Viewpoint
As I welcome 2025, I find myself reflecting on the power of gratitude—a power that remains steady even when life feels anything but. The past year has brought chaos and uncertainty, both in the world around us and possibly in our personal lives. Yet, as I look ahead, I am choosing gratitude and optimism. It’s not just about hoping for a good year; it’s about creating one.
Gratitude allows me to appreciate what I do have—my health, my loved ones, the lessons I have learned and my resilience. I see hope instead of fear.
The world may continue to surprise us with twists and turns, but we have the power to respond with intention, compassion, and a commitment
to growth. I’m challenging myself to embrace new opportunities, nurture meaningful connections, and lean into the joy that can be found in everyday moments.
To our readers, join me in making 2025 a year of gratitude and purpose. Let’s celebrate our wins, however big or small, and find strength in our shared experiences. Let’s lift each other
up and have space for our dreams. We can make this a year to remember and choose to make it meaningful.
Here’s to a fresh start, a hopeful heart, and a new year filled with possibility.
Welcome, 2025!
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How You Can Recover From Christmas Spending
As you welcome January, you may get a quick jolt of truth when you see your credit card bills or low balance in your bank account after your Christmas spending. Now you need to figure out how you can recover in a way that will set you up for sustainability throughout the year.
Here are some ideas that may help you tighten your belt from the overspending:
1. Review your receipts, credit card statements, or apps you used for purchases. This will help you look at where your money went in order to plan a strong foundation moving forward.
2. Return gifts that didn’t fit or match your style. This may seem a bit tacky, but if you need the extra money, to help pay off your debt, every little bit counts.
3. Challenge yourself to a “No-Spend“ January. Spend only on essentials for one month. Cut out eating out, subscriptions you no longer use, and impulse buys.
4. Set a realistic budget goal for the year. Set a monthly or weekly savings goal you can stick to. You can also start small by saving towards a goal or to build up your savings account.
Saving money after Christmas doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Taking small steps, you can bounce back financially and create habits that lead to a positive and sustainable year. Remember: Progress, not perfection!
How will you bounce back finanancially? For more information about finances, visit https://smartmoneybro.com/
What About Those Goals? Do We Really Need Them?
By Damita Miller-Shanklin
I’m a planner by nature and I love to put things on paper and say, “I’m going to work on these goals this year.” I have also done just a word or mantra I would focus my time on and live by that word. Well, I realize, goals do not work for me. I look at them but then I go the opposite way and never look back. What about you?
After years of doing this, I began to wonder, do we really need goals each year? Goals are our guide to our dreams, the steps that help us achieve success. You can have goals around personal, and professional, or just one big goal. Goals can be a symbol of your direction. But I still ask, does everyone need a guide? What if you find you change quite a bit?
I guess I should say that goals do help you prioritize what matters most, achieving milestones that can give you a sense of accomplishment and
clear objectives can help you overcome challenges. But for me, having goals can be stressful.
What has worked for me is to write down what I would like to accomplish through the year and each month, I look at the goals and decide which one I still want to work towards, which one is not important any longer and if I need to add something new. This way I don’t feel stressed or that I can’t change my mind.
Setting goals is a great tool but it depends on your approach. Embracing flexibility, focusing on importance, and finding joy in the process, you might discover that the journey has more meaning than the destination.
How will you approach your goals?
Due Dates and Productivity
Achieving our goals and staying productive can feel overwhelming without the right strategies. Setting realistic goals and assigning due dates are two simple yet powerful tools that can make all the difference.
5 reasons why due dates help with productivity:
1. Creates Focus: A due date helps you prioritize your tasks and focus on what needs to be done, reducing distractions and procrastination.
2. Encourages Time Management: Knowing when something is due helps you allocate your time effectively and break the task into manageable steps.
3. Provides Motivation: Deadlines create a sense of urgency, encouraging you to stay committed and motivated to complete your work.
