10 Blogging Resolutions for the New Year

Small potted tree with iMac in the background

Dear Lydia,

I usually like to take the entire month of January to develop my resolutions for the year, but lately I’ve been reading some stellar posts about blogging (Elle Sees, Copyblogger) and I took some time to make New Year’s blogging resolutions for 2015.

You may have guessed that 2014 was a busy year for me. I stopped working, went back to school, switched careers and found a new job. I spent buckets of money while not making any, a frightening thing to do in New York. And I ran extremely low on time. Time for friends, time for blogging, time for… everything.

What I want for this blog in 2015 is different. I want it to be more. In many ways, I want to take a look at my roots and get back to the place where blogs were more like online journals.

I’m thinking about not accepting product placements in the next year. I’m thinking about not attending fashion week.

I’m thinking.

And since I’ve been thinking, I’ve come up with 10 blogging resolutions for this year:

1. Write.

Often.

2. Take more photos.

I miss photography. I hardly ever take photos any more, even with my iPhone.

3. Eat vegetables.

I’m serious. More vegetables = better thinking = better writing. I hope. 90% of the time I spent writing in 2014, I felt like I was on mindless autopilot.

That’s not what I want. Not for me, or for you. If I’m going to write, it will be mindfully.

I once wrote by the rule that in every piece of writing, I should make my reader laugh, cry or inspire a moment of reflection.

I want to get back to that this year.

4. Get the spam problem under control.

It seems like WordPress spam is out of control lately. Currently I’m using the Growmap Anti Spambot Plugin, but it’s not exactly ideal (not a fan of the extra checkbox step) and it only protects against bots. Time to wire up a real solution.

5. Fix up the theme.

I’ve been wanting to make a few layout changes to my blog theme. I know I can do it myself, but I need to schedule some time to dig around because design work isn’t my specialty.

6. Make time to read the blogs I love.

I miss catching up with my blogging friends. I get sad when I miss so many posts in a row. Community is my favorite part of blogging and I don’t like feeling so distant from it.

I also want to get back to leaving thoughtful comments.

7. Just make time.

I don’t have time for anything, and when I do have an extra ten minutes I’m too tired to do anything with it. How often do I tell myself ‘tomorrow’ or ‘I’ll write it over the weekend’. Why wait? I need to make time today.

8. Explore.

Do you ever get the feeling that you’re sort of stuck in your little corner of the web? There’s so much great content on the web that I never see. I need to get out more.

9. Change the story.

I’ve sort of been flailing lately (in life and in blog). I’ve been thinking been thinking about it a lot, and I’ve realized that I need to change my story. Even small changes here and there will have an impact, so I’ll be working on change a lot this year.

10. Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

I’m really not growing at a rate I find acceptable. I think it may have something to do with my not being a risk-taker. In fact, I feel like over the past year I’ve become not even not-a-risk-taker– maybe I’ve gotten some bad code with an infinite do-nothing-that-deviates-from-the-routine loop.

I feel like I’m stagnating. And I don’t like it. I spend time on personal development almost every day, and still I feel like I’m stagnating.

It’s not good. And it affects both my mood and my writing.

This year I need to take a calculated risk or two. I need to do something to give myself a bit of a push. Maybe a writing challenge?

I don’t know, but I’ll be working on it.

Do you have any resolutions for the new year?

Comments

  1. says

    #7: You and me both. I’ve been so checked out of my friends’ blogs, which means I’ve been checked out of their lives to a large degree. Time to catch up! I continually get into the cycle of feeling too tired to leave good comments->not commenting->feeling guilty->not reading posts due to guilt avoidance. I hope I can make my therapist proud by embodying Opposite Action.

    • says

      I feel exactly the same way… that happens to me all the time. I am hoping to have more time this year. 2014 was a year of too much upheaval, I think.

  2. says

    Picture me giving a standing ovation for this post! I love what you said about taking a look at your roots and going back to the time when blogs were more like online journals. #1 and #2 and two things I especially want to work on. I don’t think I mentioned this on the blog, but I’d like to try writing a few longer posts where I just share my thoughts on a subject and possibly get a bit of discussion going. Also, I want to take my camera out more on the weekends and just capture everyday life. I need the practice!

  3. says

    Alex,
    I love your voice and think that you did indeed do what you set out to do. This is a thoughtful post, enjoyable to read, and did make me think about priorities and time, which goes by so very fast. I am sorry for your difficult year,but change is good and I hope it serves you well, I think it will.
    You have many talents, your writing, your heart, your voice, and those tech skills, now I am just plain envious!
    To more posts like this one, and a fabulous 2015.
    Xx, Elle
    http://mydailycostume.com

  4. says

    Interesting – I do not have any spam filter whatsoever and don#t have word verification etc, but hardly have any spam comments, maybe one in four posts.

    Thanks for your lovely words on my last post!

    -Kati

  5. says

    Oh how I fear change. Fear risks, feel stuck. I worry that I’m supposed to be an adult now but don’t know how to. I felt like last year after losing my job I had an opportunity to do anything, but instead I enjoyed a summer of unemployment and got another office job. I wanted to grow the blog, I wanted my name out there… I now get hate tweets because of extreme cheapskates. I want to take more photos. I started my blog because I wanted to take more photos and now outfit photos are all I have.

    I love your resolutions for this year, and I think you will do well with them. I think it’s great you took last year to make a big life change, and I’m happy you were successful. Of course I would love to see more of you here!

    • says

      Sometimes I think it’s important for us to take a little time off– I’ll bet you had a great summer.

      It’s interesting… I actually hope I won’t become famous. I’d love a small community, but I wouldn’t want to be too recognized.

      I’m hoping to be here more! Monday and Thursday, I think, but we’ll see.

  6. says

    Fabulous list! Hope you make more time for us :) hehe

    It would be pretty cool to see how your blogging changes if you don’t accept product placement.

    Happy New Year!

    • says

      Most likely it would be clothing product placement only… I might still accept accessories, and I would accept beauty. But yes, it would be an interesting change. Maybe I’ll write more about later.