I’m not one for waiting for the first of the new year to start making improvements for myself, or life in general. For a few of these I just thought of them, or the new year just makes a nice starting point.
$20.00 (USD) to spend on books
I am allowing myself a budget, for the year, of $20.00. This will be outside of any gift cards I receive for Amazon or Barnes & Noble, and any books I can get through my bookish subscriptions. This is in an attempt to lower the number of books I own, still waiting to be read.
I’m not including my subscriptions in this limitation because if I own a book and it’s not read, it’s very likely to be either a physical copy or an ebook. Since I’m usually busy with other things and don’t have a lot of time to just sit and read, plus I read kind of slow (but I am working to read faster). I can sometimes find one of the books I already own as an audiobook which allows me to listen while I drive to and from work, the grocery store, or wherever, and while I’m taking care of house items like cleaning, or playing with a demanding dog.
I was about to say this item may also force me to better track for budgeting, but knowing my husband and myself…I very much doubt that.
Read 52 books
I’m keeping my reading challenge small this time. I’d like to spend some time working on writing a novel, and at work we’ve been warned, 2020 is likely to be just as crazy if not crazier. Which likely means working even more extra hours. (I’m trying not to call it overtime, since I am salaried and don’t get overtime. I’m paid to get the job done. Which can be really sucky when you don’t get a weekend because you spend all of it working on a project for work.)
Start weekly reading vlogs
Most of the videos I tend to watch lately on YouTube are the reading vlogs. Somehow these have been the best motivation for me to get crap done than anything anyone has ever said or tried to tempt me with, ever. I think it’s the suffering together kind of thing. Seeing how others are also struggling to find time to read the books they want, or have books they declared in 2018 they wanted to read in 2019 but never got to them. (I loved Rachel Marie’s video where she looks back at the series she she wanted to read/complete in 2019 and she reacts to if she has or has not.)
I’m not sure yet how this is going to work – when the reading week will start, end, video will be posted – but I do know I want to vlog the Bout of Books 27 readathon which runs Monday, January 6 – Sunday, January 12. Doesn’t this seem like a perfect way to start weekly vlogs? Just need to continue picking up the camera after the readathon is done, right?
Track my reading
Sarah, don’t you use Goodreads to track your reading? Yes I do, but I don’t like how Goodreads tracks the reading. So for the last month or so, in what time I can wheedle out, I’ve been preparing a Google Sheets document to count, and track what I would like to track. I have several things I wish would be improved on Goodreads, or would like to track that Goodreads doesn’t really let me track easily. One example would be audiobooks, and the longest book read. Because of how the audiobooks are in Goodreads, the page count is off, you don’t see the time as the time/length of the book, so I can’t see the longest book or the time I’ve read audiobooks. So with this sheet now I’ll be able to do that.
Something I’m debating is if I do monthly wrap ups or not. I am planning on a wrap up at the end of the year, but am not yet sure if I will do check-ins throughout the year.
Get 6-7 hours of sleep, then start the day
You may think this isn’t very bookish of a goal, but the idea is to be refreshed for the next day. Refreshed and ready to read and post reviews here, or create Instagram posts. I started an Instagram early 2019. I thought I would post once every day…which didn’t happen. That was a legendary fail. I don’t even think I have 10 posts on Instagram for the entire year.
I have quite a few pictures waiting to be cropped and edited a bit, and then posted on Instagram, I just haven’t had the time. Partly because I’ve been slow at getting up, or enjoy just sitting in bed. While this is fine from time to time, I find myself feeling a bit guilty later when I complain about not having time to read or write or whatever. So, my goal is to get 6 to 7 hours of sleep each night, and then start the day.
Will I get 6 or 7 hours of sleep each night, no. There are times I wake up after 5 hours and find myself very awake. So then I lay in bed hoping to fall back asleep. I think when these times happen, I would like to get up when I find myself wide awake in the middle of the night. Maybe read a little to put myself to sleep, or depending on what time it is and the schedule for the day, I’d like to start the day and get things done. I feel like if I wake up and am awake, my body and mind is saying “okay let’s go!” but then I feel like I should get more sleep and just lay there for a few hours trying to fall asleep, wasting precious time. Push come to shove, I can likely fit in a short nap later if needed.
These are all the bookish resolutions for 2020 I have. What are some of your resolutions for the new year?