New year, New goals

This time last year I looked back on all of our adventures during 2015 and I am still shocked and amazed at just how many fabulous opportunities we have had because of this blog. We appreciate each and every one of them and I know that 2017 will be filled with many more adventures but what I have also realised is that I work too much and that this really needs to change. It is time to use the new year to set myself some new goals.

Over the last year, I have implemented a few things that have helped me to increase my productivity but there are still huge areas that I can improve. I have tried to only blog once a day during the week and not to work weekends. This did slip sometimes when my workload increased but for the most part, it worked well. I want this to continue but with a focus on more video content I will actually cut this down to three posts a week. I feel that this should be enough to cover everything that I want to cover without me feeling overwhelmed. I will instead be creating more video content for my toy reviews and days out. I want to be posting on my Youtube channel at least twice a week.

2016 saw me host two Blog On conferences in Manchester and I am planning on doing the same in 2017. I have also started working with some amazing toy brands to help them with their blogger outreach and I have gone from one client to six which has certainly taken more of my time. This is something I really enjoy so by removing some of my blog writing time I hope to be able to focus on these areas more and I am already planning ways to increase this side of my business.

The other change I will be implementing is to start running again. I really enjoy running when I get started so I am going to sign up to do a charity run later in the year which will give me the inspiration to get going. I have given up on dieting as I sabotage myself too much but I hope that by giving myself time to exercise I can help to change my mindset towards food too. We have a once in a lifetime cruise to the Bahamas in July and I want to feel happy with how I look by then. It is definitely something to put some time towards.

It seems that with nearly everything I want to do this new year, the key is time. I need to find ways to increase my productivity. I will be using a stick to stigu planner again this year as well as creating a content schedule. I will be using my desk as my work space and I am banning the use of my laptop on the sofa. This will hopefully make the time I do spend in front of my laptop more efficient and give me more time to spend with my family and focusing on myself.

So although I don’t have any new year resolutions and even though I don’t have any set plans on where I want my blog to be in the next year, I definitely have some personal goals on how I spend my time. I hope that when I look back on this post next year I will be happy with the knowledge that I did my best.

Here is to a happy, healthy, productive 2017!