2017 Resolutions

Posted December 29, 2016 / Book Lists, Features, Personal / Information / Etc. / 14 Comments

Last year we had a TTT for our resolutions and even though there isn’t one this year, I knew I had to make one myself. It turned into a fairly important set of goals for me in 2016. I ended up revisiting those goals/resolutions throughout the year and actually did a great job of keeping up with them! I’m actually not a big New Years person. Time and dates are completely arbitrary. I don’t make personal resolutions and don’t really think of the new year as a “fresh start.” However, for the blog (and for a couple of personal things!) I like the idea of setting goals in January because it gives you a concrete timeline of when to finish them. This year, I did keep similar resolutions in some places and just edited them a little bit more. Otherwise, these are brand new!


reading resolutions

  • Read less… and give myself time to focus on other hobbies ///  This goal is actually the same from last year, except I plan to reduce my goal even more and see where I end up. I averaged 11-12 books per month in 2016, which is down from the 14-15 per month in 2015. That’s good! I had a reading slump and was totally burned out by October, so I had no motivation anymore. I want to avoid that even further this year. I hope to expand this a little bit by also limiting audiobooks. I don’t want to always have one going, so I can enjoy podcasts and other media (music I guess lol) guilt-free.
  • Reinvigorate The Nostalgia Project and reread more ///  Again, I completely failed at my Nostalgia Project. I just never find the time to reread old favorites because I’m constantly adding new books to my TBR. I really want to make it a point to (a) reread more books in 2017 and (b) figure out the best way to do it. I know audiobooks are great for this, so that’ll help, but maybe setting monthly or quarterly reread goals would help?
  • Read. Books. From. My. Shelves. ///  I had a last-ditch effort in literally December to finish off the Rock My TBR challenge, aka reading 25 books from my shelves within the year. Seriously, it should not be that hard to read books from my shelves! I love the library and do want to buy less books (something I’ve been insanely good about over the last year!), so it’ll be buoyed by the owned-book-TBR reading.
  • Expand beyond contemporary romance /// One of my bigger issues is that usually 50% of my reading is contemporary romance or “realistic fiction” of some kind. I’ve been saying that I’d like to read more fantasy or mysteries or even historical fiction, but it’s hard to follow through on. Maybe I can find some way of highlighting the non-contemporary books I want to read in a TBR? I just want to end the year with a more balanced reading life and mix of genres.

personal resolutions

  • Crank out shows from my to-watch list ///  I wrote a lengthy TV post last year and outlined how I wanted to catch up, start, and finish various television shows. I’ve done an okay job but I obviously also started Friends for the zillionth time. Again, I hope I can limit the Friends watching and actually watch more shows from my to-watch list. I’m not going to set a hard number here, but I’m sure I’ll feel it if I’m doing a good job or not.
  • Be a bit more spontaneous, but also make more plans /// I know this is contradictory, but I’ll explain. I like the idea of just flying by the seat of my pants sometimes. If there’s a weekend where we have no plans, decided to go on a random day trip should just happen at the spur of the moment. However, I also want to make more concrete plans with friends each week. I’ve been trying to see a friend or two each week, but I hope to beef this up more. I need to reach out and make plans.
  • Figure out my career path and the possibility of going back to school /// I started applying to grad school programs (online) but haven’t taken the official plunge yet. I want to figure out sometime by the end of the year – at the latest – what I want to go back to school for. I’d like to do something marketing or business-related, like I planned, but I’ve been toying with other ideas too. I want to finalize plans, apply, and make decisions.
  • Save up a lot of money and pay down debt /// I won’t share numbers here because nunya business, but I definitely need to get my savings account going. I want to focus on making lots of placements at work to beef up my commission too! I don’t like relying on commission to pay bills (I don’t really, but it’s the idea that I have money coming so I can just buy what I want until it comes in). I want to put ALL of it (or at least the majority of it) to savings and/or paying down some of my debt. This definitely includes student loans, car payments (if I can pay more on my lease now it’ll be less to buy it later), and my credit card.

blogging resolutions

  • Stick to a blogging schedule with less posts /// I have a post coming up later this week about what this blog is going to look like in 2017 and I need to stick with it. I hope to have 4 posts per week instead of 5-6, because why stress myself out? I like the idea of doing “review round-up” posts for backlist titles, then giving ARCs their own review posts. I don’t want to have reading or blogging burnout (again).
  • Develop long-range blog-related and bookish goals /// I’m putting this under blog resolutions instead of reading because it more has to do with book organization and I’ll be documenting it on the blog. I want to come up with some kind of long-term system or book plan. I loved Jessie’s five year book plan and want to develop something similar. I also want to do some Goodreads culling twice a year. At the end of the year (or maybe the very beginning of the year, like now), I’ll move books from my “to read” shelf to my “consideration” shelf if I’m not sure about reading them. In the middle of the year, I’ll then go through my “consideration” shelf and delete books I have legitimately no interest in. Hopefully I can do the same with my physical shelves.
  • Link up with challenges each month /// After thinking about my own “challenge” from last year and chatting with another former hostess, I realized how important linking up is! I usually get suuuuper lazy in linking up my challenge wrap-ups each month, but I’m absolutely tracking them still! I do participate in challenges throughout the year. I just don’t link up after the first few months! I’m definitely making it a goal to do that throughout the whole year, each month, because otherwise challenge hosts may bow out of hosting again for lack of engagement. I promise I’m still here!

14 responses to “2017 Resolutions

  1. These are all great resolutions! I want to read less myself – in order to other things and make room for some chunkier books that will take longer. I also would like to blog less days a week. I agree I nee to reduce book/blogging stress – which even sounds silly to type!! Good luck with all of these!

    • That’s a good point! I didn’t even think of that. I do avoid longer books sometimes because I know they’ll take me a while to read. I shouldn’t let that stop me from reading what I want!

      Book blogging stress and posting really gets to me. I need to stop posting so often so I can actually enjoy what I post!

  2. I have to get better about linking up for challenges too! I did so well the first half of the year and then I also got some blogging burnout but I feel ready to commit to my posting schedule again in the new year. And the saving money thing. I need to do the saving money thing!

  3. Your blog is so pretty 😀 These are all great resolutions, I agree about blogging and reading less. I get into reading and blogging slumps a lot, good luck with your challenges & great post 🙂

  4. I am currently doing the same thing since there isn’t a TTT resolutions post. hahaha Good luck with all your goals. I hope you figure out the grad school thing! I think one day it will just click. 🙂

    I love the new look of your blog! So pretty!

  5. Reading 10-11 books is less? I managed 15 in December but that was because of the holiday – honestly my number is usually 6. And I usually crank out 4-3 blog posts a week now… 6 is so many! I admire that you do so much but I can also see why you might want to tone that side of your life down a bit. Hope these goals work out for you ^.^

  6. So interesting to read your list of goals, Lauren! We actually have a few in common. I’m very determined to whittle down my TBR this year, whether that means actually reading the books OR culling them to give away or donate. And I also want to up my savings AND work on paying off some lingering debt I have. Here’s to us accomplishing what we want to in 2017!

  7. These are great goals! I love the idea of reading less but rereading more. I love to reread, so I always make time for it. I also like the idea of focusing on other hobbies, too.

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