It’s been a constant struggle for me – determining that line between “this is mine” and “actually it’s not MINE anymore.” I had a very specific vision for the site when I first pieced it together over a holiday weekend, but at the time I was really just building it for myself. For my very specific use case. And as a Product Manager I know better than anyone that that’s just NOT the way to build things to be used by the People of the Internets.

When we crossed the 10,000 completed goal mark, I posted a bit of a reflection on what I’d learned and, to be honest, I haven’t really looked at it since. It’s strange to realize now that coming back to reflect on these last few weeks, my thoughts now (and more importantly my actions!) are actually EXACTLY in line with where my intuition was leading me 8 months ago.

Over the last few weeks I made a few HUGE decisions, decisions I’ve been struggling with for well over a year but that my stubbornness and general feeling of complete ownership prevented me from giving in to.

What’s in a name?

The first step in accepting my problem was realizing that I wasn’t enjoying working on 101in365 and more importantly, I was completely unwilling to talk about it in person with anyone because I KNEW I would not only have to repeat the name a few times for them to remember the numbers but also because I’d have to explain why one would have to come up with 101 goals and how that’s actually not that big of a deal. Any excitement I had at the prospect of building this out was dampened by the stress and defensiveness that came along with explaining it to anyone.

I knew I wanted to change the name for a good long while, but could never come up with a good alternative. Then, one day, out of the blue, accompl.sh hit me. I checked for the normal spelling and the .com, of course, but as a noun my odds were pretty slim. Thanks to domai.nr I stumbled across the very web 2.0 spelling and domain. It wasn’t IDEAL but it was a step and after discovering it I couldn’t get the name out of my head. A few days later I sprung for the most expensive domain I’d ever purchased at a whopping $99! I felt an immediate sense of relief and spent that entire evening changing out the logos, the copy, and the links around the site. A quick blog post and accompl.sh was unleashed to the world. I felt a thousand times better already. And it was all done JUST in time for a blog post about me and accompl.sh to go up on the Evernote Blog. Things were looking up.

But you still needed 101 goals

Once the name situation was sorted out I sat back and gave myself a bit of a reality check. With the initial band-aid torn off I was a bit more open to reconsidering some of my decisions from early in the development of the site and ended up spending the next few nights fixing those. Thus, the Suggestion Box. It was my first admission that 101 goals was, indeed, a LOT of goals to come up with.

For me, coming up with my own list of 101 in 365 was an exercise I’d gotten myself used to over the course of a few years. It wasn’t until I started watching people use the site and listening to their reactions upon hitting their first brick wall of running out ideas that it really started to click. Not everyone is like me. And if the true mission of the site is to help people come up with goals and stick to them, then WHY is having 101 goals at all important?

I’d contemplated it pretty seriously for a few days but kept rationalizing for my own use case. Then, for some reason or other, not unlike the name epiphany, I decided on the elevator out of the Etsy office that I needed to ditch the 101 goal requirement. I still couldn’t tell you how or why that decision became so clear at that particular moment, but for whatever reason, within SECONDS I had made the decision and sent a text to Tilly:

OMG I think I just decided to pivot accomplsh. Yes. I said pivot.

That was it. With no other thought given to the rationale or going through my usual pro/con list, I hashed it all out in my head it all out on my walk to the subway. I attempted to read a bit more of the book I had on my Kindle, but I couldn’t concentrate. Out the Moleskine came and I started scribbling furiously.

By the time I got home the plan had been hatched and I fired up my Terminal, Transmit, and TextMate (T^3. The tools the internet is built on) and started ripping out the bits of code that affected how many goals you needed to have. Strangely the only part that was at all difficult was getting the Javascript to place nicely. Once that was sorted, panic began to set in.

What the hell did I just do!?

It was all too easy. The whole thing just came together way too quickly. I freaked out. Why was it so easy? Was it so easy because it was the wrong decision? Or so easy because it was the right decision? What was I forgetting? I HAD to be forgetting something! What if the people who’d stood behind me on my stubbornness around 101 goals were angry that I gave in and reduced the limit? What if it just ruined everything that I’d spent 18 months building? Needless to say I was overcome with analysis paralysis. This was one of those times where I really wish I had a co-founder or someone to just sanity check me. Some of these decisions just shouldn’t happen in a vacuum.