4. Prevents Overwhelm: By setting a specific end point, you reduce the risk of endlessly working on a task or delaying decisions, making your workload more manageable.
5. Tracks Progress: Due dates give you a measurable timeline to check your progress and ensure you’re staying on track with your goals.
FEATURE
Work Smarter, Not Harder: Productivity Tools You Need to Try in 2025
By Damita Miller-Shanklin
Ihave said this before, I love productivity and the tools that can help me do things better and quicker. I have gone down many rabbit holes learning how a new app works, or how I can make my paper planner and my digital calendar work together. This is all in search of working smarter, not harder, as a coach told me once. With us starting 2025, I want to share my tools and I hope you share yours so I can learn more.
I like to discover people who talk about productivity and how to make it work. Between full-time work, being an entrepreneur,
family and other activities, I always look for something to help me with balance and something that is visual because I am a visual learner. So productivity tools have to be visual and easily accessible for me to use. As we enter into 2025, it is very important we all have a strategic plan to keep ourselves organized and focused.
Productivity is the measure of the efficiency of a person, group, or machine in converting inputs into useful outputs. I want to share the tools I use to keep me focused and moving forward. You may be
familiar with most so it may be just a reminder.
The tools that I use start with my Google Workspace. This is where all my Ujima interviews and stories are written and placed in a monthly file. My Google Calendar is synced to my phone which allows me to see appointments, what’s coming up and what is due. This visual information leads to my black journal where all my log notes go. Each day in my journal, at the top of each page, I put Daily Log, the day and the month and date. This helps me organize my thoughts,
ideas, reminders, etc. It’s all things for that day. With my Google Calendar, I can look at certain calendar items. For example, if I want to only look at my Ujima calendar, I can do that without looking at my work schedule. This can be helpful for a quick look but I prefer the full view. It’s a clearer picture. I like pen and paper so I use a paper calendar. This is also my favorite thing because I love buying planners. You may think it’s easy to just buy a calendar and be done, but for me it’s a process. The planner I choose needs to not only be pretty, but functional. It needs enough space to write appointments, notes and my drawings. I know it seems like a lot but wherever I am, I have my system with me. Using tools for productivity is creating a system that works for you. The system needs to be flexible and tweaked as needed.
Another tool I use is a pocket notebook. I’m a big fan of the Bullet Journal pocket notebook! When I can’t get to my black journal to jot an idea down or something that I need to remember, I make a quick note and then transfer it to my black journal at a later date. This comes in handy when I’m at work and something comes to mind or I see an email that needs a follow up or I hear something on a podcast I don’t want to forget. It’s all to help me have a second brain.
Trello is a tool my team and I use daily, weekly and monthly. It is a project management tool that helps
us organize, plan, and collaborate on projects. This has been a lifesaver for myself and the team. This is where we put information for each monthly issue. We put our story ideas, who will be interviewed, links to information and much more. It is a great way to communicate with your team and keep up with assignments that are being worked on and due and who is responsible for completion.
We are all familiar with Zoom, Google Chat but there is a great new app that came out called Otter.ai. I have found having my interviews summarized and transcribed makes writing up an interview very quick and easy. The only thing I don’t like is that I cannot do a video recording. My hope is that it will happen soon
I would not be sharing all the great tools if I didn’t mention the use of Social Media such as Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin. Ujima is no longer on X so we are focusing on the three platforms to help keep
our voice in the community and the social media sphere. I hope to update our YouTube channel and start making video content around our stories and general information.
Lastly, I want to mention some tools that entrepreneurs should think about integrating in 2025. ChatGPT is a good source for ideas that can spark content creation. For example, for creating quality videos and graphics, along with Canva and Capcut.
There are many tools and apps that are important to have in your arsenal to help with planning, creating, organizing, transcribing and more. This was just information you can think about and see if any of it will work for you. Using tools isn’t about perfection. Pick one tool that fits your life and build from there.
Productivity is personal. The key is to find tools that make your life easier, not harder.
