My 2019 Business Goals

I told myself there was no way I was going to make any sort of resolutions that I would end up not following through on. Then, I did write a few things down. In fact, on both blogs I shared a few of those with you. I am so ANTI resolutions that you would not even believe it. Then I spent the past two weeks coming to terms with the things I want this year.

I think, like most people I spent too many years putting too much importance on January 1st. I used to rush to write down all of these goals only to lose the paper before the month was out. If I didn’t lose it then I would look back at the end of the year and realize I was a totally failure. That was when I decided a couple of years ago that I wasn’t going to do them anymore!

It is now January 11th and I have thought I would share my business goals for this year. I don’t know if I would manage to complete them all but what I do know is that I am in the place to better achieve them. The biggest thing is the way that I plan on writing and posting articles which I share with you when I talked about writing smarter not harder.

Before I get into all of that though I want to share with you my word for 2019. I have only ever had a word for the year one time before. Actually I have two words for this year which I know isn’t the the purpose of the word of the year but I felt I needed two. Anyway the words for the year is…..

Simplify & Happy

I want to simplify my business life as well as personal life. Yet I want to be happy in both. I think if I simplify and I’m not happy with it then that defeats the purpose. It sets me up for failure. That doesn’t sit well with my type A personality.

My Business Plans for 2019

1 | Simplify My Schedule

This was something that I already did. I decided that I would only do x number of articles on any given day. I told myself that I cannot accept other work for days that are full. I have set aside one day a week that will remain open to accept additional work if needed. If not, then that is a day off. I have a day set aside to do nothing but behind the scenes admin stuff that get lost in the mix. One of the biggest thing is saying that it is okay to take days off.

Why you ask? Because I sat at my computer Christmas Day catching up a few things because life got in the way and left me behind. There is no way I am missing out on those things anymore. I want to be able to accept that there are things that will come up. I will get sick or not feel well. However, I don’t want to worry about all of the work that has to be done if I do take a sick day.

To help with that I have been prepping more than ever before. When a brand agrees to work with me I go ahead and draft their article. No, not the review part. But the parts where I share brand information, brand links, etc. I have the article set up so I can get things added in quickly. Doing that has cut my writing time down by thirty minutes.

I have also simplified our personal schedules. There are the million after school activities or all the volunteering that we normally do. Everyone was allowed to keep a few things they love. I don’t want our days so full that we end up missing out on the joy of life all together.

We don’t have to do it all. We can say no. I can say no. I don’t have to serve on every committee at church because everyone expects me to. I am allowed to pick and choose what I do.

2 | Simplify My Ideas

Okay this is an area I have a hard time with. It is where my personality tends to lean more towards type B than A. I have notebooks full of ideas. Things that I want to do and that I think everyone will love. I need to do them all, right?

Wrong.

I need to tone it down and pick one or two of those ideas to complete and be happy with them. Doing that will allow me to achieve my other goals for the year.

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3 | Simplify My Expectations

This was also hard because I expect so much of myself. However by doing that I set myself for failure all the time. The best example is last year I had this huge list of articles that I wanted to share with all of you. Included in that list was a few pictures from our Walking Dead Tour. I got so busy attempting to get it all done I didn’t get any of those pictures shared.

Did I tell y’all why? Nope I just went on and when I realized that I didn’t share those pictures I felt horrible. It was too late though because I had moved onto something else.

That is something that will not be happening anymore. I am going to bring down the expectations I put on myself to a much more realistic goal. It will help me in so many ways.

4 | Simplify My Finances

My finances are okay. Yeah right! I have finally gotten the last of the IRS paid off last year. It was from back taxes that my ex never filed. Does that men that everything is good?

Yes and no. This year I plan to do more. I started by making my first stock trades on e*trade. My brother told me that he began doing his own and I felt that I wanted to do a little. Don’t worry I didn’t make a huge investment. In fact, I only bought two shares but it is an start.

That is just the beginning.

I am also using the snowball effect to pay off several smaller bills that I have been only paying the minimum. By the end of the year I plan to be almost debt free. I am so excited about this. As long as I am able to stick with my plan I should be good.

January Business Goals

Every month I thought I would share what the business goals for that month is. I plan on doing that in the monthly outlook and then checking back in you y’all on them in the wrap up at the end of the month. Here are January’s goals.

1 | Get My Email Under Control

I get thousands of emails a day. I am unsubscribing rather than deleting the ones that I no longer read, use, or need. It is time to control that baby. It will save me so much time.

2 | Get My Calendar Under Control

I have a couple of calendar systems that I use and I need to get them all together. I am awaiting the arrival of my new planners and I will be sharing with y’all how I use and set them up. I also will share with y’all my new system. I sort of stumbled across the system that works well for me.

3 | Figure Out Project Management

I had been using Trello for this but it has really overwhelmed me and I decided I need to come up with something a little better for myself. While the lists are all fabulous I need something a little more structured and give me a little better control. I will let y’all know what I end up with.

Those are three big things I want to get done this month as well as everything I am planning for this year. You can follow along with me every month as I let you know what acheive.

What is your plans or words for 2019? Let me know in the comments below.