I have a lot planned for this year. Whether I manage it all is another matter, but I am stepping into this new year with a plan! A road map, if you will. The kind we used to have, badly folded and tea-stained.

The title Purge and Plant comes from my need to do a deep purge of my life. Whether that’s physical items, or bad habits. While the planting side, is for starting new growth, a new chapter (and actual planting in my garden). Let’s see if I manage it.

NOTE: Just before Christmas, one of my immediate family members was rushed to hospital struggling to breathe. Surgery was discussed so I changed my ticket and travelled back to see my family earlier than usual. Surgery couldn’t be done at that time but will be done early this year. Thankfully, they were able to return home before Christmas.

Then on Boxing Day had another scare when one of my partner’s family members was taken to hospital, suffered an incident where they technically died but were thankfully revived (though it was touch and go).

Remember, you never know what is going to happen or how long you or anyone else has got. So, make connections, build bridges, support each others, reach out to friends and family and, “Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think.”

Home & Personal Life

Home

Last year, we managed to catify our living room… took us 11 hours (shelves everywhere and a long tunnel above the doors – the cats love it!) and 10 mins after we were done, our ginger menace found he could reach the shelf (awkwardly) that held the router… *face-palm*

So, tired, dirty and close to bed time and we were trying to find a “fix” to stop him from destroying our internet access. (We managed it.)

We started work on the garden, including hiring a local tree cutter to give our (too many) hedges a hard cut. Especially the one that was nearly the same height as our upstairs windows. o.O

After that, we didn’t get further, sadly.

We got no plans sorted for the kitchen and are still living with our single piece of work surface where my partner is able to make the most incredible home-cooked meals. He does a great job, but more space would be better.

So I’m putting the garden and the kitchen back on the list for this year.

To Do:

• Plan the kitchen
• Plan the garden
• Do some planting

Personal

My mental health took a beating last year. I kept a lot of it quiet, but especially by the end of the year, I wasn’t doing well. My depression was pretty high and I was having more bad nights with anxiety.

One thing that was definitely making it worse, was my phone (a shock to no one!) We are all (or at least should be) aware of how detrimental our phones and the apps we spend time on – looking at you Instagram – affect our mood.

No matter how many times I trying to “curb” my Insta time, I always ended up back on it. Even when I followed more positive and nicer accounts, avoided politics or enviromentalism ones that can often be filled with negativity (though awareness is important) things would still creep in.

So, the first thing I did was delete Instagram app from my phone. Not “hide” it, not add a timer to reduce my hours. I deleted it. The rule is, I can only use the app on my PC. And I hate using it on there, so this should help me keep off it more. I will be keeping tabs on how often I use it on the PC.

My partner and I have also decided to do more things together. Whether that’s going on longer walks (maybe even hikes!) to doing hobbies together. Anything to keep us off our phones and spending time with each other with full attention.

To Do:

• Do 8 fun projects/hobbies or events this year with my partner
• Keep instagram scrolling to under 1 hour a day

Health & Wellbeing

I will be going back to the gym. I am just aiming for 1 day a week in January to ease me back in. Then 2 days a week in February until I get to 3 days a week in March.

The priority will be weight-lifting and stretching.

To Do:

• Renew gym membership
• Visit the gym at minimum once a week
• Walk 40 minutes every day
• Stretch every day so I stop making creaky noises when I move! ;p

The Pod

Last year, we hoped to reach 20k downloads but hit 16K. Not bad. I think this year, I’ll leave off having a goal. As I am going to be having a LOT more writing goals and they have to take precedent.

The Writing Desk

So this is were I will be the most ambitious. I will be doing another 85K challenge – January through March. Focusing on book 2 and book 3 of The Blessed.

I would LOVE to get the first draft of book 2 completed by the end of March *manic laughter*

I will also be working on formatting book 1, getting the ISBN numbers, sorting the front/back matter and planning the marketing.

Also, I want to have picked a book cover artist – even if I can’t hire them straight away (saving the pennies). I want to have someone in mind and sketch out the idea for the cover.

Before you ask, I do NOT know at this moment when this book will be out – I am considering some things and haven’t fully made a decision yet.

I plan on writing a lot this year. The first three months will be dedicated to The Blessed book 2 and 3. Then, while I’m editing book 2, I want to be finishing A Coming Storm‘s draft 1. Finally I want to work on the beta notes for Dark Hart.

To Do:

• Complete 85k challenge
• Complete The Blessed book 2 manuscript (get it alpha read)
• Complete author edits of The Blessed book 2
• Send The Blessed book 2 to professional editor
• Complete front and back matter for The Blessed book 1
• Format The Blessed book 1
• Get ISBNs
• Develop a marketing plan for The Blessed
• Pick a book cover artist for The Blessed series
• Go through feedback and make changes to Dark Hart
• Finish first draft of A Coming Storm
• Send A Coming Storm to first round of beta
• Sort out business side of writing (eg what I need to do with HMRC)

BloggerLife

Last year, I was meant to upload more blog posts but didn’t manage it very often. I’m putting this back on my list. (why!? apparently I’m a glutton for punishment, still!)

If you caught one of my Insta updates last year, you’ll know I’ve got to update the newsletter link on MANY blog posts to the new newsletter url.

Though my partner made the clever suggestion of just making it my linktree link. That way, if it happens again where I change newsletter platforms – I only have to change it on the linktree.

Wish he’d shared that wisdom before I updated like 20 posts!! :p

To Do:

• Plan blog posts for the year
• Add a new non-podcast blog post every month.
• Update all the blog posts with the new newsletter url
• Get back to regularly visiting blogs I follow

Biz-Ness

There is new tax requirements, I believe, so that’s going to be the biggest headache with my business.

However, I want to give it a big change. So I need a new price spreadsheet, new processes etc. Yep, definitely should add this big job into the year I’m going crazy with my writing. Sounds like a winner! *rolls eyes*

To Do:

• Complete taxes in April
• Learn new tax requirements (MTD)
• Create and fill new pricing spreadsheet
• Reprice items as needed
• Develop new processes
• Create a Christmas Time Plan to start it in August
• Work on a content calendar for social media

~ ~ ~

Okay, so I’m all set for this year and I’ve even filled up my Kanban boards already.

What are your plans for 2026? Let me know in the comments.

Here’s to a great year, we hope 😉

Image sources: Canva

© Ari Meghlen. All Rights to the works and publications on this blog are owned and copyrighted by Ari Meghlen or their respective owners in the case of guest posters. The Owner of this site reserves all permissions for access and use of all documents on this site. NO AI TRAINING: Without in any way limiting the author’s [and publisher’s] exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this publication to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.