2023 Intentions

I can’t quite believe that it’s 2023 already. I think it doesn’t help that I spent Christmas/my birthday (they’re the same day) ill and haven’t really managed to do any of the usual holiday season things. I had so many plans for that week before Christmas, mainly things to make Bluebell Yarns even better at the beginning of 2023. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be, so there’s no point in lamenting the lost time.

Rather than resolutions, I’ve set five intentions of things I want to improve in 2023. I know myself enough that setting lots of goals just leads me to burn out, or not even get started. However if I set out things I want to work on, I know I’m much more likely to make progress.

Here, for accountability’s sake, are the things I want to improve in 2023:

1. Consistency. Whether it’s Bluebell Yarns related, such as posting on this blog or on social media, or in my personal life, I want to be more consistent. I know I become so inconsistent because I get busy behind the scenes doing practical things and forget that I need to tell people about them. I also get overwhelmed because I work from our small house and it gets messy incredibly quickly. It makes it difficult to take quick photos or videos of what I’m doing. I need to stop worrying about the mess. I’m sure most people won’t even care anyway!
2. Organisation. I’m pretty good at planning things, then never doing them. Or I have ideas that I get excited about but never find the time to do. I’ve changed the way I organise my time, which I hope will lead to more things getting done. I’m also trying to keep my space more organised. I’ve had to concede that two people living and running businesses in a small house is never going to lead to tidiness, but I can at least try to organise it so that it doesn’t take half an hour to find anything.
3. Creativity. Thanks to my problems with organisation, I find it quite difficult to be creative. As well as the obvious yarn based pursuits, I like to sew. I’m barely ever able to as there’s never enough floor or table space to lay out fabric or get out one of my sewing machines. It’s frustrating, and I’m hoping that more organisation means more room to be creative when I’m not working.
4. Health. I kept up running for nearly an entire year from August 2021 to August 2022. Then the heatwave hit and I took a break. The break got longer, then I sprained my ankle at Stitch Fest and it hasn’t been the same since. I feel unfit again, and I do actually enjoy running, so I want to get back to it. I’m going to start by strengthening my ankle, resuming long walks, then when the weather begins to warm up start running gently. I’m going to get back to eating better too. I don’t mean a fad diet, just eating a more balanced range of foods and cutting out some of the snacks that have become habit. I enjoy cooking, and am lucky to live in an area where local foods are widely available.
5. Time use. I’m a morning person. I like to power through my to-do list as early as possible, then at around 2pm tend to flag and waste a lot of the rest of the day. I’m going to take the morning a little more gently so I can distribute my energy throughout the day. I’m also going to limit my time aimlessly browsing, and not let little tasks that take ten minutes stretch to fill an hour. When I know I have something at a certain time, I find it difficult to use the time before it wisely. I need to find a way of using my waiting time to do things.

So there we are, the five main things I want to improve upon in 2023. I’ll check back at the beginning of February to let you know how it’s going.