Screw it. Just push the button!

Over-analyzing everything is one of those character traits that can be a blessing and a curse. I stepped away from the laptop for a bit (to get a commit cookie ¹, of course). It was at that point I got a DM from a member who said a mysql error was popping up on a particular page. Crap. That meant I had to either revert my changes for that particular file in order to push the fix, or I’d have to fix it and push it all together. Gotta love forcing functions. So that was that. I HAD to push everything or the production site would have this nasty mysql error hanging around. And I’m not cool with mysql errors ruining my designs.

The new restriction-free accompl.sh was alive.

So what did I learn?

• Just because it’s how you first built something doesn’t mean that’s the way it needs to stay.
• Changing a major piece of a project doesn’t necessarily mean you’re admitting defeat.
• Sometimes you have to make sacrifices in one area to grow in others
• Sometimes taking out the one nail that you’ve been hanging everything from opens the doors to solve a lot of the problems you haven’t been able to find solutions for (more to come on this)
• The only cure for stubbornness seems to be impulsiveness.

Going Forward

While I’m a bit sad at having just finished hacking up my “baby,” and, honestly, I’m still SLIGHTLY worried that I may have made the decision a bit too impulsively, I’m excited for the future of this new system. I already have a few new bits up my sleeve that didn’t make it into the MVP for fixing the goal restrictions, but that I think will add a whole new range of possibilities for where I can take the project.

At the very least I’m interested to see what I’ll have to say about this decision 8 months from now when the effects will be fully realized and I get around to writing about them again!

Getting to 10,000 was not easy. It’s been a lot of trial and error and thankfully our ever-patient users have stuck with me as I used them as my guinea pigs for experiments in motivation, community, and social design. I thought I’d take a step back to really think about what I’ve learned getting to goal #10,000 and perhaps ponder some possible changes to the site to hopefully get that next 10,000. Or even better: 100,000. Here goes:

101 goals is a LOT to come up with

Yes. So I’ve heard. Over and over again. 101 goals is a lot. I totally get that. It even takes me a few days to come up with my own list. I’ve been very stubborn on this point up until now, but reaching this milestone has also made me realize that isn’t just MY site anymore. There are real people out there using this and they’re not all as obsessive about lists as I am. Who am I to prescribe the number of goals a person should have in a given year? Not saying I’m ready to ditch the 101 concept just yet, but I’m certainly more open to exploring other possibilities. Dare I say pivot? Perhaps.

Lesson learned: Know when to let go and let your users help define the future of the product rather than imposing your ideas. (But know when to stand your ground!) Everyone will be much happer in the long run.

101in365 is not the easiest name to remember

I’ve gotten mixed feedback on this one. Some say to keep it. It describes the site perfectly and is different from all of the startup-y types of names. The flip side of that is that when I’m out and about talking to new people they say “oh you made that 1 oh..? 3 sixty…? thing right?” Not exactly good branding. Personally, I’m not too attached to the name. The numbers thing is tough and if I DO in fact pivot as I mentioned above, the 101 piece of it may not even be true for much longer. So I guess that means it’s time to start exploring a rebrand!

Lesson learned: If they can’t say it they probably won’t remember it. Or they’ll remember it for the wrong reasons. Branding, Branding, Branding!

People will use your tools in ways you never anticipated

This one is kind of a “duh” point, but it’s just one of those things that you have to experience to really understand. When I added comments to 101in365 they were slow to pick up. They weren’t integrated very well (and they still aren’t, to be truthful), but after a lot of prodding on my end and personally leaving a lot of comments around the site, they picked up and took on a life of their own. List owners now generally use the comments to keep track of their progress with their own goals and leave a note to explain when they check off a goal. This isn’t something I’d considered when I added comments, but our users have given comments a whole different life. Awesome! Now it’s time to figure out if there’s a better way for everyone to leave notes on their own goals or if they’re perfectly happy leaving notes in their comments.

Lesson learned: You can’t always predict what your users want but they’ll show you what they need. You’d better be ready to listen.

Designing for an always-morphing site is tough!

