January is the traditional month to work on goals for the new year, but there’s a lot to be said for starting in December.

Today, in the middle of a month that can often be hectic and chaotic, I thought I’d talk about three things to noodle on for the upcoming work. Nothing you have to do tons of homework on, just some thoughts to start playing around with.

In this 16-minute episode, I talk about:

• Some advantages to playing with goals and dreams in December
• Things to look for (and stay away from) when you’re trying to improve your creative productivity
• Developing the processes that make writing content as automatic as brushing your teeth
• How to “connect the dots” and see how your work fits into a larger context

Listen to Copyblogger FM: Content Marketing, Copywriting, Freelance Writing, and Social Media Marketing below ...

The Show Notes

• If you’re ready to see for yourself why more than 201,344 website owners trust StudioPress — the industry standard for premium WordPress themes and plugins — swing by StudioPress.com for all the details.
• Our Certified Content Marketer program closes to new students on Wednesday, December 13 at 5:00 PM Pacific U.S. Time. If you want to check it out, Here’s where you can find out all about it.
• My podcast interview with Jessica Abel of Growing Gills
• More about the Growing Gills book
• Another wonderful creative productivity coach is Charlie Gilkey
• You might want to browse our Content Excellence Challenge Prompts for 2017 and see if there’s something you’d like to work on
• Here’s a post I wrote for Copyblogger on 7 Steps to Grow a Blog Post (this works for other forms of content as well, like podcasts or video scripts)
• Pamela Wilson’s excellent Simple Plan for Writing One Powerful Piece of Online Content per Week
• Brian Clark’s ebook The Business Case for Agile Content Marketing — you’ll be prompted to join our free member library, if you haven’t already
• Brian Clark’s ebook on A Content Marketing Strategy that Works — same deal as the other ebook
• Lately I’ve been spending more time on LinkedIn @soniasimone — feel free to drop me a question or note there, or right here in the comments