When we talk about our snakes and ladders, we often think of them as positive and negative. Sometimes our snakes are there to take us to a different ladder.
I talked about the joys, or not, of technology a couple of week ago, which you can read here. In it I had a little rant about updates and why they can be a retrograde step for the user. Well this blog is the outcome of issues we have been faced with because of the updates. This will help us Create A New, Beautiful And Courageous Existence at least until the updates finally catch up with us again.
Identifying our snakes
We are going to change our blogging schedule, so we have more time– again! That’s not to say we are going to reduce the number of blogs just not be so rigid about what they are. This will give us more time to concentrate on our snakes and ladders.
- We haven’t been happy with the look of the website for a while. Unfortunately, we haven’t had enough time to be able to work on it
- We currently have a number of different plug-ins to enable us to blog, host the magazine, and host on-line courses in the future. Each plug-in needs frequent updates which means we need time to install them and learn about the changes. Also, the plug-ins don’t always fully integrate with each other properly even if they say they do.
- Finally, the current magazine platform doesn’t make it particularly easy to manage subscribers.
- Whilst we could run courses and create the on-line community using the current plug-ins it is not the simplest or most elegant solution. This means that we haven’t been moving forward with these projects as much as we would like to.
- We are not using Social Media properly at the moment. Our posts are very infrequent and there is little structure or consistency. In order to grow the CANBACE tribe we need to improve this situation drastically
“To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities” Bruce Lee
Turning them into ladders
- Identifying our snakes have helped us work out how to turn them into ladders. This involves another tweak to our blogging schedule so we have more time.
- Here’s our new schedule:
- We will still publish the #WhatNotToSay series each Saturday
- Tthe three proactive healing and the TLC/Pampering equally will between us. One week I will write two of the healing blogs and Nicci will focus on one healing blog and the TLC/Pampering blog. The next week we will swap.
- Tuesday and Thursday will be for updates about our different projects if there are any. If we don’t have enough to share, we’ll write a blog about Snakes and Ladders or Personal Development depending on the day to be published.
- For those of you how are more visual the new schedule is illustrated below.
- We’re also going to build a “fit for purpose” website. At the moment we’ve been resorting to ““sticking plaster” solutions to deal with individual problems one at a time, This is never the best solution. Like a leaky pipe, the moment you mend one hole the water finds the next weakest point. So a more radical overhaul is needed to ensure the website is “fit for purpose” now and moving forward into the future
- We’re looking a new website theme. When we launched this website, we basically used what we were familiar with from the magazine website. Having merged the blog and magazine website together, and looking towards a future involving courses and an on-line community we need to find something more suitable..
- We are also thinking of investing in a Learning Management System (LMS). This will give us a better platform for the courses and on-line forum when they are ready for launching. We could use our current system for on-line courses and we have a plug-in for group forums: however providing all of the functionality we dream of required multiple plug-ins. These constantly require updates and don’t always fully integrate properly.
- A new back-office programme for the magazine will make it easier to look after the subscribers.
- After months of procrastinating about Instagram, LinkedIn and Buffer we’re going to take the plunge. It may take a while to develop a Social Media strategy that works effectively: however, we’ve got to start somewhere. So, this blog has been bought to you by Buffer! Carpe Diem!
A technology-snake free future
“To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do to conclusions.” Benjamin Franklin
When I was complaining about our technology snakes I had little idea that they would actually help us. We have found, or been forced to find, the ladders to overcome these snakes. Once we’ve climbed all these ladders, we will have a more user-friendly and attractive website. I also hope they will allow us to avoid a few technology snakes for a period of time. We will have to wait and see about that outcome.
Practice makes perfect
It’s all well and good writing about things in theory: however, we need to start applying what we learn. Look to see if some of your snakes are taking you towards an even better ladder
To help you keep track of all your work for the daily activities mentioned, we have created a Monthly Diary for you to record your progress. To download your copy of “My February Canbace Diary” please click here.
Be kind to yourself …
In CANBACE friendship!
If anything I have written resonates I’d love to hear from you in the comments. I appreciate that this can be a difficult subject to speak openly about. If you don’t want me to publish your comment on the website, please let me know. I will keep your words private.
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