my biggest problems is that I am interested in way too many things, to the point where I flit from topic to topic always hungry for new and interesting ideas but not really digesting or absorbing very much. And while this is very entertaining, it results in knowing a little bit about a lot of subjects, but not being an expert on anything in particular. This is not a good thing in the world of business (so they say), which favours those with marketable expertise.
So this year I am going to focus on being more focussed.
This means finishing one book before starting another. (Well maybe I can have one fiction and one non-fiction on the go, but not five at once).
It also means spending more time writing about practical ways that you can craft your material so that your messages are clear.
This doesn’t mean that I’ll only talk about one thing. As far as I am concerned, there are many elements to clarity. Regardless of whether you are writing a report, creating a presentation or designing a website the principles and elements are the same.
You need:
- Clear concise writing that makes sense to the reader
- Consistent and logical ordering of your content
- Plenty of white space so that your text is legible and doesn’t overwhelm people
- Graphs, charts and illustrations that help people to understand your message
- An understanding of how people learn and how they make sense of information
But above all, you need to KNOW what it is you are trying to say. Working this out is by far the most important thing you need to do and is the place where you should start.
So my plan for the coming year is to focus on writing helpful, inspiring and practical blog posts. What are you going to focus on? Are there skills that you want to develop and can I help you?
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Margaret Moon 