Hello!
We have been revamping our website lately and the New Year felt like the perfect time to launch our new blog. In this space, we are looking forward to sharing the things that we find interesting: publishing and editorial advice and tips, snippets of history, our knowledge of the IB, articles from our wonderful authors and, of course, information about our splendid books.
Naturally, we’d love to hear from you if there are topics you would like us to cover, so drop us an email if so.
Hopefully, we achieve more than this shiny new blog this year. A lot of people around the world will be making (and hoping to keep) New Year’s resolutions and that got us thinking about what we are hoping for in 2022 (we’re sure it was only 2001 a few years ago…). While there is definitely value in using this as a push to learn a new skill (ukulele, anyone?) or finally join the gym, we decided to think a little smaller with our aims.
1. Get outside at least once a day
We have had to adapt our working patterns due to the world pandemic. For a lot of us, that means home working instead of travelling into the office. While this has had many benefits for a lot of people – saving money on the commute, increased family time, being able to fit work around life instead of the other way around – we realised it can often get to the end of the day and we haven’t even stepped outside. This is especially true in winter, when (where we are in the northern hemisphere at least!) the nights get dark so early and the days are frosty cold, so a lunchtime stroll is not exactly inviting. But being outside has so many benefits! There’s exercise (any chance to get those steps in!), Vitamin D, and a chance to get away from the emails, and give your brain a chance to relax – even if it’s only for ten minutes.
2. Put time aside for nothing
Not everything needs to be a side hustle. This is a bit of a strange one because it seems the opposite of most New Year’s resolutions, which are aimed towards a grand goal (e.g. to learn how to speak Spanish). But sometimes we need to give ourselves permission to draw a picture that isn’t a commission, to crochet a hat that isn’t destined for an Etsy store or enjoy a guilty pleasure book, movie or game. Obviously, this shouldn’t come at the cost of tasks that need to get done, but everyone needs a chance to recharge before they get burned out.
3. Be thankful
With everything going on in the world right now, it is easy to focus on the negatives and forget the positives: friends, family, a job you love, the extra marshmallow in a hot chocolate. We’re going to appreciate what’s good, whether that’s taking a step back to enjoy the moment or making more of an effort to thank colleagues for a job well done.
They’re some of the resolutions we’ve made this year. We’d love to hear if you’ve made any!