By Mel Lockcuff, Miss December 2014

When I first began to think about this last post as Miss December, I thought about just general ways to welcome in the New Year; and that could be fun. After thinking about it a little more, though, I thought it’d be even better to put a blogging spin on the New Year. So, without further adieu, here are 5 ways to welcome in the New Year as a blogger:

1) Step away from your computer (and other oh so handy electronics). Put down the mouse, take out the ear buds, shut it all down. Take some time to really enjoy this last part of the holiday season with the ones you love.

2) Take time to re-evaluate where you’re going and what you’re doing. Get a fresh perspective on things. Step away long enough to get a grasp on where you’re headed with your blog in 2015. Think about what you want to accomplish and how you want to grow. What is most important to you? What is most important to your readers? What are you most passionate about? What are you doing right now that you would drop in a heartbeat, and what would you replace it with, if anything? If given the opportunity, what’s the one thing you would like to accomplish in 2015? What do you want to learn, and how can you learn it? Can you take a course, attend a conference, network? Write it all down…this is where you pick up pen and paper and write it all out the old-fashioned way.

3) Begin to formulate a plan. Once you’ve written everything down, begin to create a plan that is both doable and actionable. Whether you set goals, resolutions, or just take baby steps…set your sights on the plan before you and don’t waver. Small steps lead to big successes in life. Taking enough time to take those steps, and not hurry through just to get to your end goal, leads to more quality work, more quality relationships. As a wise woman once said at AWBU (Alli Worthington), “Learn to say no, so you can say yes.”

4) It may seem cliché, but get organized. Organize your blog and business just as you would any other professional entity. If you want to be taken seriously, as a professional, then you have to be professional. Get your finances in order and create documents to help you stay on top of accounting, client work, payments due, writing assignments, and more. Google Drive is FREE(https://www.google.com/drive/), as is Wave(https://www.waveapps.com/) for finances. I’m also loving the Shake app for contracts. These are just a few options within the multitude of options available. Looking for a planner? I recommend Plum Paper; I heart my planner!

5) Take time to take care of you. I get it…as a busy mom who homeschools and works at home, there’s barely enough time in the day to figure out which end is going which some days. Get up a few minutes earlier, and enjoy a cup of coffee before the kids are awake. If you’re not an early riser (the older I get, the more of a night owl I’m becoming), take advantage of that time after the kids go to bed. Or maybe it’s just stopping at your local coffee shop for a treat…or starting a good book (and finishing it, even if it takes a month or two)… Take time to take care of you because you are so worth it, my friend. Doing something you enjoy, even if just a few minutes a day, makes a world of difference in how you feel, how you respond, how you live.

Happy New Year to you and yours! May 2015 be a beautiful, wonderful year!