When I look back at the original design for 101in365 I shake my head in shame. That thing was pretty terrible. I’m not really sure what I was thinking there. This new design, while better aesthetically, is not at all better in terms of scaling. When I designed it the site was basically a list for each user, a goal page, and a list of most recently completed goals called Explore. It’s since grown to include various filters on Explore, a Dashboard, a Goodies section, and more to come. It’s not just the main pages that have pushed the design to the limits, but the new functionality such as the ability to Like goals or Pics Or It Didn’t Happen have pointed out design flaw upon design flaw.

Lesson learned: Keep scaling in mind when you’re designing a quickly-growing site and get it right the first (or second) time. Measure twice, cut once. Or something like that.

Beware the hazards of building in a vacuum

Right now I’m flying completely solo. Building, designing, marketing, maintaining, failing, succeeding – it’s all me. I don’t mind because I love it, but I do find that without someone to be a check and balance I end up in a situation like I mentioned up in #1: I’m stubborn about building it the way I would use it instead of the way people demand. It’s also lonely and tougher to recover from issues like not designing for scale the first time. Since I’m essentially a one gal show, time spent in Photoshop is time NOT spent interacting with the community or promoting the site or building a new feature. Everything is a tradeoff and mistakes are especially costly because it means something else has to be put on hold while you address it. Like the night I almost lost all of the data because I was trying to finish a feature and truncated the live database instead of the dev. Checks and balances and a second set of eyes are always helpful. User feedback is fantastic, but sometimes it’s nice to have feedback BEFORE you send something out into the world.

Not to mention the fact that working solo means that I’m limited to my knowledge set and a few other things I pick up along the way. Let’s face it, I’m nowhere near awesome at algorithms but goal suggestions and some clever people-connecting things are at the top of my to do list right now. I could probably teach myself how to do that sort of data analysis, but again, time spent reading a book on algorithms and data processing is time not spent doing more tangible work.

Lesson learned: It’s totally OK to build things by yourself. You get to learn every aspect of the process. But, it also means that you’re always focusing on one or two things at a time and the other things are likely suffering. If I had the opportunity, I’d love to bring some other people into the project to spread the load and to have the luxury of diverse perspectives.

At the end of the day, even with all of the tougher bits, building 101in365 and watching it grow has been an amazing experience. It’s been a crash course in many areas for me and I’m looking forward learning more, growing more, building more, and helping people accomplish more. There’s still a LOT of work to be done, but when I take a step back and look at what I’ve built over these last months, I’m pretty proud of how far it’s come! If you haven’t already, sign up and check it out! I’d love your feedback!

Throughout the year I really enjoyed having my list to come back to when I was feeling bored, unproductive, or reflective. It was great to have a tangible set of things that I wanted to do that I could check off along the way. It’s why I created 101in365. I wanted to do it again, but even better this time around.

I rarely made a conscious effort to accomplish one of the items on the list. I generally just let life happen and along the way hope to tick off as many as I could. I’m disappointed that I couldn’t finish a few of them but overall I’m happy with what I was able to accomplish this year. So, without further ado, the list:

START: January 1, 2009
END: December 31, 2009

In Progress
Complete
Didn’t Complete

New Experiences:

1. Go skiing.
2. Master something I’ve never tried. – This is a tough one to determine completeness. I definitely learned that I need to make these goals more specific. I’ve done a lot of things I hadn’t tried before over the course of the year, but did I master any of them? Some more than others. For example, I’m excellent at dealing with my bills and things now, but I wouldn’t say that’s something to check off. Not like becoming a black belt having never done martial arts before. Let’s call this one a push.
3. Ride a Segway. – This one wasn’t for lack of trying. I’ve looked into Segway tours pretty much everywhere I’ve gone just to try it out but they’re always so darned expensive and not really worth the cost. Adding this one to next year’s list.
4. Road trip from Northern CA to Southern CA.
5. Tour Europe. – DEFINITELY accomplished this one. And it was the best decision I’ve ever made. I would do it again in a heartbeat. (See travel.jennvargas.com)
6. Travel to a country I’ve never been (Canada doesn’t count). – I consider this one kind of cheating since I’d never been to any of the countries I visited in Europe, but yes, this one gets the check mark.
7. Try real sushi – like raw fish sushi, not crab/shrimp/veggie sushi. – I’m not sure whether to check this one off. I’ve had raw fish, but I don’t know if it would be considered sushi. Raw fish is still a huge step for me considering seafood is probably one of my least favorite things, so I’ll call this a win.
8. See at least one Broadway show that I haven’t already seen.
9. Visit 3 states I’ve never visited.
10. Visit a place where I don’t speak the local language. – Another one that I can group in with the cheating list. I didn’t speak the local language in most of the places I visited in Europe.
11. Watch the sun set over the Pacific.

