Welcome to 2024

a doodle from my hobonichi goals page

This week, I’ve stayed largely off social media, besides YouTube, and that was mostly because I was using it for background noise. The break was nice. It was needed. I spent a lot of time on the various social platforms and it was good to just detox from it.

It allowed me to sit down and figure out what I wanted from this year without being influenced by whatever media I was consuming, or by what others were doing. The last few years, I think I did a lot of comparisons that were essentially toxic for my mental being. Like why couldn’t my planner be pretty like so and so’s? Or why is that person selling more books or getting more viewers on their streams than I am?

Some form of comparison is always going to be a little inevitable, and it has taken me months to pick apart that little voice inside that says I suck and understand that there is more than just “that person is doing better.” It’s important to realize that maybe they’re working harder, or maybe they’re doing something brilliant and that’s the difference.

I’m no longer blindly following what everyone else does or what trend is hot right now. And honestly, I think it’s the best decision I’ve ever made.

So this week was all about planning for the new year and I think I’ve gotten to a place where it’s right for me. My Notion is all set up. My physical Kanban board is all set. I still need to write everything on my project calendar board, but I at least have all the deadlines written out on paper already.

doodle from my hobonichi

This week, I sat down and figured out my planner set up. I’m back in the Hobonichi again, and honestly, I like it a lot. The bullet journal was fun this year, but I’m ready to be low maintenance again.

My biggest goal this year is to be able to go sorta part-time at my job. I don’t want to get rid of it completely, because insurance and other benefits I need, but it would be nice for me to be comfortable and not feel like I’m working four different jobs. Stress has been a huge obstacle this year, so this job situation will help calm things down, I think.

I also started Bloodlines 4 this week, and I’m muddling through thoughts of a new series I’d like to fast release some time next year. It’s really fun to be writing again and enjoying myself doing it. Letting go of the pace I used to keep years ago was hard, and it made me feel like a massive failure. But I’m different than that person, and my life looks nothing like it used to back then. Realizing that was a good thing and it’s freed me to not stress about how fast I write.

I also realized I’m a plotter now and I wasn’t, way back then… so there’s that. Go figure. And even that sometimes depends on how the story forms in my head.

All that to say… I’m glad that December is over. It never fails that December is always a little stressful and in some ways, miserable. But 2023 wasn’t all bad. And I’m more excited for 2024, maybe because December is always a trial.

I hope you all had a fantastic New Year and I hope that 2024 will be your year to shine. Because I’m hoping it’ll be mine.