Key To Korean needs an upgrade. 

After being “away” from the site for a while, here are the first major things I noticed when coming back to it:

• Design: complicated, cramped, too much information/stuff
• Colors: not bad, but could use tweaking and optimization
• Fonts: old and small
• Images: not consistent
• Page organization: haphazard, unorganized
• Plugins: too many, not optimized
• Missing: Sitemap, About Page, Subscriptions, Community, Forums
• Navigation: not simple, not clear
• Ads: big, bulky, not incorporated smoothly into the design
• SEO: Post titles are long, breadcrumbs are too long, keywords are not focused
• Mobile: Not optimized, also a cramped design

The major things that need to be worked on this Fall include:

1. A New Theme – simplified, more whitespace (and with better Ad integration)
2. A full website audit – What works? What doesn’t?
3. Reduced plugins – reduced memory load, increase page speed
4. Better Page organization – subdivided pages that follow the blog’s own categories (show a list of the most recent Posts at the bottom of the page where the Page Title matches a Category name)
5. A New Writing Style – better images, better SEO, better content
6. A New “Editorial Calendar” – to decide what to Post on which days, how frequently, and so on

I also need an upgrade.

• TOPIK: My TOPIK certification expired a year ago – I need to test again (TOPIK II)
• VISA: My VISA is expiring in 2 more weeks – I’d really love to get the F5 Permanent Resident’s VISA – and hopefully I’ll be able to rather painlessly
• Career: In February of this year, I made it to the LAST stage of an interview for an internship with WordPress VIP. That near success has pushed me to study more PHP and try to get certified as a PHP developer to increase my chances for the next time
• Body: This summer, I’ve spent the past 2 months dieting, cycling, and doing outdoor bodyweight exercise with a personal trainer (my friend) – I want to keep that up
• Blogging: I want to establish a new “Editorial Calendar” for Key To Korean, but I also really need to start blogging about web development if I want to build an online presence in that industry as well as I’m looking that direction for my future career path

So, the major things I’m looking into for myself for the Fall include:

1. Daily exercise – keeping up the summer habit and increasing
2. Daily blogging – I won’t be able to Publish on Key To Korean everyday, but I’ll try to be regular with 1-3 new Posts per week. I’m also going to be working on my web development blog
3. Daily study – I need to focus on PHP and Korean. I hope to be able to take BOTH exams (Zend for PHP, TOPIK for Korean) by the end of this year.

How can I effectively upgrade these things?

#1: It’s gotta become HABIT:

Motivation is what gets you started.
Habit is what keeps you going.
Jim Rohn

#2: And I’m going to have to start living by the clock in 1 hour increments.

I’m going to have to structure my life like they structure school schedules.

• Period 1
• Period 2
• Period 3
• …

If you’ve ever been a teacher (or even paid attention as a student in high school), you’d be surprised by just HOW MUCH material you can cover in a single semester, just plodding along, one hour per day, from beginning to end.

#3: And I’m going to have to establish limits on myself and stick with them

For example, this blog Post is already 575 Words long. Sometimes I write posts that are nearly 2,000 Words long – but those take 2-3 hours including all the research and linking I do. I’m going to have to start giving myself a cut-off point and sticking with it. Or I’ll find (again) the truth in the Parkinson’s Law:

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
C. Northcote Parkinson

Time to set my timer and get to work.

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