Sunday, January 6, 2013

Reflection & Goals for 2013

While this is typically the time of year we spend a lot of brain power reflecting on the past and setting goals for the future, I've actually been evaluating a few bloggy things since this fall when I joined the Fall Into Reading Challenge (which was a ton of fun, by the way!). The whole challenge was supposed to be laid-back and to encourage reading during the 13 weeks of Fall. Well, I of course blew that right out of the water by setting a goal to read 45 books (of the 60 on my list). Not very laid-back, huh?

The first problem was the sheer number of awesome books that were coming out during the fall. (I blame authors and the publishing industry entirely! Grin!) I committed to review FOURTEEN books that required posting reviews during the month of October. Yes, FOURTEEN! Ridiculous. I knew it when I was accepting books for review right and left, but I kept accepting more. The outcome was that I read a ton of great books during October but I didn't enjoy them as much as I could have. I really pushed myself to finish them because I had made commitments, but at times it felt more like reading for school. Yuck!

This led me to evaluate all aspects of my blog: goals, reviews, challenges, online community, etc. Some of it I'm really happy with, some of it not so much.

All of this is a really long (long!) way of saying that I'm making some changes around here and I'm starting by making a few blogging goals for 2013.

GOALS

Overall, the goal for this year is to have a ton of fun. Reading and blogging are hobbies for me. I absolutely love both and hope to continue for a long time. However, at times it has felt more like a job than a hobby. Since I don't make money from this blog, it can't feel like a job. :) I'm working hard to balance things (time management, the books I choose to read, etc.) so I can hopefully ensure that it's more on the fun side.

THE BLOG:
  • Limit the number of date-specific reviewing commitments each month (i.e. blog tours).
  • Post all reviews in a timely fashion. (This will be the real challenge for me! I've got a backlog!!!)
  • Give myself some "time off" — vacation from blogging, if you will.
  • Have fun with challenges ... and give myself total permission to fail. :)
  • Ensure that reading and blogging does not take away time from my family, my job, my relationship with God, and other in real life commitments.
  • Have fun. If it's not fun, stop doing it!
THE BOOKS:
  • Read 100+ books
  • Read 5 "classics"
  • Read 25 books on my TBR list (as of 12/31/2012). This includes books from my physical bookshelves and ebooks on my Nook.
  • Read 5 non-fiction books - completely! (I’m great at starting non-fiction books, not so great at finishing them most of the time.)
  • Finish 5 series (either previously started or completely read during the year)
  • Read 10 books that are outside of my reading comfort zone
What changes / goals / resolutions are you making this year? 

4 comments:

  1. Good luck with your reading and blogging goals. I've revamped my blogging goals & reading goals this year too. In stead of blogging daily, I'm blogging less frequently and plan to read 40 books this year instead of 102 books like last year!! It's all about quality verses quantity this year for me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep, I totally hear ya! Enjoy your reading this year! Can't wait to see which books catch your attention. :)

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  2. If you figure out how to schedule a blogging hiatus, program me in! I so need to do that... I was planning that for December and January, but it just didn't work out that way. I know what you mean about all the books coming out in the fall. Seriously!? I'm delighted that publishing is going so well, but oh woah is me how to choose what to read????

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I took an unplanned hiatus around Christmas. It worked out fine b/c of the 12 Pearls posts, but I was just worn out and trying to focus my energy on Christmas, family, etc. It was so nice. I think I'm going to try to do a planned hiatus this time around. Maybe a week in the spring, a week in the summer, and a couple of weeks around Christmas? We'll see! Let me know if you have any ideas/suggestions!

      Delete

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