2025: The Year of getting to the point

2025 wasn’t a year you could coast through.

Between global politics, a nonprofit sector under real pressure, and platform changes that quietly reshaped how content works, this wasn’t a year for autopilot. 

Working with PhoenixFire forced that reckoning. We kept revising the work, stripping it down, ensuring that there was something valuable being shared. If something wasn’t useful, or important to share, it didn’t survive. 

Less filler words. Less “nice to look at” content. More accountability for why the work existed at all. More of getting to the point.

It wasn’t comfortable. But it made the difference visible.

What I Learned in 2025

Meaning Matters

This year made one thing obvious: caring about the work changes how it feels to do it.

When the work matters to you, even small contributions feel steady. When it doesn’t, no system, productivity hack, or color-coded calendar can compensate for the disconnect.

This isn’t abstract. It shows up in how the work feels day to day.

When you believe in what you’re doing, showing up takes less effort. When you don’t, everything feels heavier than it needs to be.

One image can do what words cannot

2025 reinforced a basic design truth.

One strong image can carry more weight than a full paragraph. Not because images are decorative, but because they land emotionally before they’re processed intellectually.

Last year, while volunteering with a local environmental organization in Portugal, where local elections were approaching, the group wanted people to consider past environmental crimes when voting. 

The issue had been on national TV. People knew about it.

There had been illegal deforestation in the hills above the city. From a distance, it was easy to ignore. Only those who went there understood the scale and we wanted to raise awareness.

We could explain the why, the consequences, the scale.

Or…we could show it.

One image said it all. The impact. The scale. The destruction of what was once a beautiful green area.

That impact isn’t accidental.

Composition matters. Color matters. Typography matters.

Strong visuals don’t shout. They land. And when they land, people react before they explain why.

And that’s not taste. That’s just how people process information.

People don’t engage with brands. They engage with people.

Across multiple social accounts, the pattern was consistent to the point of being boring.

Posts with people performed better.Faces. Movement. Real humans.

PhoenixFire’s social media was the perfect example of this. Below you can take a look at the top 5 posts from January 2025 to January 2026.

Out of these five posts, all with different topics, four of them have people in it.

As someone that’s been working on Social Media for a minute now, I knew this wasn’t a coincidence. 

It was a pattern. It was humans doing what they’ve always done. And if I want more views, more reach, more interaction, I know exactly what I need to do…Show people.

Even through a screen, people look for other people. A face builds trust faster than a perfectly written headline.

No one is watching you

They are, but not in the way you think.

I caught myself hesitating before recording videos, appearing in photos, or preparing to give presentations. The familiar internal commentary: Do I look strange? Does my accent sound off? What if someone I know sees this…

Here’s the good news and the bad news.

The good news is that most people are too busy thinking about themselves. The bad news is that a few people might judge you.

They don’t matter. You’re stepping outside your comfort zone. That already says more about you than their opinion ever will.

Showing up imperfectly beats staying silent every time.

There is always a better way to work

This year, I focused on improving my workflow, not because anything was broken, but because I was defaulting to familiar paths. Familiar doesn’t mean efficient.

If I need to produce a lot of social media content in one day, templates beat starting from scratch. If there’s no time to create something new, repurposing content that already performed well is smarter than forcing originality. If video editing is slow in one tool, it’s worth testing another.

There is almost always a more efficient way to do what you’re doing. Finding it frees up time and attention for work that actually makes a difference.

What I’m Carrying Into 2026

If it doesn’t move people, it doesn’t work

Every design, post, or video should add value to the audience’s life. You want them to pause. Save. Share. Read more.

If it doesn’t move someone, it’s decoration.And I’m not in the decoration business.

Useful work changes how people think or act, even if slightly. Anything else is noise.

Human connection comes first

This applies to anything.

Personally, it means being more deliberate about relationships.Professionally, it means designing in order to reach people that have a different pov than me.

If I’m only designing for people who already think like me, I’m not doing my job.

Connection requires curiosity and clear communication, not agreement.

Focus beats perfection

Putting energy into what matters most has consistently delivered better results than polishing everything equally.

In 2026, I’m doubling down on high-impact work and letting small things stay small. Progress doesn’t come from refinement everywhere. It comes from choosing where effort belongs.

Systems are assets

I’m continuing to optimize how I work.

If there’s a smarter, faster, or more efficient way to do something, I want to find it. That means refining workflows, improving systems, and actually learning the tools I already use.

If that requires more tutorials, more experimenting, or admitting I could have done this sooner, fine.

Mastery beats busywork every time.

Asking for help

Asking for help is also a smarter, faster way to work, especially when I’m in over my head.

It doesn’t mean I’m failing. It means someone else already knows something I don’t, and I can learn from them instead of struggling alone.

Also, asking for help is free. Most tools aren’t.

2026 won’t be about doing more.

It will be about being more intentional with what I do.

My goal for 2026 is to make the work clearer, more human, and more useful.

What This All Adds Up To

If 2025 taught me anything, it’s this.

Adding value isn't nice to have.It’s the whole point.

-- Maria Zamith