It’s almost 2026, and I’ve been working on getting everything set up to take on January 1st with a vengeance. Well, from a blogger/author/student perspective, anyway. In fact, I’m planning on pushing myself harder this time around to dump some bad habits and be more productive.
One of the bad habits I have is saying how I’m going to do something and then it peters out about two or three months into the new year. While a lot of the time it’s because of the sheer chaos that surrounds my household, a lot of it is on me.
So, I am planning on keeping myself motivated in 2026 to tackle all of my goals. That means I’ll probably have quite a few motivational posts coming as a way to help keep my head in the game. If I can help someone else maintain motivation as well, all the better.
Last Minute Goal Touch-Ups
I’ve spent the last few weeks making a few touch-ups to my annual goals. I’m trying to base everything on past experiences and surpassing what I did in 2025, which really isn’t all that difficult to do, actually.
It’s been one of my least productive years to date. Some of that has to do with depression and dealing with a few things in the background. But as I’ve said many times…
Anyway, I have some pretty great things planned that are not outside of the scope of what I can handle. However, I will have to dial up the effort a bit if I want to accomplish some of the heavier objectives.
For instance, I’m aiming at one million words written in 2026. Mostly, I want to prove to some social media naysayers that it can be done without the use of generative AI. Secondly, I want to prove to myself that I can still do it.
Back in 2015, I used to average more than two million per year. That was in my prime as a ghostwriter for content mills.
Doubling Down on Being an Author
I’ve spent a bit of time focusing on being an author, but not as much as I probably should. My best year for time spent working on publishing stories is 2023, where I spent an average of 36.22 minutes per day working on being an author.
That’s not a lot of time. Despite the things that are going on in my house on a daily basis, I should have easily surpassed that record.
I’m not just talking about the time I spend writing and editing my books. I’m also talking about marketing, setting up profiles on various book sites, entering short story contests, and more.
There are a lot of ways outside of social media to get more eyes on your work. And next year, I plan to do as much as I can to double down on being an author.
Part of my zeal for writing in 2026 came from my college instructors and professors in that last term. Apparently, I’m quite good at writing and should keep working on building on that premise.
Integrating College Work in 2026
Speaking of college, I have a lot of goals and plans next year as I continue to work on my bachelor’s degree. In January, I’m taking Lost Worlds and Crystal Skulls as well as a creative writing workshop. The plan is to integrate the two for an abundance of story ideas for both college and an anthology I’d like to publish on Wattpad.
I’m hoping that at some point in 2026, I’ll be able to retire from freelancing and attend school full-time with an extra class or two. Until then, however, I can only work on two classes at a time.
Now, the hard part is integrating the school work itself into my week while still working on my writing goals. The way I had my schedule set up towards the end of the semester seemed to work out quite well. So, I’m going to continue that flow.
I scheduled a 2-hour block of time every day, Monday through Friday. If I didn’t need that school work time, I would then switch it for a blog post, video, or time spent working on my book. If I needed those schoolwork blocks of time, then I would work on the content on Saturday and Sunday if needed.
I don’t want to set myself up for failure. However, I want to make sure that I’m putting in maximum effort.
The exciting part is how I’m using a lot of my college courses to drive content. Not only am I getting a lot of ideas for blog posts and videos, but also for my next stories and books. That’s one of the benefits of working on a minor in anthropology: story ideation.
Rebuilding Some Dead Blogs (Potentially)
I’ve been talking about rebuilding dead blogs for quite some time. And if I can reduce the doomscrolling and avoid YouTube rabbit holes, I’d probably have the time to work on them in 2026.
If I could get all three of my blogs to perform as well as they did in 2018, I could probably retire from freelancing.
The thing to remember is that it’s never a good idea to look back and kick yourself for not doing certain things. What’s done is done, and you should focus on what you can do to improve.
It does no good to dwell on failures of the past. The best course of action is to learn from the experience and use that knowledge to succeed. In this case, it mostly centered around mental health and not putting time into myself and the sites.
Of course, it doesn’t help that Google’s AI Overviews has decimated a lot of direct traffic from search. Nonetheless, I still feel that blogging is a good use of time and has a lot of potential. The trick is to adjust to AI Overviews and go beyond Google Search.
Anyway, I would love to do a case study on how much content it takes to generate a certain level of traffic. Since I have two that desperately need content, and I would love to write a million words in 2026, I could put a bit of time into building them up again.
Breaking Some Old Habits
Over the years, I’ve developed a few bad habits that I’d like to break in 2026. I’ve already started on leaving my phone at my desk during breaks so I don’t spend so much time doomscrolling. But there are a few more that wind up being time sinks.
For example, I often write for about 20 minutes and then take a 30-minute break. A lot of that was from the doomscrolling, which I’ve dialed back tremendously as of late. However, sometimes I spend too much time walking or doing other things that are not exactly the most productive.
For one thing, I started watching too much YouTube first thing in the mornings, which often burns about an hour and a half. I can address that by getting ready for the gym or exercising in the mornings like I want.
It’s not enough to say that you just want to break a bad habit. The trick is to replace it with a more productive routine. For instance, I plan on healthier alternatives to wasting time on social media and video watching.
It’s OK to take time for yourself and recharge a battery or two. But doing it too often can become excessive, which will burn more time than you might realize.
For example, did you know that users spent an average of 53.8 minutes on TikTok every day in 2023? That’s not including all of the other social apps many of those people use in addition to the time-sucking video app.
It won’t be an overnight fix. But any effort to correct the behavior is time well spent.
Let’s Make 2026 the Year of Success!
I haven’t officially labeled 2026 as I normally do. But, I’m still looking forward to being successful in a variety of endeavors. Of course, that all depends on how seriously I take myself and what I want to accomplish.
That’s the real rub about setting goals and creating challenges for yourself. It all boils down to how badly you want it. Do you want something bad enough to put in the effort to succeed? Are you willing to sacrifice the things that waste time to work on yourself or improve your chances of success?
I know a lot of folks are addicted to social media. But in reality, it does very little to boost your impact as a writer, author, or blogger.
Instead of worrying about why you can’t, look for reasons as to why you can. Having a positive mindset in any task will ultimately affect the outcome. Don’t worry about what didn’t get done last year, but what you can do to improve your lot in life in the next.
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