Here's what I learned in 2015 - and how it made my goals for 2016

photo by Paulo Nobre Belli - nobrebelli.com

With the new year and a new job at Essence Digital beginning on January 5th, I'm taking some time to look backward at 2015, one of the most rewarding years of my life. With each lesson I gained, I'm creating a goal for myself. Let me know what your goals are!

Lists and paper are my friends!

Here's my lists for a day filled with errands

I have tried time and time again to use the Reminders app on my iPhone. For a while, I had some success with the Google Calendar app. I'm sorry, technology, but paper wins in my mind as a tool for productivity. Almost every day at AC Lion, I wrote my daily to-do list as soon as I sat down and had my coffee in the morning. There is something ridiculously satisfying about physically checking a task off on a square that I drew myself.

Goal for 2016: Organize the smaller stuff on days off

Between budgeting, running errands, planning a week of meals, I can become very stressed and unfocused quickly. Organizing tasks simplifies the process and turns work into a game!

Travel and spend the money where it matters!

When my best friend Rachel moved to Costa Rica for an assignment with the Peace Corps, I promised her that I would visit. To her surprise and my own, this promise was fulfilled! With some craftiness, I scraped together the money to fly to San Jose and made my first ever international trip. Spending that much money at once was terrifying, but I could not be more happy with the decision.

Goal for 2016: Save for international travel and explore the US more

2016 is the Centennial of the National Park Service, so you can bet your butt that I'll spend some time this year Finding My Park and focusing on saving up for some major travel in 2017 - Southeast Asia and Northern Europe are first on the list!

Support your homies!

Temple's NSAC 2015 team and AC Lion introduced me to some young butt kickers in the communications industries. There's always this weird notion that we're supposed to be competing professionally - this is natural because of the academic system, but it's not fun! I learned by Lindsey Casella's flawless example that it's way more exciting and interesting to root for our colleagues!

This quote came to my attention via Lindsey, a great pal who everyone on this earth should hire immediately

Goal for 2016: Lunch it up and pay it forward

There was a lot of luck and perfect storms involved in my success this year. I want to pass some of that good energy onward to anyone who's looking for a job in the ad world. I have major respect for my friends in the creative side of the business - stay tenacious, my woes!

There is nothing wrong with saying no sometimes

One of the toughest lessons I've had to learn is when to put my own needs first (Res Life definitely honed this skill.) Whether at work or my personal life, I gained some techniques to delicately refuse when something is simply too much. Best one: seriously chill out and just smile and say no! No one will be mad at you!

Goal for 2016: Become a master at presenting alternatives

It's great to be able to refuse a hefty task, but even better to compromise. This is really important for cancelling plans with cool people!

Tweeting at celebrities is fun and worthwhile

I got retweeted by Judd Apatow in July and it absolutely rocked my sad little world. There are ways to do this effectively - potentially a future blogpost!

The centerpiece of an otherwise strange and awkward summer

Goal for 2016: Perfect the Art of the Tweet

I'm an adult with a job in digital media now - we aren't in Kansas (cough, North Philadelphia, anymore.) It's time to arrange a marriage of the personal and professional tweet. More tagging companies, colleagues, and more self-editing, all with the intention of driving a conversation. But don't worry, I will still be laughing at all my own jokes and waiting for your likes (RIP Favorites!)

Bonus goals:

See more concerts!
Make one playlist every two weeks
Organize my digital file storage
Send more snail mail!
Call my grandma with increased regularity
Keep social media input as positive as possible!

As we move forward into another year of Presidential politics, Olympics, and, inevitably, Beyoncé, I wish you all the best! Let's lunch!

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