The festivites are over for another year. Now, we look at not only a new year, but a new decade.
Usually, I’m not too fussed about the years changing. It’s just a number, at the end of the day. But, for some reason, I’m feeling somewhat optimistic about what 2020 brings. Perhaps it’s because it’s the start of a new decade, perhaps it’s the repetition in the actual number of 2020. Whatever it is, I’m feeling good about it.
Although I’m not here to talk about my personal life, it’s safe to say that life has certainly had its ups and downs in the last decade. I finished high school, college and university. I travelled alone to the other side of the world and lived in a foreign country for a year. I had several part-time jobs and spent countless hours volunteering. I lost friends, made new ones and, mostly importantly, I found what makes me happy. This blog is a part of that. Thus, when thinking about next year, as well as the next decade, it’s very important that I consider this little corner of the Internet.
I know, I know. Reflecting on the past year in regards to blogging is nothing new for me. Since I made the blog in 2016, I’ve made posts that focus on looking back on the year just gone (even though, admittedly, 2016’s post was more focused on the actual anime of the year and not the blog) and 2019 is no different. This post in particular will be mostly centred around what I want to do with regards to the blog itself; another will be my usual “A Girl & Her Anime in Numbers” style, where I look at the actual statistics of my anime habits and the blog. At the time of writing, I don’t know which I’ll publish first, but you can read the other one here.
Taking it seriously
If there’s one thing 2019 itself has taught me it’s that I wish to take this entire blogging hobby a little bit more seriously. Throughout the years, I’ve somehow turned this entire thing from being something born out of boredom and frustration to becoming my little baby. My passion project. Honestly, it’s probably one of my proudest achievements.
In 2016, the majority of my posts were ‘monthly updates’ where, realistically, I gave excuse after excuse for not publishing posts. Looking back, I didn’t need to give any sort of reasoning at all. If anything, it just makes my blog’s archives look rather untidy! Nowadays, I’d rather publish posts I’m proud of over the quantity of them. Of course I have a target of a post every three days still, but I’m certainly not going to rush a post out for the sake of it like I used to.
Creating a routine
Something I need to learn again is the art of prioritising things. I’m almost 23, but after a few months of unemployment, I’ve somewhat sunk back into my student days’ habits of sleeping in until late, sitting in an untidy bedroom and other immature habits that I wish I hadn’t developed. Thus, in 2020, I’m ensuring that I have some sort of routine in life. I’m not meaning a daily routine that I have to absolutely stick by or else, but at least a routine that I can stick to, be productive and be a responsible adult at the same time. The art of balancing has never been my forte, as the very few of you who have read those aforementioned update posts will know by now.
In terms of the blog, I do believe that the scheduling option for posts, for tweets, for videos certainly needs to become my best friend in all of this. People have suggested it in the past, but I’ve realised this for myself now. Writing when I have the creativity to do so helps tremendously. I’ve been writing future posts throughout December, whether it’s been a scribble or a full-blown plan of a post. So far, so good – I just need to keep it up.
Speaking of routines, something somewhat related is…
Segments & Horizons
2018 was the first time I ever really made a segment for the blog and somewhat stuck to it. My ‘Anime for All’ posts were, if I may say so, quite successful and I was extremely pleased by this. In 2019, I wanted to organise my content and so created a few more segments for the blog and the YouTube channel. Currently, a taster of them are displayed in the sidebar.
My first task in my 2020 plan is going to be updating the About page, where you’ll be able to read more about these segments. That being said, I’ll be sure to give you all an introduction to them indivdually once they start as well.
In 2020, I’m going to be creating more content for all of these segments and changing up a couple of them.
New Skills
Over the past three and a half years of running a blog, I’ve learnt so many new skills. Writing is the obvious one, but I’ve learnt skills in marketing, graphic design, collaboration… Going into 2020, I hope to add more to my skillset. At some point in 2020, I do hope to upgrade AGAHA slightly by purchasing a domain. There are several reasons behind this, but probably the most prominent for one is that it’d be a lot easier to say my URL. Of course, this requires a lot of patience on my end, but with that comes additional skills and experiences that I’ll learn from.
Second of all, I have been busy in the last few months of 2019 making graphics for the sidebar. I’ve also made graphics for Twitter, but that’s about it. Making graphics is something I’ve never been fully confident in and it takes time for to settle upon something. I’m still unsure about whether to make my blog header images more colourful or not as well. What do you think?
Community
The anime community is a fantastic thing to be a part of. The anime blogging community, however, although smaller, is probably one of my favourite things on the Internet. Sure, we all have our ups and downs, but without this amazing community, I dread to think what mental state I’d be in. Thus, I really want to give back.
I want to get involved more! Last year, I did a couple of collaborations with Lita: a podcast and a more creative fanfiction collaboration. I loved doing both of these collaborations, but I want to do more! I’ve always been quite quiet in the community in comparison to everyone else, but hopefully this year I’ll be able to talk to other creators more and hopefully do more collaborations!
2020 is going to be a busy year, for sure, wit changes here and there. That being said, I really want the start of this new decade to be an incredible start. Housekeeping is a thing I desperately need to do here on A Girl & Her Anime – I haven’t had a good purge in, well, years – so that’s my next task. It’s time to tidy things up, improve on things and, most importantly, continue to have fun.
I know I’ve said this already, but I truly hope that 2020 is a great year for all of you. Let’s make some incredible things happen.
