I was talking to my best friend, John, this morning about Just Jot it January and marveling that it’s been 10 years since we started.
So I figured why not celebrate?
Grab your 10 year badge!
Photo: The 2024 Just Jot it January badge featuring a stick figure with long hair sitting on a blue stick figure chair at a stick figure desk with a stick figure computer screen that’s on fire and a red 3D balloon with “10 years” on it.
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.
Here are the rules for JusJoJan:
1. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list) counts as a “Jot.” If it makes it to WordPress that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!
2. This year, I’ll be posting prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). You don’t have to follow the prompt word every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. There will be a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday. Each prompt post will include the rules. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section.
3. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.
4. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!
5. The prompts will appear every day that’s neither a Wednesday nor a Saturday–Saturday’s prompt will be Stream of Consciousness Saturday. You’ll find the list below. Remember, you don’t have to use the prompts. Please write whatever inspires you.
6. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.
7. Have fun!
Here are the prompts that I have so far. I’ll fill in the SoCS prompts as I have them:
January 1st – Spider ( ghostmmnc)
January 2nd – Time ( JoAnna)
January 3rd – Warning ( Dan Antion)
January 4th – (One-Liner Wednesday)
January 5th – Spangly ( Judy E. Martin)
January 6th – Tangible ( Prajakta)
January 7th – (SoCS – coat)
January 8th – Mongrel ( TanGental)
January 9th – Power ( 20/20 hines sight)
January 10th – Danger ( MWLange)
January 11th – (One-Liner Wednesday)
January 12th – Tingle ( Tessa)
January 13th – Hospital (Charlene Bullard – FaithtoRaiseNate.com)
January 14th – (SoCS – “P”)
January 15th – Mercy ( BarbCT)
January 16th – Impenetrable ( Blog Woman!!!)
January 17th – Complaint ( Willowdot21)
January 18th – (One-Liner Wednesday)
January 19th – Rubbish ( Wendyj59)
January 20th – Transcendent ( Deborah Drucker)
January 21st – (SoCS – glass)
January 22nd – Contempt ( Rosemary Carlson)
January 23rd – Compromise ( Ritu)
January 24th – Elusive ( Eclectic Evelyn)
January 25th – (One-Liner Wednesday)
January 26th – Extraordinary ( jetgirlcos)
January 27th – Incomplete ( Cyn K)
January 28th – (SoCS – wood/would)
January 29th – History ( KL Caley)
January 30th – Blue ( John Holton)
January 31st – Detritus ( Lorraine’s frilly freudian slip)
We did it! Just Jot It January 2016 was an unprecedented success and I owe it all to everyone who participated. It was wonderful meeting and getting to know some great bloggers who I hope to keep up with from now on and I enjoyed reading all the posts (so far – if I haven’t read your post, I’ll certainly try). The daily prompts were loads of fun, as was the opportunity to link to different blogs, though maybe I’ll do that a little differently next year. I’m thinking about holding the “competition” once a week so more people have the chance to get their prompt in, particularly those who start later in the month.
Based on this year’s excellent turnout, I may ask for help next year. I’m not sure exactly what “help” will entail yet; if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. Perhaps I’ll do guest bloggers.
So this is it! Congratulations to those who linked every day in January, and thanks to all, whether you participated 31 times or once.
Here’s your badge!
P.S. Anyone who’s looking for a new daily prompt for February, look no more! Our friend The Bee is hosting “Love Is In Da Blog” again this year. You can find the exciting new rules here: https://justfoolingaroundwithbee.wordpress.com/2016/02/01/introducing-love-is-in-da-blog-2016/
Enjoy!!
I admit to feeling clumsy in the way I go about organizing these prompts of mine. The pingbacks mixed in with the comments are haphazard and I can imagine they’re more difficult to find than they should be. So hopefully sometime within the next month I’ll have time to search for a better way of doing things. It would be awesome if I could set up my page like they do at the Daily Post – I like that idea better than having an offsite compilation with someone like Linky Tools or Mr. Linky. I have what is probably an irrational fear of leaving my email address on a site I don’t know. Anyway, I’ll start with the Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt and go from there.
Speaking of clumsy, I’m also thinking about getting a real artist to design a new JusJoJan badge for next year. I’m starting to realize that maybe my mad Paint skillz aren’t up to snuff. And I’m getting tired of looking at the stick-figure blogger with a burning screen. If enough people insist, maybe I’ll give you all a choice when January 2017 rolls around to use the new one or keep the retro one.
Ha! Whoever thought I’d ever make it to “retro”? Not me.
The “Clumsy” prompt is brought to you by Judy at Edwina’s Episodes. Please head on over and have a read, and tell her I said hi!
To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 31st post here!
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