College Things:

12. Avoid senioritis at all costs. – I worked my rear end off for my final semester. I think it had to do with taking classes that I actually liked.
13. Become a morning person again. Up at 8 or 9AM, none of this 11AM nonsense. – I have to say that this one didn’t actually happen until after college, but I definitely wake up early now.
14. Go to the top of the Clocktower for a chimes concert. – This is the one I’m most disappointed about not accomplishing. I even had a chance when I went back to Cornell in October, but I didn’t have the time to go. I WILL get to the top of that clocktower.
15. Have lunch with a friend at least once/week. – Did this during school and arguably still since I have lunch with my coworkers.
16. Read at least 3 school/major-related books. (3/3) – I really should have written down the names of the books but I know Here Comes Everybody
    was one of them.
17. Try to complete as many things possible on the “161 things to do before you graduate Cornell” list — in one day. – Did pretty well with this one. Can’t remember how many I ticked off, but it was a decent number.
18. Go to sleep before 11PM twice/month. – Sadly I go to sleep before 11 more than twice/month these days. I usually fall asleep around 10:30 watching TV and then doze on and off until I actually go to sleep in my bed. This whole getting up early thing is a killer.
19. Hand off the Photo Department to Matt in a state that I can be proud of. – I like to think that I did a pretty solid job with the Photo Department during my time as Photo Editor and I think Matt got to start his term on a strong foundation. (02.28.2009)

Food-related:

20. Bake more.
21. Cook at least twice/week. (You’d be amazed at how many meals of chips and salsa or hummus and crackers one can eat in a week.) – I was doing really well with this one during school but then once I moved I lost it. I have been traveling too much lately to keep food around but that’s definitely one of my goals for 2010.
22. Go back to Pinkberry. – Went with Meghan and Matt during winter break. Now that I’m in San Francisco again it’s not nearly as novel but I still love this stuff! (01.13.09 [photo])
23. Go back to Serendipity 3 (thanks Lissy!)
24. Go on a picnic. – Another cheating one since most of my food consumption while traveling was picnic style.
25. Have more dinner parties. – Another where I did well during school but lost momentum after graduation.
26. Learn to cook empanadas. – I KIND of learned, but I need to get my hands on the recipe.
27. Learn to like wine. – I no longer have a complete aversion to it so I call this a win. There are some wines I enjoy – mostly whites – but I’m slowing acquiring a taste.
28. Make chocolate covered fruits (strawberries in particular). – I bought one of those microwave melt chocolate things and dipped strawberries in them every day for like 2 weeks. That was fantastic. (02.18.2009)
29. Make macarons.
30. Make my own pizza from scratch. – I’ve yet to make my own dough so I consider this incomplete. I do make my own pizza, though. Wraps make excellent bases.
31. One last Cooking Extravaganza.
32. Order out at most once/week, but as infrequently as possible. – I set a rule for myself: eating out more than once a week is OK when it’s with friends. Every once in a while I stop by the Taqueria on my way home from the train station, but on average I don’t pick up dinner on the way home more than once a week.
33. Try a new recipe at least once/week.

