This year’s Just Jot it January marks the fifth anniversary of the event. Five years! So hard to believe. Every year it’s been more of a success than the last, but I can’t help but wonder if it can be improved.

At the very least, I’d like to do something about my lack of organization at the start of every new year. Which is why I’m writing myself a note here to remind myself of the plans I inevitably skip over because of time constraints. You see, every December I go back to the Just Jot it January from the year before and just do what I did then. Because it’s easier.

Here’s what I propose to do differently in January 2019 (should I be granted another year of blogging):

1. Collect prompts from other bloggers once a week instead of once at the beginning of the month. This will reduce the number of people who have good intentions (much like New Year’s resolutions) to carry on with the challenge but drop out before it’s time for their own word to come up. Or suggest a word and then forget why they suggested it.

2. Run a contest for a new badge. My mad Paint skillz were fun to look at, but five years of a stick figure sitting in front of a flaming screen is enough, methinks. Suggestions on when I should run the contest are welcome (which is why I’m doing this publicly rather than privately). December makes the most sense, but it’s less than ideal given that so many people are so very busy.

3. Suspend the Friday Reminder for SoCS for the month and post it as a daily prompt, the same as the rest of the JusJoJan prompts, including adding it to the list ahead of time, along with all the other prompt words for the week. This will, I hope, cut down on the confusion of having two prompts show up on my blog on one day.

If you have any suggestions on other ways to improve the entire process, I’m all ears. Or, well, eyes since I’ll be reading your comment, not listening to it. You know what I mean.