It’s the beginning of a whole new year! Which means it’s time for yet another resolutions and goals post. It’s crazy to think that it’s already 2020. 2019 was such a good year overall, and was full of highs and lows. I made so many good friends this year through blogging, and had so much support, and really started to find a stride, and I can’t wait to see what the upcoming year brings!

Of course, I planned on getting this post up on New Years Day, but then I laid around for a long while and watched episodes of The Witcher. (Everyone’s been there.) I also had friends staying with me, so I didn’t get any time to work on posts. And okay fine, there was also a bit of procrastinating there. (Who also hasn’t been there.)

Listen, all of this relates to the goals and resolutions I have going into 2020. This next year coming up is all about continuing to get even more organized and scheduled, and making sure my posts are more consistent, even when other plans come up. It’s always about improvement and giving you the best blog I can, and that’s the main theme of all of these goals.

Okay, maybe you don’t care at all about my personal blog goals, but I always love making resolutions – no matter how cliché they are – and goals help me continually improve in all aspects of my life. These are the personal goals I have for this blog, and maybe you can relate to them. If anything, they give me select items to be more accountable for and continue working on, and I’m excited to see how they manifest in 2020. And in the end, these goals are affecting my blog, and helping me improve the content I give to you.

So let’s get into the goals already! I have 3 main areas of my blogging and beauty life that I want to touch on this year: my physical collection, my blog itself, and my Instagram. I split it up into those 3 areas, and then went into more specific points with each one. Onward!

My Polish Collection

This part is about my actual physical polish collection – how I want to manage it and keep it organized going forward.

Decluttering: My main focus of 2020 for my collection is going to be on destashing and decluttering my polishes. It’s no secret that I bring in a LOT of polishes every single month and it’s getting to the point where I know it’s not entirely sustainable, space-wise. I’m overwhelmed with the thought of running out of space, and I know I want to stick with the amount of storage I have now. I haven’t entirely filled it up yet, there’s still a couple empty drawers. But every time I add new polishes in, I can feel the space closing in and it’s stressing me out. I live in a small Studio apartment so I don’t have room to expand out more than I am now, and even if I was lucky enough to have a dedicated space for polish, I still wouldn’t want it to get out of control. Just because I can collect all the polishes doesn’t mean I personally should keep them all. I know what a manageable collection is for me personally, and I want to keep it at that level.

Every Saturday I want to be pulling polishes in my collection, whether they’re for comparisons posts or to see similar colors across brands. I don’t want to just declutter once and be done. I want it to be something that’s a constant and incorporated part of my routine, so I’m always rotating through polish and making sure it’s fully curated. And I want to get back into putting up Comparison posts on Saturdays as well (I talk about those next).

And as I pull polishes that I no longer want, I’ll be putting them on a destash page, as well as sending them to family and friends who can love them more!

Comparison Posts: These definitely fell by the wayside these last couple of months. I know they were so helpful to others, and they’re always helpful to me when destashing. With each collection I review that has comparable shades, I want to get back into putting up an accompanying Comparison post – on Saturdays as mentioned above. And I want these Comparison posts to be expanded out. I’ll be including swatch sticks with a full range of shades related to the polish, so you can see how a new color compares to an existing one. (Ex. Maybe you’re looking for something that’s more pink than Let’s Be Friends and this new polish could be it!) And then for the closer colors and potential dupes, there will still be nail swatches. It’s about giving even more of a reference for a newly released color, and helping viewers decide whether it adds to their own personal collection.

Swatch Sticks & Updated Inventory: And of course, I want to make sure all of my polishes are up to date with swatch sticks, which can then be pulled for comparison posts. If I can get into the habit of putting them onto sticks as I’m swatching them, it’ll be much easier to keep them up to date. I also have an Excel sheet listing all of my polishes that desperately needs to be filled in. Again, I need to get into just automatically putting the polishes into the sheet right as they come in. This helps me avoid buying duplicates, as well as helps me see how many polishes I truly have (not sure yet if that’s a good or bad thing), and inspires me to continue decluttering.

Using My Polish: Lastly for my collection, to really know it, I have to use it. I noticed a lot of more popular posts on my Instagram were swatches of “older” polishes outside of collection swatches. Often, after I finish swatching my nails are blank (gasp) as I run out of time to paint them before bed. I need to get better at stopping and making time to paint my nails. It relaxes me before bed, and it also allows me to continually be using my polish more outside of just swatching and photographing it. Who doesn’t automatically feel more put together when their nails are done? And as I continue to use my polishes, if I no longer love it, it’ll be decluttered. Overall, I’m a nail polish blogger, I want to be using my collection more.

The Blog

Now let’s talk about goals for the blog itself.

Consistency: Every year I strive for better consistency in posts and organization on this blog. It’s about scheduling and planning more, and knowing what I need to get done each day. And I think that’ll also lead me to having posts done and scheduled out ready to go days in advance, instead of madly finishing the hour before posting. I had too many times this year where friends wanted to go out to dinner, or people came to visit, and I didn’t have reviews finished or posts set up, and ending up having to scramble to post later than I wanted, or not at all. Being better organized overall will help with my own stress and sanity with posting, and will also lead to better consistency. I love planners and lists, so I just need to utilize them more.

