Tag Archive | personal: resolutions

A Blog Post: New Year, New Goals

Jan14

I’ve been thinking about goals, as one does at this time of year.

Yearly goals, monthly goals, weekly goals – the whole shebang.

Some of this comes from finishing up last year’s Wordcount spreadsheet and moving on to this year’s, but “wordcount” is, while a lot of fun, not a very important goal.

(okay, that’s not entirely true, ’cause if you-all want to read, say, Spoils, Purchase, and two other things every week, then a serial once/month and four other stories, a recipe and a partridge in a pear tree on Patreon and I want to write a novel and submit some stories, there needs to be a certain base wordcount.  That, by the way, turns out to be approximately 2000 words, 5 days a week.)

We did this seminar at work on “SMART” goals – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant/Realistic, and Time-Bounded (or something like that).

So when I’m setting goals – okay, I’ve tried for this for years but now I have a metric – I try to make them things that I can count and work towards.  Not “Sell 12 stories.”  That’s a) not my choice, b) not realistic and possibly not achievable, and c) not actually all that time-bounded.  But “Submit a story every other month.”

I’ve been trying to apply this to all aspects of my goal-setting, but when it comes, to, say, fun (someone suggested I have a section of goals for fun) I’m still sort of struggling.  The best I’ve come up with is “pick a day, and on that day every week, try to communicate with at least a couple of your distant friends.”  And also “do a trip that involves a museum.”

Those are not really uh, specific, but fun sort of gets wedged in the sides of things, doesn’t it?

I mean, other than uh.

When I spend three hours minecrafting and netflixing, which is… um.  It’s own problem?

Have I shown you my Minecraft railroad system?  It’s pretty amazing…

I know not everyone does or likes resolutions, but what about goals? How do you go about setting goals?

And, of course, also, how do you go about moving towards those goals?  Do you check in with yourself monthly? Daily? Never?  Do you bribe yourself? Punish yourself?

…Spend an hour playing Minecraft and THEN do your goals?

Burn all your goals down after a month and start again in March?

If I had a resolution in 2020, it would be Get Stuff Done.   I’m hoping that setting goals will help me get there.

How do YOU get stuff done?

New Year, New Goals, New Everything…

Jan3

It’s a new year! It’s an arbitrary marker, of course, but I find I like arbitrary markers. I like resolutions. I like clean slates.

(This is starting to sound like the piece of fiction I wrote for January-by-the-numbers Day One).
I’m going to Do Things in 2017. Lots of things. Well, okay. I’m going to do a reasonable number of things.

I’m going to get my 365-day streak in 4theWords, because when you do that, you get fancy wings. I’m at 50-something now. I can do that.

Cal & I started our new project, so that’s a daily writing goal for me – which is conveniently just about a streak-making wordcount on 4thWords.

There’s other writing, of course: Edally and the novella thing, Patreon and all the little long-running stories here, the January By The Numbers posts (and so on and so on and so on and…)

I’m back on the weight-loss wagon, because I really want to do this. Which also means walking every day that I can stand to. T’s been looking at fountain pens (my 15-lbs goal) a lot lately, so that and my backsliding in Nov-December is really getting me geared up to do this, really do this.

Which means keeping track of everything, so hooray just starting a brand new bullet journal.

On pretty paper. With pretty pens, and banners, and all the whole shebang.

(tis a Mnemosyne, with very nice paper, a little smaller than I wanted but quite nice. Here’s a blurry picture).

I want to get the house tidy and keep it that way. I want to actually DO things in spring for the garden.

I want to work actively and consistently on the house.

I want to take a vacation, actually go somewhere. Probably the Adirondacks.

I think it’ll be a good year. I think I’m going to try for monthly goals rather than yearly, small, reachable mobile targets.

What about you? How’s your 2017 shaping up?

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A New Year, some new goals (a blog post)

Jan11

2014 didn’t exactly suck for me, it just – happened. I seem to have lost large parts of it, didn’t get a lot done until the last three months, and gained a bunch of weight.

But new years are a lovely time to start fresh. So this year, I’m going to try to be more aware of lost time and of lost plans.

Of course, as I’m writing this, I’m sick as a dog, and my only plans for today are to rest, drink lots of fluids, and take a short walk out to the barn for some firewood.

But starting as soon as I’m better!

Writing:
I’d like to submit 4 stories for publication/month.
I’d like to earn $200 from writing (donations, commissions, publications, etc)/month or $2400/year: this is an arbitrary figure picked because it’s possibly-doable while being a challenge.

I want to finish a rough draft of Rin/Girey.
I want to do the first Addergoole Kickstarter
I want to draft one other novel.

Health
I would like to lose 3 pants sizes in my preferred brand/type jeans. That’s about 14lbs/pants size for me, or 42 lbs over the next year.

I’d like to exercise at least 2x every week for at least 30 minutes

Other
I’d like to have an updated author page done by end of February.
I’d like to make significant progress (finish a stage) on a house/home project for three weekends out of every four I’m home.

Very Other
I’d like to have a process in place for handling failure that is more adaptive than “man, I suck,” panicking and moping.
I would like to leave more detailed and helpful comments on others’ writing.

I think that’s enough 🙂

What about you? Any changes for the New Year?

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Pondering

Jan1

Gamification of life, specifically of self-rewards vs. things I want to get in the habit of doing regularly.

Anyone have a system they use and enjoy? Suggestions? 

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Resolutions in the New Year

Jan1

Weight and Health:

  • Lose 36 lbs over [48/36] weeks.  Fit comfortably in [my smallest jeans/a size 6]. 
  • Be active a little every day, a good amount (1/2 hour+ once a week, a lot (2+ hours, a hike) once a month)
  • Get rid of encroaching flab under arms; have a stomach I don’t mind being seen in a swimsuit.
  • Eat more vegetables: at least half the plate at least 3x/week
  • Be able to handle the stairs at any of the given local parts without panting. 

Writing:

  • Have Rin/Girey finished and ready to Kickstart by April at latest (this allows for working on it in JaNoWriMo and MaNoWriMo)
  • Submit at least one story a month for publication
  • Addergoole:
    • Get Addergoole E-books available
    • Work on B-sides and have at least 10 5 available before the end of the Addergoole Year


Social:

  • Go to at least three social events this year
  • Make at least one friend I feel comfortable hanging out with for, say, coffee once in a while


Emotional:

  • Set boundaries. Tell people when they’re making me uncomfortable.
  • Language: learn how to speak in un-ambiguous language and ask for clarification when I think someone else is being ambiguous


Etc:

  • Find an marginalization organization plan that works and stick with it. (so far ToDoist seems to be working very nicely.

Phew!

How about you?

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