All these resolutions I didn’t keep….

First of all let me wish you all a very happy 2013!!! 2012 had its ups and downs but I have a feeling that 2013 will be an amazing year.

So last year I posted the following new year resolutions on this blog, let’s see how I have done with that. As we will guess, not that great as I wanted to as I forgot about most of these resolutions as soon as February started.

1) I will be more consistent in my training: NOT REALLY, Yes I did workout and ran my second half marathon in a time I was really happy with but I wasn’t as consistent as I wish I would have been!

2) I will graduate (that’s for sure) with a 1st class degree! : YES! It did happen, happy days 🙂

3) I will STOP stalking people on Facebook and Twitter when I am bored: NO!  that didn’t happen. At all. I am not sure if it is stalking but I am doing a lot of Facebook/Twitter procrastination. Especially when I am in the library..

4) I will cook more often  and  try to avoid spending money on crappy food. NO! I had FAR too much of this in 2012. And let me tell you, after seeing this KFC brain picture I think I’ll stay away from junk food for a while !

5) I will lose a bit more weight : NOT REALLY, I think I lost a kilo compared to last year. That is after a week of gym. So ermmmm

6) I will get a new job and move forward : YES and NO. Right so I am still in the same job but I also have a new job at the General Assembly where I am a teacher for their user acquisition marketing course. It is really relevant to what I want to do so I guess to this extend I moved forward..

7) I will visit a new country (at least) : NO! And if there is one resolution I wish I would have been able to keep it is this one. Bring on 2013 and its travels!

8) I will read more and perfect my English: YES! I think the reading part is a big yes. Indeed the main difference between being an undergraduate and a postgraduate student is definitely the amount of required reading. The last three months of 2012 have been spent reading, day, night, lunch,at the gym, in bed, in the tube, everywhere!

9) I will call my mum more often YES! That I did, O2 is certainly happy about it and my bank account isn’t. But I am glad I did. I love my mum and living away from home actually brought us closer. And I know she misses me so let’s make her smile more and call more 🙂

10) I will learn to sometimes put myself first :YES! I actually did that a lot more. And it feels great!

VERDICT: 5 out of 10 

Right, not great but hey I won’t beat myself up too much. Instead I’ll try to actually make these 5 missing resolutions happen. To this I’d add

1) Pass my masters: And not especially with a distinction although it would be great,a merit would be good too!

2) Get a new job in my field of studies: This is THE resolution of the year. IT’s not even a resolution really but is HAS to happen

3) Spend more time with my friends and family: A normal Monday to Friday rota should hopefully help doing that!

4) Keep going to the theatre classes: Because I love it and it helps me to learn a lot on myself

5) Stop drinking diet coke on an everyday basis: Because let’s be honest as much as I love it is isn’t really good for my body. And now that I am soon to be in the 30’s side I might as well show some love to this body.

That is it I think. What about you? Any good resolutions this year?

Thanks to cloudflare you can now use Google analytics on your wordpress.com blog. Here is how:

Dear reader,

Yes… I haven’t blogged for a while. Now I must say that it wasn’t because I was on holiday tanning and enjoying delicuous cocktails. (I wish…). I have actually been really busy with my master degree at the London School of Economics and Political Science. I am loving my course as well as the uni.

So, today I am writing a post about Google analytics. Why? Well, I am currently a teacher assistant with General Assembly london working on their 8 weeks Customer Acquisition Marketing course. As part of the course content is on Google analytics I realised that I still haven’t installed it on my blog.

As I was looking on line to find a solution to finally be able to use Google analytics on my blog I came across this article. The article was really useful but I struggled to install the DNS names as I am not self hosted and purchased my domain through wordpress.com.

So here is a tuturial to help you install Google analytics on your worpress.com blog given that you purchased your domain through wordpress!

1. Install Cloudflare as jonathonbalogh explains here 

2. At the end of the installation cloudflare ask you to update your name servers

3. Leave this window open and go to your blog dashboard. There select store –> Domains

3. Under the menu “What would you like to do” click  Make changes to DNS

4. If you have never accessed this settings before you will be asked to enter a username and password. Chose a username and password. Remember to copy your customer reference number at this stage. you will need it on the next page!

5. Click on manage your domains. You will be ask your costumer reference number and your password before being taken to the next page. Click on your website name. Once on the page click on set nameservers.

6. Change the names of nameserver 1 and nameserver2  for the ones given to you by cloudfare.

7. If you haven’t done so before you must create a Google analytics account.  go to http://www.google.co.uk/analytics/ and create an account. You will then get a tracking ID.

8. On cloudlfare click on Settings –> cloudflare settings

9. Under setting overview click on Google analytics –> manage

10. Add the tracking code and press enter. Here we go, you are all set up!! 🙂

Voila! It seems to be working fine for me 🙂