Friendship:

34. Call a friend, no matter how busy I am, once a week to see how they’re doing.
35. Catch up with at least 4 old friends who have drifted away. – I’m really excited about this one. I got to reconnect with a lot of people over the course of this year and I’m so glad to be back in touch with them.
36. Hang out with Bayonne friends at least once before moving to CA. – more than once! Ioanna and Jimelle came to visit me at the shore and I also went up to Bayonne for the night just before I left for my going away party. I have to hang out with those guys more often.
37. Have Sunday Brunch with friends at least once/month. – This has become Saturday brunch but is still an almost weekly ritual.
38. Keep in touch with old friends: distance and time are not excuses.
39. Meet up with Natalie at least once (it’s been over 3 years!). – Natalie came to visit me at Cornell. (2/22/2009)
40. See Erin at least twice. – Sadly we only got to see each other once this year and that wasn’t in the happiest of circumstances. Hopefully Erin will be able to come visit San Francisco in 2010.
41. Snail mail is fun: send holiday/birthday cards. – I was SO CLOSE to finishing this one. In fact, the cards are all written, sealed, and addressed in my backpack right now. Life kind of got in the way and I never got to the post office to get stamps. Sad.
42. Spend more time hanging out with Margot. – Yep. We hung out a bunch. Now she’s in Ithaca and I’m in SF so that’s tough, but I did see her when I went to visit!
43. Visit Shannon in Portland. – Another that I’m really disappointed I didn’t get to do.

Habits:

44. Be less wasteful. – With all of the moving I did this year I was definitely very wasteful. I did have a garage sale and donate the things I didn’t want any more, but with all of the packing materials and boxes, etc., this definitely wasn’t a “green” year for me.
45. Blog at least once/week. – I did so well with this until I moved out to SF. With the lack of school and travels I’ve yet to find my new blogging mojo.
46. Don’t be a lazy typist. Use capitals and punctuation where necessary, but not unnecessarily. – I’d say I definitely got better at not typing like a high school student. Still a long way to go, especially in terms of accuracy.
47. Don’t sit at the computer for long periods of time. – HAHAH yeah. Right. Like this one is going to happen.
48. Don’t slouch, especially when I’m sitting at the computer for long periods of time. – I’ve definitely improved in this area though. Now if only I could get my hands on a Herman Miller.
49. Go an entire month without caffeine. (I don’t drink coffee or soda, but I do drink a lot of iced tea.) – This one wasn’t very difficult considering I don’t really drink a lot of caffeine in the first place. I basically just had to cut out iced tea.
50. Go outside at least once/day. Pajama days are better when they’re infrequent. – Not quite there yet, but making progress. I don’t have much of a choice now that I have Penny.
51. Make my bed every day for a month (bonus points if I can keep it up for longer!) – I tried. I just don’t get what the big deal is. I’m just going to unmake it in a few hours anyway.
52. Pick 1 day of the week and limit myself to email and classwork-related internet use. No twitter, flickr, facebook, RSS, or other time traps. More on that later.
53. Use the word “I” less often. It’s not all about me. – Made a conscious effort with this one over the course of the year. Tough to measure if I’ve actually managed to complete this one but let’s call it done.
54. Water is my friend. Drink it. – Water is good.
55. Wear my hair down at least once/week or get it cut shorter. – It still surprises me that I’ve actually managed to do this one. I used to HATE wearing my hear down, and to be honest it still bugs the crap out of me, but I do it.
56. Write more. You know, like with a pen. And while I’m at it, fix my handwriting. – I promise I tried, but my handwriting is atrocious.

Having a Job:

57. Aim for 30-under-30. – Nothing to report. Boo.
58. Find an apartment in San Francisco that I love. – Yep.
59. Keep up with new CSS things. – Made up a couple projects over the course of the year just so I could play around with the CSS3 things. Still a few more things that I’d like to try, but at least I don’t feel completely out of touch.
60. Learn my way around JavaScript and Processing.
61. Learn my way around RoR.

Money Things:

62. Have at least $3000 in savings account at the end of the year. – Yeah. Not so much. If I didn’t go to Europe it probably would have been a different story, but it was money well spent.
63. Have no credit card debt by the end of the year. – I follow the gospel of I Will Teach You To Be Rich
64. Finance a good portion of my trip to Europe by selling things I don’t use anymore. – Yep.
65. Learn how to do my taxes. – Postponing this one until next year. Graduation, moving to a new state, and all that other stuff make this one a year for an accountant.
66. Make good progress on paying back my college loans. – Grade period just ended. Now I just have a process in place, the progress part won’t be noticeable until next year some time. Hopefully.

