I missed wrapping up 2022 before the year’s end, but at least I’m getting to it before January is through (and not in March like I did for 2021).
Old Goals
The goals I set for 2022’s Q3 were:
- Blog email – set up email host (on the goals list until I actually do it)
- Writing time – get better sleep on days that aren’t work nights. Pilates break midway through work nights.
- Blog Pictures – get images up on all Recap posts
- Writing – finish necessary edits on my Work in Progress (WIP), and type up the draft
- Read – read and review 2 books
- Quarterly Review Drop – post new book reviews to external review sites
If you want to skip to my goals for 2023 Q1, scroll down to the New Goals header. If you want to know how my progress went this quarter, read on!
MONTH Recap
Knowing that it was a long list of goals, I had planned to prioritize working on my WIP, focusing my writing time, and creating blog imaging for Recap posts. I stayed pretty true to that for a while, until I went down a long rabbit hole with emails.
BLOG EMAIL
This is almost done. I set up the host, linked to it from my site, and established a Welcome Campaign to run some email tests. Things look to be in working order now, I still have to fine tune the copy for the emails in the campaign and then it should be set! I’m going to keep it on my list until the Welcome Campaign is in working order and plugging along on its own.
WRITING TIME
I didn’t really make or lose progress here. I have lost some of my writing time the past 6 months, some through my poor time management and some through other necessities using that time. I had a good rhythm for a while of when I could get writing in, but it’s looking like my schedule is shifting enough that I have to reevaluate. I’m keeping this on the list because I need to get something figured out, or I’ll be getting miserably little writing done.
BLOG PICTURES
Done! I formatted an image template that I can adjust to fit each Recap post, and I plugged it into the header of all the existing Recap posts. I have been slowly working on getting more visuals like these onto the blog so it’s not just endless text, there are a few more that I want to work on eventually, but for now, I’m glad to check this off the list!
WRITING
Partly done. I got some loose edits and a larger edit in on the WIP, but I haven’t typed up all of what I’ve handwritten yet. I want to completely finish the whole first draft of my WIP by the end of 2023, so I will have to tweak the rest of this goal a bit going forward.
READ
Done! I read and reviewed 4 books, in addition to reading 2 books for some editing work and 1 book for a Beta read. When I look at the actual numbers of how many books I read in a year, it’s always more than I think it would be, but still less than I would like it to be.
QUARTERLY REVIEW DROP
Nope, this didn’t happen at all. Not even attempted.
As mentioned above, I want to completely finish the whole first draft of my WIP by the end of 2023. So going forward this year, that will be prioritized in my goals. I also have a secondary goal of wanting to read 24 books in 2023, while this will definitely not be a priority like my writing will, I think if I am focused and intentional with my time, it will be achievable … and I’ll start to finally put a small dent in my TBR list!
New Goals
Looking forward to 2023’s Q1, I’m going to be working on the following goals:
- Writing – type up all handwriting on WIP (2023 goal: finish writing WIP first draft)
- Writing time – nail down time/day for writing nights. Figure how to keep focused during it
- Read – read and review 6 books (2023 goal: read 24 books)
- Blog email – finalize campaign email copy
- Quarterly Review Drop – post new book reviews to external review sites
As with my last goal list, I know that this list is ambitious. Hopefully, taking some immediate changes in my writing time will help me wrangle up some more time that I can consistently dedicate to it.
Have you ever had a consistent habit or schedule flop and stop working for you? If so, did you manage to get back into the swing of it, or did you find that you had to change things around to make it work in a different way?