Because let’s be honest, it is pretty much winter now.
Can you believe how few weeks there are left until the New Year? In some ways this year seems to have flown by but for me it’s also seems to have dragged. I think the reason it has dragged as the mundane day to day seems to have taken over and I can’t see adventures to look forward to. My health has taken a dip again and a few plans have needed to be put on hold but I’m optimistic that they will be rescheduled in the near furture.
If I’m honest I don’t think I’ve achieved half I wanted to this year and when most of the things were originally intended for last year and with health and life being what it was they never saw a look in last year. this does disappoint me. One thing I have realised is that I need to wind in my expectations and actual realise how much an effect my health is having on my life. It’s something that I really don’t want to admit to myself let alone put it out on the internet for eternity.
Work wise, I wanted to:
Views And Social Media
I’m happy with how my social medis stats have grown, especially twitter where I reached the 5k followers that I planned for the whole year. I’ll be honest, Instagram has sort of ground to a hault andfacebook have increased then again stayed at the same level. It is so hard to reach out to new followers on all aspects of Social Media as the likes of Facebook specifically are reducing showing your blog pages to actual followers without allowing non followers to see your page. The only comfort I can get from this is everyone is feeling this and it’s not just me.
My Other Blogs
As well as this blog I also have a couple of others which took a huge back seat in 2017. I have posted on them but nowhere near as often as I would have liked. I have planned when to publish and have penciled in titles and made some notes.
Email Subscribers
I’m happy to say that I have doubled my email subscribers but the last 2 moths they have come to a stand still but I’ve got plans for the future. Just watch this space!
Be More Organised And Schedule Posts In Advance
You know when you let something slide and suddenly you seem to be on the back foot all the time and just can’t catch back up? Well that is what it has felt like this year. Healthwise, it’s just been one thing after another and my energy levels have been so annoyingly low before I even take in to account my lack of concentration.
Things have got better the last couple of weeks but I know they need to improve but most importnatly I need to stop feeling guilty for not being able to achieve what can oly be described as impossible bar I set for myself. I’veealuated my original plans and now have a much better system in place wheich I am hoping I can continue with in the future.
Publish An E-book
I will be totally honest. This has seen very little progress but I would still like to make it a reality. I have been drilling down my plans and I need to find time to get cooking and start writing. Always much easier to say than actually do but I’m determined this will happen sometime soon.
What Happens Now?
Things have been simplied and workable plans are in place. My new planning system is really helping me get on top of things and I’m now in the second month of it and I’m feeling like I’ve bedded in a system that can work for me and I can move forward with. It’s also giving me a creative outlet which is something I love but have not been able to do for some time. Now the difficult job of putting these plans in to action begins!
For the rest of the year I am going to;
- Continue to develop a strong brand ethic, think pretty matching colours and design.
- Stick to my new posting schedule.
- Be more present on socila media.
- Schedule writing sessions where I focus only on writing (read coffee shop working lol, I need to get out from these same 4 walls on a regular basis and I’m always far more productive too)
- Send regular newsletters once a month (you can sign up here if you aren’t already)
- Post about some of the afternoon teas I haven’t written about yet
- Treat myself to a festive afternoon tea, for work purposes.
I really think the key is simplicity and fun but isn’t that what life should be about?
What are your goals for the rest of the year?
