Top Ten Tuesdays #322: Resolutions

Posted January 12, 2021 / Top 10 Tuesdays, Weekly Memes / 2 Comments

Resolutions for 2021

Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review.

This is sometimes a TTT and other years I’ve made it into my own post. I just remembered the other day that I hadn’t done one yet so I was happy to see it come up as a TTT for this week. As always, my resolutions are split into reading, blogging, and personal.

Continue to not feel pressured to read and enjoy other hobbies

As usual, this stays on my list for the next year! I’ve been trying for years now to not make reading a job or a chore. I try to enjoy other hobbies, like Lego, watching wrestling, seeing friends (ugh Covid), and watching things with Chris. Now that we have Miller and a ton of my time each week is spent playing with him and caring for him, my reading is even worse than usual. I want to keep up with this attitude though. Enjoying what I’m doing is my priority.

Read 100 books, but be okay with settling for 75-80

I had this big crisis when trying to figure out my Goodreads goal. I’ve made it 120 books for a number of years now because 10 books a month was perfect for me. Only slightly a challenge at times, but generally pretty manageable. I reduced my challenge to 100 part of the way through 2020 because of the super fun extenuating circumstances we didn’t see coming when I set my challenge as normal. I didn’t know that (a) Covid would make my reading decrease for some reason (even though I’m home all the time and don’t have to get ready for work) or (b) that we’d get a puppy halfway through the year. For these reasons, 100 was a challenge. A big one. I read a lot of cookbooks, graphic novels, and shorter books to juuuuust barely eke out 100 books. I know I’m getting married this year and there will be some time spent on preparing for that and possibly, maybe going on a honeymoon. Will my reading still be terrible this year? Who knows. I’m feeling really good right now though with my 100 goal. I debated going with 75 or 80 because I knew for sure I could make it happen but ultimately decided to keep challenging myself. I have it in my head that if I fall behind within the next few months, before my life even technically gets busy with wedding stuff or other things, I’ll reduce my goal and be fine.

Read 50% or less contemporary novels OR more adult than YA

I’ve been trying for years to read more widely across genres but I tend to read just over 50% contemporary books, which also generally includes romance or anything that takes place in present day. I think it’s because it’s a crutch – fantasy books always take me longer to read, for example, so I avoid them in favor of blazing through a contemporary book. If I can’t make that happen this year, I hope to read more adult-targeted fiction than young adult. We’ll see.

Read from my shelves, both digital and physical

I think this is always a goal but I don’t like to put it on paper. My “read from my shelves” challenge in 2020 did not go well. I didn’t even really try. I’m going to keep this vague for that reason, but I do hope to reorganize my physical shelves and read more books I own. I also hope to focus on reading more backlist books on my Kindle. When I got a new Paperwhite for Christmas, I went through and downloaded all of my unread books onto it. I was reminded of so many backlist titles I was excited about and still haven’t read! I hope to read a lot of backlist titles in 2021, but they should come from my digital and physical bookshelves.

Reread an old series a la the Nostalgia Project

Years ago, I was hoping to reread some old series I loved back in high school. I successfully reread The A-List with Cristina and have been wanting to get back into Gossip Girl at some point. Or finally reread and finish off the Private series. I really would love to do this because they’re SUCH quick and easy reads that will help me get going on reading or increase numbers for my challenge.

Get my Netgalley ratio to 80%

I don’t have a Netgalley addiction like I used to. I really don’t browse it and request random things. I only request books that were already on my TBR and I know for sure I want to read. This has definitely helped me get to 74%, a number I’ve hovered around for probably a year now. That means I have to read about 15 books, if I were to not request any more (lol) to get up there. It’s not impossible, but it feels tough for some reason. There are still a lot of books on there I need to read and WANT to read so maybe I’ll make a fun TBR for it.

More frequent posts and personal things

I’ve always tried to balance book posts and personal posts and I think I do a decent job of it. This year was a weird one for reading AND blogging. Even when I wasn’t reading much, it’s not because I was out there having a grand time with friends. I couldn’t come back to my blog and write all these amazing posts about what I’ve been up to. I didn’t have enough going on in my personal life to write about either, aside from TV shows or recipes. I still plan to cover those things often. I hope to keep up with posting around three times per week. I’ve never missed a TTT post (even if it’s been late) so I’ll keep up with those, review round-ups with 2-4 books per post, and at least a few personal posts every month.

Budget better and pay off my debt

I bought a budgeting planner (more to come on my 2021 planners this month) and really hope I stick with it! I find that YNAB and other digital budgeting software never do what I want them to do. With this one, writing everything down I purchase and making plans for debt or savings, makes it feel better? More real? Makes me want to stop buying shit so I don’t have to record every single item I buy? I paid down a TON of debt in 2020 and will somewhat easily be able to pay down more in 2021.

Buy a house

Yes, we’re getting married this year, but buying a house is a priority. We’re lucky to be renting an affordable house in a decent location for work and fun, but man – I want my own. We want a fenced in yard for Miller, a safe street to walk him on, a place to put a skate park for Chris, and privacy. We need more space. Our house is bursting at the seams.

Set up auto-pay on ALL bills

I was doing this for a while and then turned it off. Really not sure why. It can be tough to move money around ahead of certain bills but with my debt payments decreasing in general, I have the ability to pad up my accounts and get things on auto-pay.

Majorly declutter and organize the house

We’ve started to do this and I’m feeling the best I have in a while. However, there’s still so much STUFF. We have so many random dumb things we don’t need to keep and yet we do. I want to feel comfortable leaving Miller at home in the living room, outside of his crate, without wondering what random stuff he may get into. I want a clean, tidy, decluttered space. I can’t rely on us buying a bigger house to make that happen!

2 responses to “Top Ten Tuesdays #322: Resolutions

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