2025 new year new me!

Well it’s a new year at least and I’d like to make some changes and set some goals which will hopefully help me become a better person. I know what you are thinking, I’m already such an amazing person how on Earth can I become better?!? 🥲 Let’s just say it was uncomfortably easy to think of 25 things…

Here they are and how I hope to achieve them. A lot of this will be me rambling.

Easy – I should be able to do these easily with a few changes to my daily routine/thinking

• 1 Drink more water – Actively drink more water, have a bottle on my desk. This should help towards being healthier.
• 2 Create a better sleep routine – Shut everything off at a usual time. I think it will also help to follow the 3, 2, 1 rule; no food 3 hours before, no drink 2 hours before, and no screen 1 hour before sleep.
• 3 Read a book each month – Dedicate some time each day to read a chapter or 2
• 4 Keep a tidy workspace – Actively keep my office tidy.
• 5 Duolingo – use the app twice a day instead of once.
• 6 Wear new clothes – A bit of an odd one… I tend to buy nice clothes and don’t wear them because I want to ‘save’ them and wearing them at home working is a ‘waste’ which is a really silly thought.
• 7 Monitor finances more frequently – A few years back I would barely purchase anything, and I was known by my family as keeping hold of my money and never spending it. It had to be something very important and close to me if I were to buy it. I do spend more in recent years and I feel I could rein that back a bit. Cut back spending on useless things like app subscriptions I never use. Also keep monthly tabs on finances.
• 8 Check in with friends and family more often – I like to think I do this a lot already. I think I tend to be the person who messages first (which is probably annoying) but it’s important to me to check in with people and make sure they are doing okay. I’m a carer and a giver 🤷🏼. I want to make more time for my Grandad too.
• 9 Plan more adventures – Leading on from the above, kind of. I’d love to visit and plan more things with my close and more distant friends.
• 10 Give my dog the best life – My dog is in his twilight years and I want to make those the best I possibly can.

Medium – These will require more active thinking, planning and motivation

• 11 Be more healthy – this will have multiple associated factors. One includes going for a health checkup that I’ve been meaning to do, I was invited but didn’t get around to it.
• 12 Sort my achy back – I believe my achy back is caused by years of sitting in the same position. Hopefully more exercise will help otherwise I may need to go to a physio.
• 13 Work on sitting posture – This will hopefully help my back. I tend to naturally slouch.
• 14 Eat more healthy – I don’t think I am an unhealthy eater but I do want to try and cut back on sugars/salts/fats where possible. This double chin of mine is getting intense.
• 15 Exercise more – I’ve had exercise routines before but they are sometimes difficult to stick to when life gets in the way, particularly work. I’ve created one which I hope will be manageable and push myself at the same time. Motivation will be key as well as the other goals/changes here which will help. I usually exercise in the evenings so maybe that’s the issue.
• 16 Less screen time – I often find myself doom scrolling and zoning out watching random videos online, usually Youtube. This sucks time out of the day so I want to limit it.
• 17 More me-time, less work-time – Work usually comes first in my life and I tend to work over the weekends. If I was more efficient and focussed during the week that may free up so time.
• 18 Be more charitable – I’d like to give back and help people. I can do this from a personal level by donating, volunteering, taking part in sponsored activities like runs to raise money. And also from a business/work level I can help younger designers starting out.
• 19 Donate blood – I’ve been considering this for a while. I’m kind of scared to do it but if I do choose to do it I’ve set a goal of donating 100 times. I guess this should be a much longer term goal as that would be 25+ years… o.O.
• 20 Learn a new skill each quarter – This could be learning first aid or learning the guitar (this is definitely unlikely). I want to push myself to learn something that will challenge and better me.
• 21 Focus on one thing at a time – I often have a lot of jobs on the go which makes it hard to focus on one thing. I need to work on this and not let it become overwhelming.
• 22 Be productive during downtimes – This might coincide with the above. I often find myself with work completed and so I sit around doing nothing, on my phone. I want to utilise that downtime for better things (as much as watching cute dog videos are nice).

Hard – These will take longer and be more difficult to achieve. Long term goals.

• 23 Buy a house – There’s a lot involved with this one from personal to financial implications. I always thought I’d be buying a house with someone, not on my own which affects both of those things. This year I should try and take the leap and do it. Or at the very least do a lot more research and planning.
• 24 Stop overthinking – Another hard one because overthinking is 90% of who I am 😅. I’d like to try and hone this back and live in the moment. I read a quote; ‘Overthinking: the negative side of having a creative mind’ … so maybe I’m just really creative 🥲
• 25 Put myself first more often – This may seem easy but it’s hard for me. It’s a blessing and a curse that I usually think of other people before myself.

I will check back and reaffirm these goals every quarter. They may change as I figure out what works well. I’ll also look back at the end of the year to see how many I have achieved. Hopefully I can tick off at least one!