goals – The PolyBlog

Leveling up – From Goals to Pondside Planner

May 27 2026

I write a lot about goals. Goals for the day, goals for life, goals for the week. Goals before retirement. Setting goals, monitoring goals, achieving goals, dropping goals. Different types of goals, different types of methods for managing goals. Having goals as a goal in and of itself. Sometimes it veers into performance measurement.

Yet, all of the posts, regardless of the topic, are really about planning.

Hence, I’m going to rename the entire category “Pondside Planner”. Plus, I have long-term plans (hah!) for a book and an app with the same name. I have tentatively given it three related “descriptions”. Purpose, priorities, and progress; goals, grit, and growth; and fundamentals, focus, and frameworks. I know, they need work.

In the meantime, I’m upgrading my imagery too. In the past, I’ve used a combo of images. Initially, I loved the idea of my version of the “Insights Discovery”-type four-quadrant colour map. I even added a yin-yang symbol in the centre.

I even went all-in at one point on those motifs, with a much deeper framework diagram of a Personal Development Model (they both might resurface in the book / guide).

I also have specialized images for a larger quest, 60 things by age 60, 50 by 50, travel, experiences.

At different times, I’ve used and loved all of those images. By contrast, for the day-to-day stuff, I went with more mundane images. A planner, a checklist, an arrow hitting a target.

They have served me well over the last 25 years, although mostly in the last 15. But as I said in previous posts, I am leaning into the frog motif and the new name, the Pondside Planner. An almost new identity, built as much to reflect the energy of my warrior frog as the calm demeanour of my reader frog.

I’m showing the whole image for this one, not just the rounded view, as there is a lot going on in the image. The frog, of course, is a red-eyed tree frog. That’s standard.

He’s not just wearing glasses, he’s wearing MY glasses.

Working on a to-do list to signify goals, next to the pond aka Pondside.

There’s a penguin in the scene, my son’s avatar.

And I have a four-quadrant personality profile diagram on the wall behind him.

If you can’t read the to do list, it says:

Eat more flies
Start quest
Clean swamp

Oh, and a crossword puzzle, in honour of my father, who always had a crossword puzzle book on the go next to his kitchen chair.

That simple category image is pulling a lot of weight in a small space. I love it. And perhaps for the first time since I started the blog, the category of “goals” is now accurately reframed as “The Pondside Planner”.

Let me know whether you think the image is conveying “planner” well enough or if it could be improved with some better props, particularly if you have ideas!

Until the next project starts…

PolyWogg signature in green with a dark blue quill at the end.

2026: G is for goals

January 9 2026

It seems almost ironic to have a post about goals…after all, all 26 of these posts are about goals. Taking stock of where I am, looking at where I want to go and how to get there.

So what would a separate post about goals cover that the other 25 won’t?

Well, the fact that I’m blogging 26 times to start the year for one.

I was inspired by a book about journaling, as I said earlier, and so I created a list of 26 items to blog about in January. I’ve covered A-F already, will do H-Z after this. For today, it is about how I’m doing on managing my goals.

I took a break before Christmas after writing twice about my writing goals and trying to apply the PACE methodology (primary, alternate, contingency, emergency) to setting priorities. It doesn’t quite fit, but I think I found a way to structure it. I’ll try to do the same for a few others, and when I’m done Z, I’ll do some sort of wrap-up and prioritization exercise.

Over the course of the year, though, I’m going to look at some other “insights” aka popular books about goals. Mel Robbins is huge in the popular press these days, and while I fear it’ll turn out to be the motivational equivalent of the decluttering fad about whether something gave you joy, I want to read what she has to say.

I also need to check in on my 60×60 list and see how I’m doing, which will likely kick off in February.

In the meantime, I have a new little tool. They sell these little whiteboards that look a bit like keyboards (about the same length and width) with a surface to write on and wipe off. It is designed to sit on your desk in between your keyboard and your monitor and give you a place to take notes, set a to do list, etc. I love it. Andrea and Jacob got me one for Christmas and I liked it so much, I ordered a second one to sit on my work desk, too. It’s perfect for my short-term to do list as I rarely like digital apps for managing smaller bits.

Stay tuned!

2026: F is for family

January 8 2026

I thought I knew what this item would be about up until today. I was going to write about board games. Andrea, Jacob and I play board or card games almost every night after dinner, sometimes even at lunch if we need a break from work, and sometimes during the day on the weekend.

We have even done a “tournament of games” this past year where I tracked who won all the games we played so we could see who was the grandmaster for the year (I have to still total up Q4 — Jacob won 2 of the first quarters, Andrea won 1, and I was equivalent of a “ball return” in bowling, I passed the cards back to the next dealer). And we’ll do it again this year.

I’ll also add some Lego activities, some video games with Jacob, etc. and some more activities outside the house with Andrea (more walking, most likely). Plus whatever comes if I retire this year.

But then today happened.

We got some really good news on one of Jacob’s health-related issues. I’d love to brag about it, but well, it’s not really my story to tell. And it isn’t necessarily amazing to anyone who doesn’t know Jacob’s story. The average person would think it was no big deal. But it was huge for Jacob, and one of the rare occasions I have seen him almost bubbling over in the last few difficult years. He’s not the most emotional of kids outwardly, but he was tickled pink today at his own performance.

And so I wonder if I need to think more about the family item and related goals. Most of the time since 2020, we’ve been looking for an “absence of bad news”, or some form of manageable normalcy. Actual good news has been rare.

