January is probably my least favourite month, seeming somewhat flat after the festive season, drawn out due to it being a five week month and inevitably grey, cold, wet and dreary weatherwise, it just isn't very inspiring. However, it does serve a very useful purpose - at least for me, anyway. I mentioned in an earlier post about the New Year being a useful marker and acting as a prompt for a clear-out and starting afresh so January then is a month where I can concentrate on getting all of those more mundane but necessary jobs done without feeling I could be spending my time more productively or more enjoyably.

I admit I hate doing figures and accounting work and tend to put it off if I can but it does have to be done eventually, so in January I switch on my left brain, let the right take some time off, dust off my calculator, open up the spreadsheets and start crossing all of those nagging chores like accounts and tax returns off my to-do list. I know I should do a little every day, or enter every bill as its paid but this just never happens as I never want to break off from what I am doing and as well as that, it is not always convenient. I prefer somehow to entrench myself in jobs like these and devote time to do it all in one fell swoop and always feel so much better once its done - I do keep all receipts, invoices and other paperwork in order, so it is just a case of entering them and bringing everything up to date.

Another good job for January is that of tidying up my web server, removing old or out-dated files and generally having a spruce up. I check all of the copy on the main pages of the site to make sure the information is still current and install updates where required, tweak some CSS and just carry out some house-keeping. I still haven't finished the re-organisation I spoke of in my last post but I am getting there and will gradually replace some of the older content as and when I can. Email is another area that benefits from a clean up and clear out.

Most importantly this year, those long wet weeks of January provided a much-needed, and long-overdue opportunity to take a good long look at my business and make some tough decisions about where I was heading and how I wanted to get there. This proved an invaluable process because unwittingly, I had started to travel in a direction that was not really leading the right way and I only became aware of it through doing the MA. George Harrison once sang "if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there" which I think was also a quote from Yogi Bera - those words haunt me as they are so true. I realised I needed to decide where it was I was going so that I could effectively plan which road to take.

Much deliberation and soul seeking followed, during which time I changed plans more than once but I feel so much better for having gone through it and I now have a much clearer idea of where it is I'm heading, and how I'm going to get there. You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs though - my business plan has had to change as I am letting go of the things which were pulling me away, from which there will undoubtedly be a financial impact but I just know I need to do this, or at least give it my best shot. Focus is my watchword for 2009 and, like my images, it will be selective focus!