Organization:

67. Don’t keep junk. I only need so many free pens.
68. Get my bank accounts in order and track where I’m spending too much money (yay Mint.com).
69. Keep my desk neat. Piles are the enemy.
70. Keep my room clean/organized/neat for an entire month. – This one is easy now that my bedroom is literally just a bed and a side table. My whole apartment is generally very neat though.
71. Throw away/sell/donate at least one thing I’ve been keeping “just in case” each week.
72. Organize my out-of-control music collection.
73. Plan aforementioned trip to Europe. – See travel.jennvargas.com.
74. Reduce my RSS subscriptions to <100 quality reads. – I think I’m around the same number I was last year. Some of the old standbys are there but more photography and less Engadget type echo-chamber-y sites.

Photography

75. Be in more photos rather than just taking them all the time. – Did well with this one, especially toward the end of senior year.
76. Find and organize non-digital photos from childhood. – Made good progress by digitizing a lot of the photos I found in the process of cleaning out my room for the move.
77. Finish my Project 365. – Matt and I agreed to end it sometime over the course of the summer. It made photography too much of a chore.
78. Print and frame at least 5 of my photos. What’s the point if they’re just sitting on my hard drive?I printed a lot of photos, but never framed any of them.
79. Try to make at least 1 HDR. – Tried and failed. I don’t particularly like HDRs.
80. Sell a photo. (I’ve sold a bunch of photo shoots already, but no photos that I’ve already shot)
81. Shoot and develop at least 8 rolls of film. – Far surpassed this one doing my Psych of Visual Comm final project

Just Because:

82. Build a snow man. – Just last week, in fact!
83. Buy a pair of awesome black heels.
84. Buy a really cool vintage camera. – Bought a bunch of them but still want more.
85. Complete the NYTimes Crossword Puzzle at least once/week (bonus for Sunday!)
86. Get the Sims 3, but curb my addiction. (read: practice self-control). – Got it, played with it, over it.
87. Go ice skating.
88. Go on a date (perhaps combine with #23?).- FAIL.
89. Learn 50 ASL signs that I don’t already know.
90. Lose 15 lbs. – Backpacking for 6 weeks helps.
91. Make decent progress on watching CSI from start to finish.
92. Make a “soundtrack of the year” with 20 of the songs that I loved in 2009.
93. Read at least 1 book by Jane Austen.
94. Read at least 3 non-school/non-major-related books. – Definitely read more than 3.
95. Re-learn Spanish. – Going to Spain really helped but I have a long way to go before I’m anywhere near fluency again.
96. Re-locate my imagination. – Still not where I’d like to be.
97. See at least 25 movies from the AFI Top 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) list – SO CLOSE! (21/25)
98. Sell something on eBay or craigslist.
99. Sell something on Etsy.
100. Try a sport other than volleyball, soccer or softball. – Unless paragliding counts?
101. Watch all of the Star Wars movies (I haven’t seen any!).

All I can say is thank god I don’t have to do that manually next year. 46 completed. Less than half, but definitely the better half. Almost done with my list for 2010. These things are tough! Check it out on 101in365: 101in365.com/jenn.

It was out of this that I wrote my first 101in365. A simple list that I put on my old blog. It’s still there and I still update it, but now that 2009 is coming to a close and it’s time for me to start working on my 101in365. I wanted something better for 2010. I wanted a way to automate it so I didn’t have to go through and add strikethroughs to each item and so I didn’t have to go into a blog post and scroll down to find my item. I wanted a way to keep track of the number of items I’ve marked as done, as in progress, and just as empty. I wanted to be able to manage my list more easily with a quick “heads up” view of my status. So I tried to automate it.

I started on Thursday night after a holiday party. I worked on it Friday night and all day Saturday. Some of Sunday and a teeny bit of Monday and here we are. A tiny weekend project to make my life easier that sort of snowballed into a multi-user site with a whole to-do list of features (not quite 101 of them, but close!) that I still have to add.

I’m really excited about this project and I hope you’ll join and start creating a list of your own. It’s most certainly still a work-in-progress, but I’m a firm believer that getting a site out into the wild and into the hands of users is the best way to learn what works and what doesn’t and go from there. So head on over to 101in365.com and sign up!