That sounds a bit harsh, I know. We had good times in 2025, for example, I’m not saying we didn’t. We took a great trip to BC and saw some amazing things. And Jacob had a great time in the mountains, as expected. Switchbacks weren’t much fun for me, but the rest of the trip “worked” most of the time.

But I realized today that almost all of our family life comes with an asterisk. And while there is still an asterisk on the stuff today with Jacob, it’s a small asterisk and likely to disappear. It may not, but we’re taking the win for now.

How do I harness more of THAT awesome sauce than the “absence of bad” that we’ve been dealing with? We need more of those moments to celebrate. And it doesn’t have to be big wins.

Yesterday, Andrea had an appointment late in the morning, I drove over to pick her up, and we were both free together at lunch. So we stopped at Kettleman’s for a bagel lunch, BLT for her and club for me. Just a nice leisurely lunch, no kid, no appointments to get to, not rushed to get back to work, no work to talk about, just chatting. It was really nice, something we haven’t done in a while. Unrushed. Kind of the type of lunch or outings I would like more of in my retirement, although Andrea likely won’t retire quite yet.

Is it too simplistic to just say that I want “bigger”? More positive oomph in our lives?

2026: E is for experiences

January 6 2026

This is a bit of a hard category to nail down. Obviously, everything we do is an “experience” in some way. And I obviously don’t mean simply that…

On the other hand, I’m also not sure if I ONLY mean big experiences. Retiring would be big, but not an experience; going to the circus would be an experience, but not necessarily big.

I guess that I’m more talking about doing things that are not part of my ordinary world. Or perhaps even more simply, things that take effort to do. D&D, even, takes effort.

We’re going to go see Singin’ in the Rain at Centerpointe in June, and it sort of counts, I think.

Usually, I would include various restaurants in the list, except that I don’t have a list at the moment of “must try” restaurants. I should, I suppose, although my interest seems pedestrian…I was following a guy on FB who created a group centred around “Club Sandwiches,” which he called “Clubbing for Cancer” — trying to find the best club sandwich in Ottawa while fighting cancer. He lost his battle, unfortunately, but the group is still active and I liked the premise. I thought of doing wings, but it’s often subjective; burgers, pizza, etc. are all overdone (sometimes literally). But I do have this idea for going out for a simple breakfast — eggs (sunny side, of course), toast, bacon, juice. Home fries if available. Maybe sausages. Normally, no, for bacon or anything else. I don’t really think of that as “an experience” necessarily, but I do have a list of some 70 places that people suggested. I’ve done 3 so far. I tried to tick the box for another one between Christmas and New Years and it was JAMPACKED. Not a relaxing vibe at all. But I’ll probably do a few more over the next year.

I could include astronomy viewings, but again, not really what I’m thinking of, that’s kind of separate.

I am a member of the Capital Crime Writers group, I suppose that would count for an outing to hear a guest speaker.

I could also benefit from a simple baking course, if I could find one that isn’t during the day (I’m not retired yet!).

And I am still thinking about a retreat weekend sometime. Just me and my thoughts.

Oh, and if I get a chance to ride an e-bike or drive a jetski or boat, that would count too.

That’s about it. I’m not dreaming big this year. I did the Bouchercon last year, and we went to BC, even went to an orchard and picked apples (I’ve always wanted to do it and never went!) but this year will be more about home stuff, saving the gusto perhaps for Egypt in May 2027.

Until then, I’ll have to noodle some more stuff. Feel free to suggest out-of-the-ordinary things to try.

2026: C is for Computers

January 4 2026

There are several areas I want to explore this year in the realm of computers, IT, and websites.

1. I want to tidy up my backups. I’m a bit behind, easy to do, but I need to catch up.

2. At some point, I have to figure out my carousel on the PolyWogg site. I created a pseudo-carousel, large header, and well, it doesn’t work for me. Yet.

3. I guess I also want to do something with the look and feel of the PolyWogg site as well when it comes to blog entries that are “sub-areas” — the main blog pages show perfectly, the sub-areas not so much. I’m missing something small to tweak, haven’t wrapped my head around it.

4. I want to do something with old computers. I have some I want to convert into game players, and I’m going to set up one PC to run 3D printing. It’s not urgent, but it will take a dedicated two or three days to sort it out enough to begin work. This includes re-purposing and maybe even jailbreaking an iPad. I’ve looked it for fun recently, just cuz I wanted to see how hard it is/would be, and you know what? Not that hard.

5. But if I set up the computer to 3D print, I also need to set up the 3D printer. That is a bit more complicated. The new one should be relatively easy, but the old one is a mess of pain.

6 Much more elaborate, I have plans for two apps. One is astronomy-related; the other trivia-ish. But I think they’re going to have to wait for retirement. The effort required to get into programming is just too much overall to dabble.

7. I mentioned in my book list that I want to read stuff about AI, and perhaps it should be here too, although I think it is more for my L is for Learning side of things.

8. I’m also not very proficient in a couple of pieces of software that I need to work with in the future — GIMP will be my basic editor of choice for photos, and I have a full training program to help me get better at using it. At least for the basics, astrophotography will require more work. But I also have ideas for the future that will involve video, and my wife and son got me a green screen setup for Christmas. So I’m mostly ready to go, I just need to double down on what I want to create and figure out which software packages I’m going to use. I have a bunch, but not sure which ones are best for what I’m going to be doing. That may take until late fall to figure out though.

And that’s it. Pretty linear, pretty straightforward.