Mary Linnen, Editor
MARY’S TIPS AND IDEAS
WELCOME 2025
Starting a new year brings new ideas , challenges, opportunities and a chance to start over.
NEW INFORMATION FOR 2025
There will be changes this year. Make sure you read and understand any information you may receive in the mail.
If you find something confusing ask someone to help you or call the person or company that sent you the information.
Every year there are changes, make sure you are up to date and understand anything that may affect you directly.
Last year this time some of us make a list of goals we were planning to implement in our daily routine. I hope you were successful. My focus is always on health, and wellness. This year my plan isn’t to start new but to maintain.
Here are a few things that should help with maintaining or starting new.
The most important thing to remember is to keep moving.
• Start by just walking more. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Park farther away at the grocery store.
• Find time in your day when you can fit in a half hour of exercise. Explore different options until you arrive at something that you enjoy doing
• Work your way up to doing moderate activity at least 2½ hours a week.
Add healthy foods to your list, and let’s get started.
GET READY!!
Winter weather is almost here, which means it is also cold and flu season. Check to make sure you have your best remedies before it starts. Stock up on the ones that work best for you. Check with your physician or nutritionist before you try something unfamiliar. There is no cure for a cold or the flu, but a bowl of chicken soup or a cup of hot ginger tea with honey can help manage the symptoms. Some home remedies — such as vitamin C — may slightly reduce the length of time you are sick.
Lemoncello Mocktail
Whether you have guests coming over, or you're just looking to cut back on your alcohol consumption, a mocktail and a cozy fire sounds great.
EQUIPMENT
• Cocktail shaker
INGREDIENTS
• 1½ oz freshly-squeezed lemon juice*
• 1 oz oleo saccharum**
• 2+ oz limoncello- or lemon-flavored sparkling water, unsweetened
INSTRUCTIONS
• Add the fresh lemon juice and oleo saccharum to a cocktail shaker filled with ice.
• Shake well, about 20 seconds.
• Strain into a lowball glass filled with crushed ice.
• Top off the glass with your sparkling water.
• Garnish with a fresh or dehydrated lemon wheel.
This might hit the spot! Enjoy.
Start with a Clean Workspace
By Damita Miller-Shanklin
One last thing I thought I would mention is getting organized and being productive can only really work if you feel good about your workspace. If you can’t find what you need and things are all over the place, starting with a clean place to work will definitely get you on the right track.
I’m the first to admit, I got to declutter my home office during my Christmas break however I do know what should be done
1. Put items on your desk that you need based on what you're working on at the moment. Once you are done, before moving to your next task, put your items back in their place i.e. file cabinet, desk drawer, shelve, etc.
2. Organize your frequently used items on your desk within reach.
3. Place important folders, pens, and calendars on your desk where you can use them quickly as needed.
4. Throw away trash as you go.
5. Add your favorite items that help you feel good such as a plant, photo, a diffuser with your favorite smell, etc. Whatever you like to help you feel motivated and inspired.
A fresh and clean workspace makes all the difference in having a good productive day!
Before We Go ...
Since this issue is about productivity tools, listening to podcasts is also a useful tool to learn about how to organize yourself and stay focused. I want to share a few I find useful and informative.
• The Side Hustle Show with Nick Loper
• Focus on This
• Bossy
• The Business Lounge
• The Professional Troublemaker
Let me know your favorite productivity podcast. I am always looking for new people. You can find these podcasts on Apple or anywhere you get your podcast.
What are you listening to right now?
P.S. DID YOU KNOW ...
Podcasts to your brain are like indoor plants in your domain — they’re not a necessity (neither is our rhyme), but they’re beneficial.
Here are five positive effects of how listening to podcasts can change your brain — and your body — for the better.
#1: Helps reduce stress and anxiety
#2: Improves focus and attention span
#3: Boosts your mood
#4: Encourages imagination
#5: Improves your comprehension and vocabulary