Happy New Year!

Image credit: sellingpix / 123RF Stock Photo

I haven't blogged in almost three weeks. Part of me is disappointed in myself - I haven't been absent this long since I started Creative Hodgepodge. But apparently I needed this time to recharge. It's been a very, very busy writing year for me, and while I'm excited about that, I am also ready for some changes. Some of them are necessary for my health, and some are for my own need to set goals so that I can feel like I've accomplished something. It's kind of like my need to write out a "to do" list every morning so that I can cross things off and see what I've done by the end of the day.

So here are my writing goals for 2013:

1. Complete at least two more books for the Stitching Post Quilting Guild series

2. Complete the sequel to Samurai's Garden

3. Write another Christmas story

Here are my crafting goals for 2013:

1. Complete at least two quilt tops a month for the Helping Hands Quilt group

2. Organize scrapbooking supplies

3. Organize and use up enough crafting supplies so that I can store my "stuff" in one room of the house

Now comes the hard part: how can I make all this happen?

Part of my problem is that I waste a lot of time online. Between my laptop, my phone, and my ipad, I'm "hooked up" for a large part of each day. It's great for looking things up and keeping up on the news from my kids and grandkids and friends - but it's also a huge time drain. So I need to take a tip from Margaret Yang - when I start in on social media, I need to set a timer. When the timer goes off, the internet turns off too. I love to play online Boggle and Words with Friends, and Sudoku is addicting. But I don't NEED to play each one twenty times a day. So that has to be cut back.

Work also tends to take up a lot of my energy, if not my time. Fortunately, things get slower in retail during the first part of the year so I'm hoping my hours at the bakery will decrease. And this semester I'm scheduled to teach only one section of my course instead of two, so that will help. Fewer papers to grade, and four hours a week less at school. More time to write. I've also got to limit my "down" time. When I get home from work I tend to flop down in a chair and not get up until it's time to go to bed. I need to stop pampering myself like that. Maybe the timer thing will work there, too. Get home from work, jump in the shower to loosen up the muscles, and maybe allow myself an hour to catch up on correspondence. Then I need to get up off my duff and get something done - like laundry, or crafting.

This is a big change for me. Very optimistic goals. It's going to take a whole new mind set. I really don't think I'm lazy, but I do tend to waste a lot of time. So the deal is I need to cut down on the unproductive time. Maybe then my kids will stop threatening to put me on the Hoarders show on television.

So what have you got planned for this year?