Another year is winding down, and I don’t know about you, but I really needed for it wind down. It was a really good year, in which I reached several important milestones. But I think I need to handle 2012 differently.

Right now I’m just trying to clear my commitments from my plate–I have a novella to proofread, a short story to critique, and a novel to beta read, plus the last few tasks for Lightspeed. When I’m done with those things, I’m going to consider myself done with everything but writing for a while. I’m also really limiting what I get to work on in 2012. Grant Stone and Matt Sanborn Smith introduced me to the concept of the Personal Kanban board–I’ve created one, and just the act of limiting myself to working on three things relieved me of a lot of stress.

That’s really my goal for this year: stress reduction. My primary sources of stress in 2011 were finances, finding time to write, and my day job. A lot of stress came off me at the day job recently, so that’s helping a lot. Getting out from under these last few commitments will free up my evenings to write. And finding the right house at the right price this spring will go a long way toward reducing my monthly expenses.

There are other things that will help, too, like eating better and exercising more. And just moving forward on my projects will eliminate the anxiety that comes with not moving forward. This week is going to be spent tying up loose ends so that I can go into the new year as unencumbered as possible.

What changes are you making in 2012?