Monday, January 4, 2016

2016 Blog Goals

As I emphasized to my Critical Thinking students this past semester, goals that aren't written down are just dreams. Writing down your goals drastically increases the odds that you will complete them. In that spirit, and because I love this kind of thing, I want to continue my tradition of making some blog goals for the upcoming year.

Before I get to goals for 2016, I want to take a minute and reflect on the goals I set forth for 2015 and see how those played out. 

2015 Goals

  • 100 Best Novels - My goal was to hit the 2/3rd mark in this challenge and I totally failed. I'm just under halfway. 
  • More Reader Involvement - This was a pretty ambiguious goal, but I do think I have made progress connecting to people through the blog and the book world. Always room to grow here.
  • Increase Social Media Presence - Definitely did this one! If you aren't already following on Facebook or Twitter, come join the fun!
  • More Re-Reads - I am so happy I set up a mechanism for me to talk about re-reads on the blog! I have absolutely loved the Take Tuesday posts and taking time to reflect on books I've read previously. Definitely look for more of these in 2016.
  • Connect More with Book Blogger Community - I've definitely done this, too! I participated in #TBTBSanta this year and also met a blog friend in real life for the first time (and Maggie from Macarons & Paperbacks was even more wonderful in person!).
  • Join A Challenge (or Two) - I did the 2015 TBR Pile Challenge this year and really enjoyed it. Even though Roof Beam Reader is not hosting again, I'm contemplating other challenges for the year. 
  • New Blog Design - Totally fail. I still really want to do this.
  • New Post Format - I did this and I think it's been a great addition!
In general, I think I did pretty well on my goals for the past year! I'm still glad I steered away from number-based goals for the most part. I've enjoyed having more of a focus on the qualitative rather than the quantitative. With that in mind, here are some things I would like to achieve in 2016.

2016 Goals

  • 100 Best Novels - This remains my biggest personal reading goal ever and I want to get serious about it again this year. If I don't get this done before I turn 30 and/or start my doctorate, I know it will never get done. I know hitting the 80% mark by the end of this year is ambitious, but I'd love to make that happen.
  • Focus on My TBR - Doing the TBR Challenge this last year was such a great exercise for me. Every book blogger knows how easy it is to let your TBR get out of control. I want to be intentional about working through that list and culling it when necessary.
  • Monthly Reading Goals - In an effort to help achieve those first two goals, I am going to set monthly reading goals for myself. As I've said, I want to be intentional about what I am reading this year. I don't expect to meet these goals every month, but I'd like to try!
    • 3 100 Best Novels books
    • 1 faith-centered or philosophical book
    • 1 nonfiction
    • 1 TBR book 
  • New Blog Design - Still a goal! This is something I've wanted for a while, I just don't have the skills to do it. Any web designers out there (amateur or pro!) interested in helping me make the blog pretty and not so Blogger template-ish? Or someone who can teach me how? I'm more than ready to have this site look a little more professional.
  • Write More Consistently - This relates both on and off the blog. Blog-wise, I want to do a better job of writing my posts in advance again. At one point, I had posts written and scheduled about a month in advance. I'd like to get back to that. My writing is always better when I am not under the gun or trying to meet a fast-approaching deadline. Off the blog, I did NaNoWriMo for the first time this past year and, while I did not finish, I want to continue writing throughout the year. I also want to set myself up to be complete the challenge this coming November. 
These are not a lot of goals, but I think 2016 is going to be more about intentionality for me than anything, both personally and here. I want to focus more on doing the small things well every day rather than aim for huge accomplishments. After all, it's the little steps that eventually lead us down the path to big milestones.

What are your 2016 goals?





1 comment:

  1. These are great goals! I love the intention of emphasizing quality over quantity. I feel like not going anywhere for the holidays this year meant they slipped right by me. I haven't done much reflecting or planning, but I did set my GoodReads reading challenge at 100 books again and, as last year, would like to keep the variety coming by reading more than just YA books. :) I also am (again) setting the goal to self-publish my darn book. It's so close to being done, I don't have any excuse not to finish it! I also am going to move to another city! Big goals!

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