Thursday, January 7, 2016

How Well Did I Do in 2015: Looking Back at My Resolutions

Ah, New Year's Resolutions. I had some last year, but did I follow them? Let us see...

1. Review more
2015 goal: I did better than last year(2014). I try to review 5 books a week. 3 full, 2 short & simple. I read enough books to do so, but I never get myself to sit down and review. I hope to do better this next year.
How Well I Did: I actually did do this one, kind of. I stopped doing short & simple (though I want to do something similar again), but I posted 181 reviews in 2015! THAT'S 100 MORE THAN 2014!

2. Request a book on Edelweiss
2015 goal: I'm a scaredy cat and have never requested a book on Edelweiss. I downloaded a few books, but I never feel good enough to actually request a book. I want to push myself to do this next year!
How Well I Did: I did it! It wasn't accepted, but I DID IT!!

3. Finish writing my book
2015 goal: I started writing a book with my Mom. I want to try and finish it soon
How Well I Did: Nope. We're further along than we were in 2014, MUCH FURTHER, but we're not done yet. We'll get there.

4. Start or jot down ideas for the next one
2015 goal: I have an idea for another. I want to start it, but I want to wait until I'm done with the other book.
How Well I Did: I actually did do this one! I started it during NaNoWriMo and got 10,000 words in before I had to start focusing on my schoolwork. I'm still working on it though!

5. Maybe get a psychical ARC for review?
2015 goal:This isn't going to happen, but I can dream can't I?
How Well I Did: HAHA! NOPE!

6. Read more Indie/Ebooks
2015 goal: I have over 300 ebooks sitting in my ereader. Most of them are indie. I really want to make a dent in them.
How Well I Did: I read quite a few indie books, but most were for review or borrowed on an ebook lending site. So, I really didn't make a dent in my ebook pile. Maybe this year...

7. Try to finish all the books I own but haven't read
 2015 goal: I have over 100 of these. It's unlucky that I will read all of them, as I keep adding more, but I really want to read as many as I can
How Well I Did: Yeah, I read a lot of them, BUT I BOUGHT A CRAP TON MORE!! I now have almost 250 books I own but haven't read yet! 250!!!!!

8. It's okay to DNF
 2015 goal: I used to never DNF a book. This year I DNF'nd 3 books. It makes me sad, but it's something that I really should do. So, this next year, I'll keep telling myself that if I hate the book I'm reading, just stop.
How Well I Did: I didn't DNF any books this year, but there was only one book that I read that I hated. I wish I DNF'nd it, but I actually had a lot of luck with reading this year. I'm going to try and keep this rule.

9. Be more social.
2015 goal: Many bloggers use social media and actually talk to one another. I feel like I'm missing out. I'm not very good at being social, both online and offline, but I want to try.
How Well I Did: Being social is haaaarrrrrrddddd!

10. Comment more!!
2015 goal: This goes hand in hand with being social, but I am horrible with commenting. I read and lurk on so many blog posts, but I hardly ever leave a comment. I really did to do more of this.
How Well I Did: I did okay I guess. I think I've commented more than 2014, actually a lot more, but I can do so much better

THIS YEAR'S GOALS!

  • Finish writing BOTH books. Not nessessarily the entire writing process (i.e. revision), just have it written enough so that I can go back and revise!
  • BUY LESS BOOKS! I bought over 400 books this year. Yikes. I need to restrain myself! THE LIBRARY IS MY FRIEND!
  • Request less books. This is opposite from my goals last year, but review books really stress me out! I want to read without knowing that I have to review it and without a time limit. I love getting review books, but I do not need to stress.
  • Read more of my Ebooks. Yeah, I'm trying for this goal again. I really need to clean up my ereader.
  • Speaking of cleaning...I need to clean out my email. I have a bad habit of saving emails to read later and never reading them. I'm going to go right ahead and apologize to any authors I never got back to about reviewing their book, because this is why. I intended to read it and reply, but I was busy or tired at the time and now all those emails are piling up. I also want to switch over to reading blog posts on Bloglovin' instead of in my email feed, as that's why my email is usually so clogged up (that and Goodreads).
  • Try the social thing again
  • Same with commenting. I can do better.
  • Write more discussion post. I always want to do this, but I'm always so busy! I need to start doing this again because I love reading discussion posts.
  • Don't worry about how good my blog is doing. I know my blog is a bit pathetic. There are blogs that have been running for 3 months who have more followers than me (pssst those folks know how to be social, Jessica!). I really just want to stop caring about that. I know I won't get there and I don't want to stress about it. I like blogging about books and if no one reads what I post, that's okay. I like to talk about books and I will keep doing just that!
So, those are my resolutions! I hope this will be a great year! I think my main hope for this year is for me to be less stressed! I get stressed so easily and I feel like taking less review copies and to stop worrying about my blog will do me good!
Anyway, ahve a great 2016!

4 comments :

  1. Best of luck on all your goals!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good luck this year! I also have a problem with requesting too many review copies, then getting stressed out... Hopefully we will both do better with that this year!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good luck on all of your goals! I also should probably be more social. It's just so much easier to hide in my house reading and watching Netflix. Good luck again! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. 181 reviews is an absolutely amazing achievement - congratulations! (I haven’t even written 181 reviews in my lifetime, so…)
    I can definitely relate to not finishing all the books you own. I had that resolution in 2015 too and I’ve actually gone backwards lol.
    I can also relate to the social thing. I’m so bad at being social! I’m a creepy twitter hoverer that only ever likes tweets and never replies. :p
    I’m glad one of your resolutions is not to worry about how well your blog is doing. I sometimes fall into the trap of being concerned whether people are reading what I’m writing or not, when really I should just focus on if I like what I’m writing. So, it’s good to know I’m not alone in that.
    Good luck with your goals this year!

    ReplyDelete