This will be the last year of my 30s.
Might as well send this decade of my life out with a flourish. One way I do that is with my annual resolutions, setting goals and a direction for where I want to get.
Below, I share them for my own reference.
Here they are:
- January: Finish and edit the draft of my novel, ready for feedback. I have a fiction story I mostly drafted years ago. I set it aside when my kids were born. I’m not sure to what end but I want to finally say it’s finished.
- February:Publish my “journalism thinking” ebook, complete with an online launch strategy. After years of writing on the strategy of using fact-based and people-first storytelling to build community online, I drafted a nonfiction book concept I intend to finally push out.
- March: Set a monthly date with SACMW. I’ve had this as a resolution before, and I like the tradition it set, so I’m focusing on it again, including a long weekend and anniversary trip abroad.
- April: Pitch one freelance story monthly, aiming to publish in three new national outlets. I intend to widen the reach of my work in the hopes of a bigger platform in the future. So I will get started with pitches on my reporting on entrepreneurship, technology and its workforce, local economic trends and passions of mine like whiskey and history.
- May: Make our office/newsroom self-sustaining and vibrant, achieving at least break-even rent. I resigned a lease for Technically’s Philadelphia HQ and newsroom, and we’ve grown a small community of paying members with us. I intend to make this space more dynamic and cover our rent while doing so.
- June: Focus on my diet to weigh 190 again. Make it mid-year being mindful of portions, and back on the scale.
- July: Update and implement a measurable social media strategy for both personal and professional growth. With federated media generally and my interest in social video growing, I feel the need for a next stage of my personal and professional social strategy.
- August: Develop a working prototype for an AI-powered agent or app. This will move quickly but after my first few customGPT trials (I made a handful in December to play with their use), I want to do something bigger with AI, perhaps either establishing my first agent of sorts, or developing a web app or something to move forward my skills.
- September: Complete kid projects. I’m keen on each year tackling some kind of project with my children. I have a head start for 2025 with a Philly ABCs book project, though I also want to stand up a Little Library.
- October: Define my next book project. If I’ll have flushed out a few old book projects, I want to push myself to identify the next.
- November: Finalize Technically’s next 5-year strategic plan. This year will close out my first, so I’ll lead us in developing the next, and I intend it to include my own succession plan (which is truly important whether I leave someday or not)
- December: Operate Technically with at least a 5% profit margin. The books need to make sense, so I need to build on the modest trend of the post-pandemic years.