Inspired to do some end of year stats for myself.

Jamie's end-of-year post and a subsequent conversation we had got me thinking. I'm not a "new year predictions" kind of gal (I tend to just roll with it), nor am I a "looking back at last year" or "new years resolutions" person either, mainly because I do a bit of reflecting throughout the year when circumstances call for it. But the idea of doing some personal stats for the year, like a personal year-end report, that could be pretty cool, right? Something to compare to next year?

So here goes. As of today, December 31, 2008:

Blog posts (this year): 350
Blog posts (to date): 422
Blog subscribers: 230 (via feedburner)
My comments (as per Backtype): 153
Online communities started and nurtured: 1 (YAP - 344 members, 67 discussions)
Online communities joined: (too many to count right now but I'm keeping track)
People I follow on Twitter: 1,275
People who follow me on Twitter: 1,346
Tweets: 2,367
Facebook friends: 358
LinkedIn groups I belong to: 9
LinkedIn contacts: 170
Blog feeds in my reader: 94
Unread blog posts right now: 1
Emails in my inbox: 24
Articles written and published (this year, with Lindy): 7-10
Books written this year: 0 (at least 3 are in various stages of progress)
Webinars given this year: 2
Speaking gigs this year: 7(I think)
Credentials earned: (1 exam taken, don't know results yet)
Number of SocialFish clients (at official launch, Dec 31): 11

I'm sure there are other things I should start tracking. I also want to say these numbers are totally meaningless right now. They are just a baseline. The goal will NOT be to grow them all, necessarily. In some (possibly many) places, I'll want to reduce quantity and grow quality. In others, growing by one might be totally huge (say if I publish a book - how totally amazing would that be?). What I hope is that this time next year, if I choose to compare stats to those listed here, that I'll be able to really determine what has been important over the year, maybe what I have forgotten here that proves to be important, what is irrelevant and should come off the list.

I think this could be a good exercise to undertake but I know it won't show me what really matters, which is whether I've truly done good work, helped anyone, been a good person, been true to myself, been a true friend... We shall see.

Happy New Year. Hope you have a truly awesome 2009.