Did you guys download our February desktop calendar yesterday? For some reason the desktop settings for my MacBook Pro reset every time I restart (tips appreciated), so I will probably just not shut it off this month so I can keep this one handy, ha. Eeek. As you could probably tell if you read my post 3 Steps to a Better Blog in 2015, I started this year with a few goals in mind. I think it’s really important to take time each month and reevaluate your commitments and efforts. A month is long enough that you can get into a rhythm, yet short enough that changes can be made if need be. In short, a month is pretty much the best time frame ever for planning and such.
I thought I’d share a few of the goals I made for 2015 and where I’m at in order to focus and learn a) if I’m doing what I planned, b) if I even want to do what I planned, c) what to do this month to get on track. I’ll do this by beginning the month writing down a few goals and leaving a little space to check in 30 days later, on the day I want to write my goals for the next month. So, here goes my monthly check in + new goals:
January Blogging Goals
1. Blog daily. I want to write close to five times a week in order to share everything I planned on my editorial calendars back in December and grow my blog.
2. Discover more blogs. Recently I did a blogging clean out where I stopped following blogs that were no longer being updated or that no longer interest me. But that doesn’t mean I want to stop reading, I just want to find things more relevant to my life. Time to get exploring.
3. Brainstorm ideas for The Blog Market. We really hit the ground running with TBM at a time that I had a lot going on with other projects. I want to really sit down, go through feedback we’ve received, and write out all the ideas I have.
Those were three simple goals. Looking back, I will not lie to you. I DID NOT FOLLOW THROUGH. I did not blog daily. I did not even discover a great many new and wonderful blogs like I’d hoped (though I did find a few new reads!). So before kicking off February, I needed to take sometime to evaluate:
1. Blogging daily for my personal blog, this blog, and my freelance work, was too much. It was far too ambitious to do this and there’s no way they would’ve been what I wanted them to be. Actually, it now seems kind of crazy that I’d even try it. Now that I know this, I’ve adjusted my goal: Blog three times a week.
2. Sometimes taking time to do things for myself falls off when I have a long to-do list. But I know this is important to me and something I can still fit in, so this month I want to make sure to dedicate a day to just reading, not writing blogs.
3. Toward the end of last month, I brought just my notebook and wallet to a local café and wrote out all my blogging ideas. Once I actually took the time to unplug and reset, I was able to focus on TBM. This goal was a success and I am super excited to share more this month, and repeat the process.
So there are three simple goals from January that I evaluated and transformed into February plans that work better for me and are actually attainable. Have you done anything like this? I’d love to hear a goal you had, whether you achieved it, and what it means for this month. PS: Sounds like a good blog post prompt, to me! Let us know if you write about your goals this month. xo