I would be remiss if I did not brag on myself from time to time.

So, what have I accomplished in the last year?

One really exciting thing I did this year was gain a new client, an accountant whose business website I edited to make the writing perfect. I was referred to him by a good friend and expanded my vocabulary with accounting terms while I edited. The best part was when the client told me, “On a scale of one to ten, your editing was an eleven.”

I recently completed the editing of the 2026 trade catalog for an outdoor furniture company. This company manufactures and sells teak benches, tables, chairs, and such for outdoor use, and the trade catalog I just finished is geared toward designers and those who are in charge of planning the outdoor scenery for universities, hospitals, museums, and other public places. In editing the trade catalog, I verified its text as well as hundreds of SKU numbers, dimensional drawings, and prices, striving for 100 percent accuracy and perfection.

For this same company, I also edited many prelive web pages for its site. These pages covered everything from the company’s privacy and security policies to its shipping and delivery information to a list of questions frequently asked by customers. In my editing for this company, I had a chance to use my skills with Adobe Acrobat, as well as continue with my Word skillset.

I am about to begin working on the company’s 2026 retail catalog, which is geared toward individual consumers and homeowners (this is furniture for their patios or the area around their swimming pools). I will be doing the same thing as I did for the trade catalog, minus verifying the dimensional drawings, which are not found in the retail catalog.

I am also looking forward to more scientific manuscripts, grants, theses, resumés, and cover letters coming my way. If you have one that needs editing, please message me or contact me through my website. I will strive to make it perfect!

I made a list of goals for 2026 the day after New Year’s, but only one really has to do with my editing business. As for the other goals, several are too personal to share. Others are shareable. Here goes:

I want to gain at least one more client who sends me work at least once per month. I would preferably like to gain more than one. As it stands now, I have one client who sends me work every month (sometimes a lot, sometimes not much). I love this client to death, but having just one regular doesn’t put enough bread on the table. I also have another client who very occasionally sends me work, and I love the work that I do for them, but they have not been able to send me anything to edit in over a year, even though I am in regular touch with them and I like them a lot.

What I really would like to have is several clients who keep me so busy that I am booked months in advance, or at least weeks in advance. Thanks to the current government administration, many of my potential clients aren’t looking for editors because they have no money to pay them. Or they have turned to AI to edit their work. It is a shame that these researchers have to waste their time prompting and verifying whether an AI platform “hallucinated” when they could be having me edit for them.

Things have to get better…

On a personal level, I want to do more of the cooking at home. In 2025, my husband did almost all the cooking while I cleaned up after the meal. I’ve never been much of a cook and never really took an interest in cooking or baking. Starting in 2026, this is changing. I cooked dinner tonight for my husband and myself and found a sense of accomplishment in doing so. I plan to continue to share more of the food preparation responsibilities. It’s also nice not having to wash the dishes.

Do you have any goals for the new year that you would like to share?