New Year, New Word: Focus
I’m not a New Year’s Resolution type of person. I don’t resonate with beginning-of-the-year goal setting. But, I have developed a practice over the last few years of choosing a word of intention to guide me as I enter the new year. In 2025, I’ve chosen focus.
In 2024, I didn’t choose a word of intention. This was pretty fitting, especially as I reflect on a year full of many unforeseen challenges. As I find ways to reestablish rhythms and routines, I am inspired to choose a new word for this year.
I’ve chosen “Focus” as my word for the year.
Finding Focus after a Year of Unexpected Challenges
2024 was full of unexpected challenges. We took some amazing vacations, which were the highlights of the year. But life in between the vacations didn’t look anything like we had expected. The circumstances and challenges were overwhelming, confusing, and, at times, devastating.
2024 was a hard year, and I’m glad it is over.
As I look ahead to a year that will bring its own challenges, I long for focus in my actions. Whether I’m sitting down to write a post, work on a project, share some thoughts on social media, or care for the things around the home, I want to fully focus on what I’m doing at the moment.
In many ways, last year’s circumstances highlighted how important focus is. There were quite a few times when my family needed my full attention. I needed to cancel all my other obligations and be completely present. I’m grateful for the family, friends, colleagues, neighbors, and community who supported me when those times came.
This year, I hope to harness the power of focus I learned during challenging times and apply it to my everyday life. Distraction is easy, especially digital distraction. Our phones are constantly with us, allowing us to easily divert our focus from the people and situations we are in.
In 2025, I’m looking to find more focus in my everyday life.
Setting the Stage for Successful Focus
It is one thing to want to find focus in my life, but how do I set the stage for success? How do I ensure that I have the best opportunity to focus on each of the situations I’m in?
It starts with understanding what I need in each of the situations I’m in.
If I’m doing a routine task, like emptying the dishwasher or folding clothes, I can do that while holding a conversation, listening to a podcast, or watching a show.
But, if I’m doing anything creative, such as writing, content creation, design, breast cancer support, or client work, I need to be engaged and focused at a much higher level. I lose my focus very quickly when there is any noise around me.
In order to set the stage for successful focus, I need to understand what I need before I start the task.
- Do I need to turn off my notifications?
- Do I need to go somewhere and put in my headphones so I’m not distracted?
- Do I need to let my family know that I will be busy and unavailable for a certain period of time?
- Do I need to be intentional about when I am choosing to focus on a particular task?
For me, when I choose to do a task can be critical to its success. I don’t write and create well after lunch. It is not my most creative time. And so if I put creative time after lunch, like writing, I will struggle. I can do other things like designing, house chores, meal planning, and meetings. But, if I want to create something out of nothing, I need to be intentional about when I do that. And so, for me, that’s before lunch.
To set the stage for successful focus, I need to understand what will help me be the most effective with the time and energy I have.
Circumstances Can Change Our Focus
In 2024, circumstances changed my focus in unexpected ways. I began the year with a desire to write a second book. I even drafted a paragraph outline and started working on some chapters.
But then, things drastically changed in February. My family required my full attention. The writing stopped, and my circumstances were no longer conducive to writing the book I thought I would write.
I was frustrated with the challenges and my inability to keep up with the plan I had set in motion. I could not focus on my writing because I had more urgent matters to attend to.
I was forced to focus on different things. And it was absolutely necessary.
This fall, Dave was diagnosed with skin cancer after experiencing months of a missed diagnosis. Not only were we frustrated and angry at the circumstances that led to the situation, but he was now facing a much more involved treatment because it had progressed the entire year.
Cancer changed our circumstances and our focus. Instead of having hours to write at my desk, I was navigating new doctors, travel time, radiation side effects, and processing my emotions about Dave’s treatment.
I could look back at 2024 as the year I didn’t finish that book I wanted to write and shame myself for a “lack of productivity or drive.”
But that wasn’t what happened.
2024 was a year our family showed up and met extreme challenges together. We came together, shifted focus, made difficult choices, and supported one another through it all. We focused on the circumstances as fully as we could.
Tools for Focusing
As I reached the end of 2024, I was exhausted from planning. I didn’t have the energy to write anything down. It was as if my “planning brain” was offline. The routines I’d established for work and home had been shelved during Dave’s radiation treatment. He was on medical leave and going to appointments every day. It felt hopeless to plan anything because I wasn’t sure it would happen.
Trying to think and be strategic exhausted me. I had no energy to focus on anything other than getting through Dave’s treatment and Christmas. In fact, I didn’t buy a single gift until mid-December.
Now that Dave has healed from the radiation and is headed back to work, I can feel my planning brain coming back online. I’m ready to reach for my tools again to help me focus.
This morning, I sat down, took out a paper planner, and wrote down some goals for the next few months. Many years, I will use GoodNotes and set up a digital bullet journal. As I reflected on what would help me be intentional and focused, I kept feeling drawn to an analog tool. All too often, I get digitally distracted and end up scrolling posts on Instagram instead of focusing on my intentions for the day. A paper planner doesn’t send me notifications. And for me, right now, that is the kind of tool I need to help me focus.
The tools and methods I use are less important than the consistency.
Focus & Routines
As I set the stage for focus in the new year, I have a strong desire to reorganize my weekly routines.
I have often found that my weeks are really bunched up towards the end of the week. A lot of the work ends up landing on Fridays. I get to the end of the day on Friday much more exhausted than I’d like to be.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. I can reorganize my weekly structure to have a more open schedule on Fridays. My routines should help support me, not imprison me.
I don’t know exactly how I will reorganize my routines, but I know I’d like them to support me as I focus on creating and writing.
The more I focus, the more I experience joy and purpose. Focus also lowers my anxiety. When I’m scattered and unfocused, I worry about what might happen. But when I take the time to focus on whatever is in front of me, I feel more empowered.
I’m curious to know what you’re focusing on this year. Do you have a word of intention for the year? Do you prefer to set annual goals or resolutions?
Perhaps you are where I was just a few months ago, and the idea of being intentional is exhausting. That is okay, too! Sometimes, success means getting through the next few minutes or hours.
However you are approaching this year, I hope you feel encouraged and supported in your journey.
Jennifer Douglas
Jennifer is the author of "A Breast Cancer Journey: Living it One Step at a Time," breast cancer survivor, and patient advocate. Her book, published in 2023 by Bold Story Press, is an encouraging guide for breast cancer patients. It contains first-hand information, organized by topics, to help readers navigate the diagnosis, treatment, and recovery from breast cancer. Her writing emphasizes emotional, mental, and physical well-being along with empowered decision-making.
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