Little Pieces at a Time: I wouldn’t put so much time and effort into this blog unless I was passionate about the subjects and blogging itself. But I do find with the longer posts – like this one, or makeup reviews – I can procrastinate and put off writing them entirely. I’ll feel overwhelmed and just not sure where even to start, and so I’ll plan to just start on a later day instead. To combat this, I’ve started typing in notes with all my thoughts as they come up, as test products and think of ideas. Then I can use these random snippets and organize all of my thoughts from the beginning, and just start going. I’m also learning that from these notes, it sometimes works to just word vomit all of my explanations and thoughts onto the page, and get them out, and then edit them down later (definitely exactly what I did with this post).

As with the swatch sticks and decluttering, I know it’s easier for me to tackle a larger post a little note at a time instead of trying to sit down and crank it all out at once, and dig to remember all the thoughts I had about it over the past few days. For me, starting is always the hardest part, and breaking it down into pieces makes it so much easier.

Makeup Content: I did end up getting back into posting more makeup reviews last year, and that is something I would like to continue to do even more this year. This blog will always first and foremost be about the newest mainstream nail polish collections, but makeup is also love of mine. I started this blog to share a hobby and talk about it with others who loved it. So it’s fitting that I should include more things that I also love to talk about. It’ll all be under beauty, and I’m still fully sticking to affordable and drugstore items, but I want to expand it out. Besides nail polish, I also love buying and trying new makeup, Lush items, and I want to dabble into nail art. In the end it’s my blog and I can decide what I want to include in it.

I also want to get better and more consistent with these makeup reviews. As mentioned before, they’re longer, more involved posts, so I can get overwhelmed with trying to organize all of my thoughts at once. Often, I’ll wait too long and forget how I feel about a certain product, so I’ll be testing it out for a 2nd and 3rd time, and I’m just creating more work for myself. As mentioned above, I’ve started writing down my thoughts immediately after testing a product, and then working on it a piece at a time. It’s all about just starting!

And part of that failure to start is confidence in my own posts and knowledge. At this point in time, I’ve been purchasing makeup for over 6 years. I’m constantly consuming beauty content and trying new products and formulas. I need to be confident in myself and realize I do know what I’m talking about. I need to be more sure in myself, both as a makeup enthusiast and as a blogger, instead of putting it off and worrying that my thoughts aren’t important.

Instagram

Last but certainly not least, let’s talk about Instagram! It goes hand-in-hand with my blog posts, but has it’s own goals.

Being More Active: I want to invest more time and effort into my profile, because that’s obviously how I’ll continue to grow a following. I fell into a routine and plateaued a little, and it’s time to get back to working. I want to be more active in all aspects of Instagram, from stories to comments and likes on posts.

Commenting and Liking: This year I did start to make an effort of commenting more on both posts and stories. I can still plenty improve here, but I’ve already seen good things with that in 2019 and have finally felt more connected with the whole community. I felt like I was actually getting to know people personally, and showing them I was supporting and did care about their posts. This last year, I finally felt like I made actual friendships with other creators through the platform, and it’s making me love the community and posting even more. And it’s all about continuing that.

Stories: For my stories, I need to continue to post regularly on them as well, as I’ve noticed I get more responses that way as well. Showing what I’m testing, what I’m hauling, and items from my life is something I do enjoy, so it’s about remembering to do it! It’s a way for my followers to continue to get to know me and feel more connected to me and get a preview of what will posted on the blog. Maybe 2020 is the year I use my actual voice on stories? A wild thought, but its never going to happen until I just start (theme of this entire post really). It’ll only get better and more comfortable and natural with practice.

Scheduling Out: This was mentioned in the blog section, but it goes along with Instagram as well: having posts ready to go and scheduled out. This comes into play even more with Instagram, as sometimes Instagram posts can take longer waiting for a full review to be finished up. So as I have reviews more prepared to post, it’ll transition to having more Instagram posts ready as well. And having one-off items outside of collections to post – hauls, Lush posts, single swatches – will always be good to have on the docket.

A Follower Goal: Lastly, a round number: I want to hit 2,500 followers on Instagram this year! I know it seems like a small goal to some people, but I like being realistic and I know if I work hard it’s something I can easily attain. At the time of posting, I’m at 1,747 followers, so let’s see how that changes in a year!

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Phew, I know that was a lot of text! Maybe you don’t care about these, but I do love writing out my thoughts and goals for the beginning of the year. In the end if I’m the only one who reads this, it’s still helpful to me! It’s my blog, so I’m posting things I’m interested in here. It helps keep me more accountable and create a more defined plan going forward. And it’s fun to look back on throughout the year, as well as reflect on how I did at the end of the year.

I just love a good goals post. I’m so excited about the upcoming year and what it can bring!

Do you have any goals for the upcoming year?

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Upcoming Posts
Nails: Holo Taco Launch Collection • Lights Lacquer Polished Gems Collection • Revlon Holochrome Polishes • OPI Mexico City Spring 2019

Makeup: Colourpop Gimme Butterflies • Colourpop Butter Me Up • Revolution Pro All That Glistens • Colourpop Smoke Show • Milani Gilded Noir

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Instagram: @GingerlyPolished